RPK79

Probably the owner of the shop who's ride got super flatted. Imagine how much tube revenue that box of tacks would generate!

kc0bbq

One of the biggest rides locally has had tacks put down on roads a few times the night before. It's normally just people lashing out for no reason. At least it's generally not as bad as that guy who was throwing chunks of cinderblock at cyclists' and pedestrians' heads.

Nachoman

Remember that same thing happened a few years ago at one of the stages in the tour de france. I think 20 or 30 riders flatted.

Dave Cutter

Keep moving, be alert! Get a couple hundred yards away from the site. Then with your bike in good get-a-way gears pull out your phone and send a pin to the local police. Remain alert and prepared to defend the position/protect other cyclists. Remember.... the "poor schmuck".... isn't coming along later. You are the poor schmuck.

Dave Cutter

Not all human behavior is sane or normal.... but "lashing out for no reason" isn't a human behavior I am familiar with.

JohnJ80

This is the best advice of all in this entire thread. Point taken - people don't do this without some expectation of reward.

J.

chaadster

The pop-psych is tremendously lame, as in, couldn't get any more meaningless.

seymour1910

Some of you may not beleive this is a legit story. There is always a conspiracy theorist in the bunch. As the thread has gone on, several other examples have been shown that this does happen. If you call BS on the story, so be it, to each their own.

In my local area there was a guy that did the thumb tacks in the street thing because he didn't like cyclists passing his place. After several flats people started to really complain because it was a public street. I know the guy was unapologetic, but not sure what ever happened with the case.

Seattle Forrest

It's a figure of speech. It means that whatever the reason, it was not related to you and would have been unpredictable. Sometimes it's really as simple as that. For example: road rage.

TheRef

The fauna along the Fox River trails is very diverse indeed. I even saw a hobo passed out on the trail last suday. I almost ran him over... NO joke!

Wanderer

I'll bet it was down by Aurora downtown........

Hiro11

Ah, the FRT or the Fart as I call it: full of weaving riders going 8 MPH, full of oblivious runners running three abreast with headphones in and full of dogs off the leash (one of whom bit me last year). The path is inconsistently marked, extremely poorly planned around any town center and actually has stairs on it (it's a friggen bike path, guys) on more than one occasion. Large sections of it have been randomly closed for years with no sign that anyone is trying to actually fix them. Try to figure out the South Elgin intersection of the Prairie Path and the Fart if you've never been there. Go on, give it a try, I dare you. Try to figure out how the hell to get through Geneva on the Fart if you haven't been there before. Why the F$%^ did they route the thing right through a major park? God I hate that path.

Back to the topic at hand. This is my personal nightmare. I ride on a tree lined path in the dark frequently and I could easily see some dumbass trying this. Barbed wire is at least somewhat visible, try piano wire...

dksix

I have heard stories that some members of The Sahara Club would booty trap dirk trails with the intent to cause death. He is a site with how to's
Earth First's "Death Manual"

TimothyH

They did it the same thing here in the area West of Atlanta recently.

Busted the lights in a tunnel on the local MUP and put concrete blocks and rocks in the path.

If they did it to motorists on the road the entire community would rise up.

indyfabz

Someone/people were doing this in Oregon around the Larch Mountain area a decade or so ago. There is a big climb there. At the top there is area where you can see five mountain peaks, including Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Saint Helens. It was a popular area to cycle in. The tacks were believed to be put down by one or more locals who didn't like "rich city folks" with their fancy bikes and spandex coming into their piece of the world. Cycle Oregon used the climb and descent in 2005. Before the ride there was much concern among some participants of a repeat, but I think the patrols of SAG vehicles were a deterrent.

BTW...I think there was also another MTB trail sabotage incident in Canada recently. Believe there is a thread about it on the A&S forum.

TheRef

Believe it or not it was downtown St. Charles on the pedestrian bridge. I was coming fast and the dude was laying across the path. I went to the side not sure I could've bunny hopped him.

Shimagnolo

There is a MUP in Denver that follows a stream, and is well below street level.
The entrance/exit ramps to get to/from the street, are quite steep.
A co-worker was cycling down a ramp which was accelerating him into the shadow under a bridge.
Just as he entered the shadow he realized there was a sleeping bum, stretched all the way across the MUP.
He said he didn't know he could bunny-hop that high!