Cycling UK Forum

High viz vest with "POLITE" written on the back

GPL wrote:i must add that i'm quite heartened that others are getting roundly abused too.

Funny way of looking at things!

I suppose it happens on an occasional basis and I just ignore it. Today I was cycling along with the 11 month old in the trailer on the back. It was a wide empty road so no reason for conflict. They yelled something unitelligable at us and sounded the horn as they passed. Do these thugs have no self-respect, I have lived with some of the dregs of society in my time but most thugs have too much self respect to pick on babies, especially in front of others.

Where I live in rural Mid Wales its crowds of ewes that are the problem. Sometimes they stray in your path leaving their fur everywhere. There was one sheep that was caught up in some brambles and I had to stop to let the poor thing go. But no the youths here are very polite and respectful..its the yummy mummies in their 4 x 4's with their minds elsewhere that I have a problem with.

May have told this one before but it's so good that it's worth repeating.

Several years ago during a late summer evening ride I was making my way home fron Basildion when I was overtaken by a group of club riders.

Although they were going fairly quick I tacked on to the end for a mile of two. Steaming along one of the towns long straights we enter a roundabout intending to go straight on (second exit) when a Fiesta full of yoofs pull alongside intending to take the first exit. The passenger window is already down and the nearside front individual shouts, "**** off were comin' through" or similar.

Towards the end of the sentence his expression changes to one of horror as a stream of snot from one of the leading riders hits him straight in the face. Wonderful!

There is nothing new about this sort of thing. I remember my dad, when I was about 10 years old - so that's forty years ago - arriving home in a state of distress. He had been riding home on his Raleigh Roadster in the evening. Not far from the house yobs in a car had thrown a beer bottle at him. It hit him and made him fall off. Amazingly the bottle didn't break. What was different then is that he rang the police as soon as he got in and they came round, blue lights flashing. They took a full statement and had all local patrols looking for the car on the basis of his description of the model and colour (he didn't get the number). Most amusing of all is that my dad had kept the bottle. He took it to the off-licence the next day and got the deposit back (3 old pence). Every cloud has a silver lining he would say, when recounting the story.

As a postscript to that (and nothing to do with this thread) many years later a drunken driver crashed through our front wall into the garden one night. The car then reversed out and drove off despite the damage. My dad called the police who came round right away, blue lights flashing. “Did you get his number?” they asked. “Oh Yes,” says dad handing the policeman the car number plate which had fallen off in the front garden. The police got round to the chap’s house before he had managed to get home. They were waiting for him as the damaged car lurched to a halt outside the house.

He’s cycling around heaven now, on a Raleigh Roadster no doubt, God rest his soul.

Kevin

as a student...i get all the idiots driving round shouting abuse & sometimes arms out windows!!

i can handle the verbal...but when it becomes phsyical it worries me...what if i fall & go under the wheels??

most of the time it happens as im coming upto college...and the idiots pull into the college carpark! so easy to go upto them!

any tricks to get some revenge?? ie key scratch?

i know its wrong...but we cyclists need to fight back somehow!

A favourite story from years ago in the mags, worth repeating. A chap sees his friend riding to work and notices a bunch of yobs throw an egg at his back. He waits at the lights and reverses his Landrover straight into the bonnet of the yob car. Driver yob gets out distraught and asks why the **** he reversed into him. 'What?' says Landrover driver, 'you drove into me and I've got a witness. Ask this chap coming now with egg on his back'.

read this weblink...same kind of thing

makes good reading
http://www.londonfgss.com/thread3049.html

lauriematt wrote:any tricks to get some revenge?? ie key scratch?

i know its wrong...but we cyclists need to fight back somehow!

If you want to be evil then:

1. Big supermarket carton of milk down the heater blower vent on the bonnet. Will go rancid and induce vomitting for months, years etc...

2. Or cut tyre valves off.

Obviously both are criminal damage etc.. but you could accidentally drop the milk

gilesjuk wrote:

lauriematt wrote:any tricks to get some revenge?? ie key scratch?

i know its wrong...but we cyclists need to fight back somehow!

If you want to be evil then:

1. Big supermarket carton of milk down the heater blower vent on the bonnet. Will go rancid and induce vomitting for months, years etc...

2. Or cut tyre valves off.

Obviously both are criminal damage etc.. but you could accidentally drop the milk

just googled it...

superglue key hole
let down tyres
key scratch
nail/screw under tyres that punctures when they drive off

revenge is a dish best served cold

ps i should have also put ' accidentally ' before each one of those

NewHorizon wrote:

GPL wrote:i must add that i'm quite heartened that others are getting roundly abused too.

Funny way of looking at things!

I suppose it is, New Horizon. I was building quite a complex thinking only I was copping all the abuse! Just got back from France, they shout encouragement, Fantastic.

lauriematt wrote:just googled it...

superglue key hole
let down tyres
key scratch
nail/screw under tyres that punctures when they drive off

don't do it. it's unbecoming behaviour for a gentleman bicyclist, and could lead to a criminal record

Need to pass water? Car door handle....