Chris L

So it's 6.45am or thereabouts, and I'm on my way to work, minding my own business. I stop at a set of lights, which of course, seems to take 5-10 Halley's comet sightings to change. Apparently nothing unusual there. Then some moron comes out of nowhere, pushes me over (I only had one foot unclipped, but fortunately my pannier takes the brunt of the fall) shouting crap like "You think you're F***ing tough (has he been reading my posts at BF)? Get off your F***ing bike".

As I get up, he throws a punch, though thankfully it wasn't one he would have been proud of, and my spanky sunglasses deflect it. At this point a passer-by comes along and drags him off, while another passer by stops to make sure I'm OK (a gesture I really appreciated at the time, let me tell you). First chance I get I'm out of there, and continuing on my way to work.

Apparently the police can do little because I didn't hunt down the names and addresses of the witnesses. It probably didn't help that I waited until after work to go and see them either - my bad there. I don't know whether this guy was a bigoted f***wit, or just looking for a fight. After what happened to David Hookes, there's no way I was going to allow him that pleasure.

I have to say that of all the "incidents" I have ever had in over 120,000km of riding, this would be about the most unsettling. Heck, I'm still emotional about it now! WTF is going on here? The daily verbal abuse and occasional projectile I can deal with, but I've never had such a direct confrontation before. In response to my dilemma about hot water bottles, I heard one suggestion that I move somewhere else. If this happens again, I'll seriously consider it.

Pat

That was assault and this guy is obviously disturbed. You probably would have had done him a favor getting him arrested. People like that need some sort of help. If you did not have a cell phone, you probably could have borrowed one from a bystander and gotten a couple to stand around till the police arrived to get the guy. Now he might not have been prosecuted for assault but there is no telling what other things that guy was into.

I recall that my brother was assaulted by a guy while he was just in his car waiting for a light. My brother got out, beat the guy senseless and then called the police and had the person arrested. It turned out that the assailant was high on drugs and, I think, had some in his possession.

Juha

Probably he was hallucinating and saw you as a big, hairy ape... no, wait... umm...

Sorry, could not resist. That is a weird incident indeed. The guy must have been mentally sick or high or both. I know that a heated argument with a cage driver can get me emotional for some time, but I can only imagine how I would feel after being physically attacked with no apparent reason at all.

I think this assault is more about him and his obvious problems, not about you, your clothing or bike or whatever. You just happened to be there. Not that it necessarily makes it any easier for you to deal with.

--J

Chris L

Pat -- You're right of course. The only problem is that when the thing occurred I just wanted to get out of there in a hurry. I even forgot the relative proximity of Broadbeach police station in favour of reporting the thing in Southport after work. If this ever happens again (and I hope it doesn't), there have been lessons learned.

Juha -- I suspect the proximity of Jupiters Casino might have had something to do with it, too. Although I still didn't expect it at 6.45am.

ridealot

Wow that is a scary situation. the thing that gets me is the whole suprise aspect of the ordeal. That had to have been the worse part of it.

Sorry to hear it happened to you.

DanFromDetroit

Is pepper spray legal where you are at ?

It is a wonderful alternative to mixing it up with nutcases and possibly having to break bones to get your point across.

Dan

KrisA

Wow. I think I might have given him a few kicks with the old cleats for a bit of revenge. Sure two wrongs don't make a right, ans sure it would probably make him hate cyclists even more, but it sure as hell would feel great!

Dan - I agree, after an incident like that I think I would consider parking a bottle in the cage to deal with freeks like that.

Prosody

I'm impressed that total strangers came to your rescue. I suspect, though, that they may not really be total strangers. They may be people who regularly see you riding to work, or the one who dragged the guy off may, indeed, know him. Why else would he drag him off?

I think you handled the situation about as well as you could.

Guest

Ok, which forum member was it?

erraticrider

And, people think I'm hallucinating when I say that drivers are out to kill me.

PaulH

That is really strange, Chris. I hope the people who dragged him off did not stop dragging until they got to the local police.

Paul

Daily Commute

The attack also shows a downside of bike paths. As much as I love my isolated ride along the river on a path, if some nut attacked me, there probably wouldn't be anyone around to help (unless I was attacked when the ROTC was marching on the path).

I was thinking about getting Halt to deal with dogs. I might get it now to deal with people, too.

