Medic Zero

Was rolling home from work tonight and saw a bike coming the other way. As it was about midnight he wisely had a decent flashing light on the front as do I. As he passed me I heard him shout something. At first I didn't make out what it was he said. I didn't realize it was directed at me until my brain put together what I heard:

"GET A CAR HIPPIE!"

That's when I busted out laughing. Pretty good greeting for another cyclist out at midnight. Usually I only see another bike or two on my 8-ish mile ride home from work, but tonight I saw five including this guy. Two who didn't have lights, a roadie who might have mistaken my cursing a car turning in front of me for him pulling out a little ahead of that, and a guy on a mountain bike with knobbies, a pannier and a heavy backpack who smoked me.

acidfast7

i really like the camaraderie between commuters. on my (our, really, as the gf commutes too) way into work there can be a few bottlenecks (where the subway crosses the street and the safety bars come down, for example) and about a dozen or so bikers usually accumulate during the minute or so while the bars are down. interesting conversations, usually in multiple languages which is kinda fun (mostly german and english though) and with a nice mix of bikes. saw a few kids in the back seats this morning and everyone was worried about making it to work before the rain came.

it's a good time of year to be on a bicycle.

AdamDZ

A cyclist yelled "get a car"???WTF?

Medic Zero

I'm quite sure it was meant in irony as a joke!

benda18

love it.

getting dropped by a department store MTB and blue jeans is always one of the best parts of my week.

Barchettaman

Whereabouts is your commute, Acidfast?
At the moment we're spoilt with a 5 min trundle along the Mainufer, but that's all about to change (moving to Nieder Erlenbach in the fall)

AdamDZ

Mmm... I hope so.

Well, yeah, if the engine is only 20 years old, I can understand that. My engine doesn't haul as well as it used to

Artkansas 

I agree.

Once on the Congressional Ride at the National Bike Summit, we got stopped in some heavy traffic near Union Station. As we waited, I noticed another group of the cyclists on the ride about a block ahead of us, also stopped in traffic.

I quipped that I knew what was causing the traffic jam. "There are some bicyclists ahead!" That got everyone laughing. They knew I was apeing the thoughts of motorists.

acidfast7

Hi! We live about 100m east of Schweizer Platz and commute up to Riedberg and back daily. Sometimes we ride through Niddapark on the way home if the weather is nice. Whereabouts on the Mainufer? Are you moving into a house?

CabezaShok

"GET A CAR HIPPIE" has my vote for best commuting t-shirt

Zrane

So getting this made.

JReade

I've given a sarcastic fist shake and yelled "Ride on the side walk!" to people before when I'm on my bike, and they always get a laugh.

nashvillwill

I had that same phrase yelled at me once (not in a comical way) while I was out walking my dog. I guess that person's dog walks itself.

cobrabyte

get a bike, terrorist!

Bike Gremlin

Mmmm, could you take those sunglasses off, I'd like to take a look at your eyes.

muu

I'll take one in tie-dye print.

Doohickie

When someone yells something at me, even if I don't understand them, I usually yell back, "I LOVE YOU, MAN!" It pretty much covers all situations. I've even gotten a carful of belligerent teen boys to laugh with that.

Medic Zero

Couldn't tell what kind of MTB it was, but I'm okay with it either way. Despite being back to commuting for over a year I'm still ~50 pounds overweight, was at the tail-end of my circa 15 mile a day commute and had put in a 12 hour shift in the ER. I've almost totally dropped any ego about being passed.

AdamDZ

It was early in the morning... I didn't get it

pallen

Whenever I see a cyclist I know on the road, I usually yell, "get out of the road" or "get on the sidewalk". Its been done a few time to me a few times too. You turn around to see who the jerk is, and its your friend

b_twill

Had a fellow commuter point out that the bike path he was on is really nice as I passed him going the opposite direction. I gave him a little acknowledgement wave and continued on my merry way. Since I wasn't expecting any conversation, it took me a bit to register what he said and I'm not really sure if he was being serious or funny. If I see him again, I'll point out the road is really nice too.

Closed Office

Seeing someone else on a bike is almost encouragement to talk. I've had a few nice, short exchanges.

One cold dark winter morning a bicyclist pulled up beside me at a red light. He said 'I'm glad I'm out here instead of in one of those.' I don't really know why it was funny but I enjoyed it and had a nice laugh. It was also true. Both of us really were glad to be out there.

Another winter morning on a non cleared bike trail with crusty snow making things difficult, I mentioned 'tough sledding!' to another cyclist, and he enjoyed that.

It's not the sort of thing that happens in cars.

CommuterRun

That's

Barchettaman

Yep, moving out from Seehofstrasse, so 5 mins from you, to a new development in Nieder Erlenbach. Canīt wait to move out of the city, we love it here but Iīve been in cities for 15 years now (Manchester, Milan and now Frankfurt) so am ready for a bit of country life!

We looked a Riedberg too for houses but found it a bit....sterile, andvery expensive. N.E. is just lovely.

acidfast7

I totally understand. We always describe Riedberg as "synthetic," which it really is (in addition to being a huge construction zone ... even Niederursel is better in that respect).

Congrats on the new place!