SaltyDog

I'm curious about experiences other people have had with other cyclists. I hear plenty about pedestrians and cars being our (cyclists) mortal enemies, but what about when one of our own is a jackass?

Just yesterday I was on my normal commute from work to the train station, I was approaching an intersection where the light was red but all the pedestrians walk signals were on. I go through these, slowly, because I try to be respectful of pedestrians when they have the right of way (when they don't they better watch out, haha). A fellow blew through the intersection on his bike, finding his way between the people on foot, narrowly missing some. So he was already a jerk in my mind. Right after the light is a hill and another light, if it's green I sprint down it. It was green, and I ended up passing the fellow on the bike. I think he was on a fixed gear, and he had a messenger bag (not that it necessarily makes a difference, just painting the picture). Anyways, there was another light up ahead that was red, which I went through cautiously by the time I had gotten through it the other guy was catching up. He passed me on the left and then cut me off to take a right turn. He did something when he was in front of me I didn't recognize, maybe some fixed veterans could explain. He spun his cranks a few times (couldn't quite tell what direction) and it seemed like his back end was swerving all over the place. Whether it was a slowing technique, or just accelerating I couldn't tell. It wasn't a big deal to me, but seemed strange because I have pretty much considered everyone on a bicycle to be a friend. Where is the two-wheeled solidarity? So anyone else have similar experiences?

shants

i suspect that what you observed was a somewhat poorly controlled series of skips or a skid where the person keeps backpedaling while in the skid to scrub off more speed.

blickblocks

A lot of the middle-agers on mountain bikes trying to ride really serious don't wave back...seems mostly a roadie/fixter/cruiser sort of thing to wave back I guess.

operator

Besides the stereotyping, this waving issue is as good as a chain lube thread.

SaltyDog

When I rode a crotch rocket, other motorcyclists and I would wave at each other. Except some Harley types wouldn't wave, I sensed some elitism.

666pack

old guys on five thousand dollar bikes and spandex kits don't like waving at a kid with a five hundred dollar track bike and a mess bag.

but this is a well known fact.

Bushman

never have any issues with any cyclist i've met that rides their bike. Only grief i get is from holier than thou uber elite internet cyclists who feel the need to rag on someone because their bike looks different than the rest of the thousands of fixie-clones, or ragged on by them because i don't use $100 toe straps on my 1890's styled fixie etc etc etc.

cc700

i'm here for the gangbang

ryansupak

Most cyclists I encounter are very friendly and helpful, even the spandex people. For the most part, even motorists are friendly to me -- I get a shout of approval about once a week. (I've gotten hit by a car, but they drove off so they didn't get a chance to be rude.)

The only place I've really observed bike-related hostility is on the internet (and not only here). I think that has to do with the limitations of the internet; it's all-too-easy to take a likable smart alec for an all-out rude person.

s0ldats

i don't stop for lights.


F pedestrians

F other cyclists

Az B

THe only time I've really had any issue with another rider was when I nearly creamed a wrong way rider on a blind turn. I yelled all kinds of instructions at him, but I don't think he spoke English.

Az

cyclezealot

Accept for the ocassional irate motorits, it's all been fun. Normal fun is just completing a 100 mile day and drinking too much about a campfire. / Fun was watching the women riders trying to find a place to pee behind the cactus in Nevada or watching the desert rats in the outback bars of Nevada gauk at a pack of cyclists lining up for a drink; Or some in the pack stopping at the CHichenhawk Ranches in outback Nevada, asking for directions at the entrance gates- hoping to get a peak. Some said they went up to guest information asking about rates. I did not see that.

acoldspoon

I've met more nasty cyclists on this very SS&FG forum than I've ever met anywhere else. But you knew that already.

SaltyDog

Yessir, I see that looking through the forums, but I was hoping for a good story or two.

scummy

What's up with people who cut in front of you when you are stopped at a red, and then do it again at the next red light after you've sped past them?
****ing cyclists.

n8tron

maybe its because they are upset that we pass them so easily on a $500 bike with 1 gear.

Bushman and acoldspoon, I agree with you there, most of the nasty cyclist appear as jerks here on the boards unfortunately.

Haven't had any crazy experiences. Once on my ride to work I got behind a cyclist who was going just a tad slower, eventually when I got room I passed him. About a mile up I got caught by a long stoplight and just when it turned green I got passed by the same guy while I started to get moving. We kept leap frogging like this for awhile. Kinda annoying because I wasn't going his speed, but I kept catching the lights, what was most annoying though was for awhile we were riding together but he had headphones on. I was going to talk with him but that didn't work.