P.S. I'm glad you weren't hurt.

slvoid

Sounds like the guy might've been drunk or high or something, hell I see people going up to TREES and saying "you think you're so tough, big guy!" and start being the hell out of it. Maybe his friends finally found him and decided to drag him back to the casino. Probably some pissed off hung over drunk who just lost his mortgage at blackjack.

Glad you're ok though. Next time some moron decides to take it up with you, remember, pepper sprays and tasers might be illegal but a handy kryptonite skull crackin' chain is all good... he he he...

Gus Riley

It was I, says I .

Seriously, three of us were riding one day and this pick-up truck passed us with a guy screaming bloody murder from the driver's side. It appeared he was directing his rage at us. None of us understood him as he went by (he gave us plenty of room as he passed). He pulls over to the side of the road and jumps out of the vehicle, ranting and raving like a enraged bull. We stopped, quite short of where he was, he started walking for us. I took my cell phone out, and made it very obvious I was calling 911 (police) he back tracked, jumped back in his pick-up and was gone.

We didn't have a clue what set this guy off. Each of us swore up and down none had ever seen this guy before. I really think he thought one of us was someone else. It really was a weird experience...nothing like yours however.

Chris L

I think the guy might have been thrown out of the casino, although the time of morning makes it doubtful. I'm also beginning to suspect the guy who dragged him off might have been one of his mates or something. Perhaps the attacker was just some **** who couldn't handle his booze? I've since been told that particular area is gaining something of a "reputation", so I've changed my commute to work to avoid it.

Chris L

Geez, I know we've had some disagreements over the years, but did you need to take it so personally?

SteveE

Does Allister have an alibi?

LittleBigMan

Crazy bastid.

NZLcyclist

It was us Kiwis, trying to get you for all those sport wins....haha

Glad that you are OK!

Good luck with the new commute route

Brendon

temp1

Could have been a White Sox fan.

John C. Ratliff

ChrisL,

Don't beat yourself up too badly about your reaction. It's entirely natural, and even has a name, the "fight or flight response." I admire the bicyclist who avoided a confrontation by taking out his cell phone to dial "911." But it's kind of hard to do when you are already on the ground grappling with someone (helmets and glasses have some other worth); same with using mace or pepper spray. When you are "blind sided" and tackled, only close in fighting or flight will get you out of it, and you took the reasonably route. It is too bad the others didn't turn this weird person in to the police, but they had that responsibility; yours was simply to survive, which you did. I wholely concure with your route change.

John

Chris L

I'm pretty reluctant to "blame" the others as such, they basically got me out of some serious trouble (this guy was a bit bigger than me, perhaps he saw me as an easy target?).

The sad part is, I'm now considering buying myself a mobile phone just for reporting incidents like this or others (like that jerk in Surfers a few weeks back). The reason it's sad is because I wouldn't use a cell phone for anything else, probably wouldn't even have the thing turned on.

khuon

If you go that route, you might want to consider getting a pre-pay. If you truly think you'll never use it except in the case of emergencies, then you might check to see if in your country, the mobile phone services work like they do in the US whereby any handset regardless of if it's activated on a network or not can be used to dial 911 emergency (or equivalent). This way, you can pick up some old cheap phone and don't have to sign up with a service. Bear in mind however that unless the providers in your area have implimented or deployed location tracking, your emergency call may be routed into a call center that isn't necessarily local to your position.

digger

I am glad yer OK Chris, but ya think a big hairy ape like yourself would be able to handle any attacks.

In another post that I was involved in (but backed out as I was getting a tad scared) many cyclists carry a gun for just such instances as yours. They claim that the protection offered by a firearm is a necessity. Do you feel that a firearm would have helped in this case? Would you carry one now, provided that you are legally able to do so in your neck of the woods?

The reason I ask, and seemed to falll on deaf ears in the other post, is that a firearm will only escalate an already tense situation, most likely ending up in your death or serious injury (or worse).

What do you think would have happened IF you had a firearm?

Digger

temp1

I think guns are like the Doomsday machine in Dr. Strangelove, the guy probably would not have attacked if he knew Chris was packing, but if during the altercation Chris had pulled a handgun, things would have turned out much worse. Makes me think screw the handgun, strap on a rifle, or a sword, or a machety, or ride in a Ninja outfit. Maybe you should ride around in a costume similar to the ones GWAR wear on stage you could even have your bike spray fake blood.