Spookeay Bird

No,,, No,,,, I live in redneck land and Red necks don't act that bad.
Wow!!! SO strange..... Maybe everyone on your route is on lithium or something?

Dxisocos

Maybe cause your bike is better than theirs or anything they own, so they are jealous.

kr32

This is Flatland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2LTVhqHAdo

Done in empty parking lots

WHOOOSSHHH...

Let me follow this. you are riding down the road and a girl yells at you. You turn back around and she reaches down, finds a tennis racket, throws it at you. It misses and hits a car. See my avatar to the left.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

kabex

Doesn't surprise me, I've been treated like a freaking criminal at a lynching around here.

The other day I was riding to work all the way to the right lane near the sidewalk, moderate speed minding my own business and this woman driver rides past me yelling STUPID ****ING IDIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! at the top of her lungs.

What the hell?

rangerdavid

Never heard of Fladland either, I just figured you were riding a Bent!!!

GrotonPaul

This dead end road wasn't someone's driveway was it? Typically empty parking lots are private property, could it be owners worried about getting sued if you bust your head open? I would change my riding locales.

Wkend_Warrior

Almost 2 pages but OP still haven't disclose where he rides his bike.....mummmm.

jfmckenna

I had a friend that I knew for a couple of years out in Louisville, one day walking down the street there were some kids with skate boards and those bikes messing around and my friend walks up to one of the kids and asks him if he can try his bike. I was like huh? He gets on the bike and completely put on a show. I was laughing my arse off never knowing this guy could do stuff like that, the kids just stood there in shock

Velo Vol 

I call B.S. on the post.

ADSR

It's threads like these that have me clipping a pocket knife into a jersey pocket when I ride. Great, something else to be neurotic about.

miwoodar

Me too.

My story isn't BS though...I was riding in the bike lane last night and had a guy left hook me from the other direction. It was intentional. As I nearly hit him he screamed profanities with his finger in the air. I spent only 2 minutes wandering the neighborhood before I found the punk parked in a drive-way. For those of you living in Colorado, the Colorado State Patrol road rage hot line is *277 (aka *CSP).

thump55

The thing about tennis racquets, is that most people only have one, so once you avoid that first toss, they are unarmed and easily beaten down.

This applies also to bowling balls and lunchpails.

Now stop being afraid of girls and go ride your bike.

w1gfh

Just curious, while you were doing your flatland stunts in parking lots and dead end streets, did you have a CD boom box on the sidewalk playing loud hip hop music? Alternately, during these incidents, are you wearing some sort of provocative costume, an Aryan Brotherhood t-shirt, etc. ?

mmmdonuts

The OP must be butt ugly to make people so angry. Are you a direct descendant of Quasimodo or Joseph Merrick? Were you pieced together in a lab?

bikerjp

Thanks for the tip. I'm hoping the tracked him down part means you reported his sorry ass and I hope the cops actually do something about it. My faith in the CSP was somewhat shaken today. I saw a highway patrol car in town (FC) on my way to work and he was driving in and out of the bike lane (6 inches over the line and more at times) and nearly clipped a commuter. Had to be less than a foot away. I saw a pretty pissed looked on the commuter's face and I tried to get close enough to catch a plate number but he was too far ahead in traffic and turned.

miwoodar

CSP will show up to the driver's house to say hello if the driver gets reported 3x. Better than nothing. Also, if one of these yahoos injures a cyclist and they have road rage reports on their file, it could help said cyclist in court.

Another note...apparently sometimes they will pass you to a local jurisdiction to make the report. If this happens, you can request to report the driver to both databases.

hao

It's called "road cycling", not "parking lot cycling".

radial1999

Northeast Ohio. And NOT East Cleveland where I'd just assume I'm lucky to only have a tennis racket thrown at me.

radial1999

Fair enough. I've had teenagers throw coins at me from their car, or yell at me, or lay on their horn as they pass me to scare me. But this was absurd. As I rode past the first time, the girl yelled about 10 different names at me, and her friend told her to shut up and stop being stupid. She was with 2 girls her age and a guy her age, and was probably trying to act cool and impress them. I did stupid stuff at that age, but I never tried to blatantly hurt someone like that.

You can call it bs, it is that absurd, and the fact that it sounds too crazy to be true makes me feel better for being so angry about it still today.

radial1999

I did what most decent riders do. I dressed normal (not like a thug with huge baggy clothes like many flatland riders do these days), found the most empty/out-of-everyones'-way lot or tennis court I could find, and practiced. I'd wear headphones and just relax and ride and have fun. And most times people approached me, it wasn't to tell me they thought what I was doing was cool, or to ask if I ever competed in the X-Games (I had both of those happen a few times). It was to tell me that I shouldn't be riding a bike in a parking lot or tennis court even though it was abandoned, or it was to throw something at me and speed away. It sucks but I've just come to realize that no matter what you do, if you're around many other people, there will usually be some that will try to take time out of their day to bother you. Just think how often cars go past you when you're cycling on the road, and they purposely drive a few inches from you just to teach you a lesson about how drivers don't like the road being taken up by bikers. I'm feeling very negative still today so please forgive me for the overwhelming pessimism in this post. :/

radial1999

Another true story: I used to ride in a mall parking lot, where a large empty section was typically empty unless it was being used by a group that would stop there to race their rc cars, or for driving instructors to have their students practice parking and driving through cones.
One day I was there, and a senior citizen was slowly doing laps around this huge, empty section on a comfort/hybrid bike (I was riding flatland). Mall security told me I had to leave because I wasn't shopping. I asked what about the old person riding laps, and was told not to worry about her becuase she wasn't bothering anyone.
The amount of stupid that has come my way as a result of trying to enjoy different types of bike riding is amazing. I could write a big angry book about it full of stories where people act so dumb/unreasonable it sounds made up.

Mr. Embrey

Bingo! They tend to be intimidated by people wearing helmets and tight pants.

rkelley23

Back when I was an avid tennis player my trainer would have had your ass for riding a bike on the tennis court.

radial1999

Like I said, I only road in abandoned ones with no nets.