Straws

Yesterday I was riding back from class. a series of 3 cars passed me 2 or 3 times due to me passing them at stop signs and such. 2 of them gave me room but a red jeep cherokee didnt move at all in his lane, which I personally like. I dont need the extra room and if they dont have any to give that doesnt bother me. So 3 times he passed me within 18 inches of my side. Up ahead was a college student on a mountain bike trying to ride with no hands. He was swerving all over the place, almost hitting parked cars. Swerving so much a few times he almost went into the other lane. When the cars got to him they all 3 gave him an entire lanes width of road. he didnt even bother to put his hands on his bars. When I passed him he couldnt have been going more than 7mph, which might explain his handless troubles. I thought about riding next to him and explaining how the jeep gave me no room because he saw how I could control my bike and wouldnt go smashing into the side of him, but when the jeep approached the mtb he gave more room than I've ever seen before and how that's a sign of poor bike control.

I didnt say that, but I really wanted to.


Also, in general around here, if you're not riding a fixie you get dirty nasty looks from the fixed riders. There are a lot of *******s out there. Oh, and not to rag on their choice, but they give dirty looks as if they're total elitists yet the number of people that rided fixed is quite few. It's all SS.

SaltyDog

I guess I forgot to mention it in my story. After the second light we were in the middle of a 3 lane road (no cars because of red light) and he could have easily passed me on my right but instead passed on the left and immediately turned in front of me. Sue me, I'm not a good story teller.

I do ride a fixed conversion I put together, it has two brakes so maybe thats a problem. I also wear my work clothes, button up shirt, slacks and nice shoes, so maybe I'm not grubby enough.

toddistic

i passed a kid on a geared bike only to get caught at a stop light at a busy intersection with blind corners. he goes speeding into the intersection only to slam on his brakes to not get hit by an oncoming car. i thought in my head, "dumbass". light turns green and i catch up to him and pass him again. its the only time i've thought about calling him out on his dumb move but live and let live i guess

Straws

I see cyclists do stupid **** like that all the time. not that extreme every time, but stupid **** like trying to pass a car on the right when they have their blinker on at an intersection. Or even as simple as stopping in the wrong place next to a line of cars at a light. It's the small mistakes that are going to get them hit one day.

skanking biker

Last weekend I was on crusing down a nearly deserted, flat, straight stretch of MUP in Madison and this 50 yr old couple in fully roadie kit on touring bikes with 20 blinkies and 8 waterbottles a piece comes onto the MUP from a small feeder path from the woods (the are is heavily wooded on both sides). Mind you they are dismounted at this point. They look straight at me and proceed to step onto the bikeway and take their good ol' time mounting their bikes in the middle of the lane. I slammed on my break and skidded off the path a little. After I regain my composure I ride up behind these two out for their sunday cruise and mention they might want to look before stepping into the middle of the path and cutting someone off. As I reach the next intersection and wait for traffic at the stop sign, the guy catches up to me and starts hollerin' at me for "firghtening" his wife! He also is upset because I am waiving through the well-intentioned motorists who are stopping in the middle of a 35 mph street to let us cross.

Complete obliviots

SaltyDog

Haha, obliviots, I'm gonna use that word today (I'm sure I'll run into at least one).

viper_04649

I have never seen a rider wave to another rider in Boston. you would almost have to keep one hand free at all time. Let's start a revolution

reluctantfeste

I was an as…unpleasant once:

I was going east on upper Wacker in Chicago crossing State, very wide intersection, 4 lanes both ways plus turn lanes/medians. State was closed to all but muni traffic at that time and was often wide open. I had a red but I didn’t even have to pause to see if I had to pause. It was wide open. As soon as I shot out, this young athletic guy on the east side crosswalk starts squirreling on me. I dodge, he dodges. I dart, he darts. I dodge dart dodge, he dodge dart dodges. This guy had moves, man, and they were doing him all wrong. [edit--And it goes on forever--it's a big intersection.] Then, wham, we’re both on our asses and my front wheel’s potato chipped. We’re ok, but I can hardly get an apology in edge-wise b/c this kid is apologizing TO ME. Turns out he’s an avid cyclist and racer, can’t wait to finish school and be a messenger in the summer, isn’t sightseeing right now b/c he just wants to walk around the loop watching msgs work (oh, it’s raining also), is so embarrassed, etc. etc. I keep apologizing and explaining I was the one making the move and he’s got nothing to be sorry or embarrassed about and is he sure he’s ok but I practically had to talk over HIS apologies. At any rate, I, we, were very lucky, he was a very nice kid. And I hope he got to msgr for a summer but then went back to school.

One bene: my dispatcher leant me his bike for the day and someone drove it out in a car and we switched bikes on the side of Wacker—for one brief moment, I felt like I had a support van. Which was nice.

asherlighn

One of the guys I met recently on campus asked me when I am going to get a real road bike instead of riding my "hybrid" everywhere. He rides a late 80s or early 90s 12 speed and doesnt really know much about bikes, so it is somewhat understandable that he would mistake a fixed gear with bullhorns for a hybrid. I told him about my 'real' road bike and explained the fixed gear to him; then we got pizza.

Not at all unpleasant, but I thought it was kinda funny that he compared my bike to one of the many hybrids around campus.