livedarklions

Back in the 1980s, a teenage kid tried to "bikejack" me by crouching down and putting a stick in my spokes from the curb. I couldn't even figure out why he thought it would work, since anyone with their eyes open is going to swerve to the left if you see anyone on the curb. He succeeded in cracking me up, but not in the way he meant to. I think I laughed for about 5 minutes, it was such a ridiculous attempt.

rumrunn6

that kid clearly never met the bush man at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. that guy scared me good & I had seen him spook other ppl. of course I gave him a dollar. had an encounter on a long lonely bike path (CCRT) about 8 miles from the end, at dusk. a group of teens were huddled at the edge of the path. reading their body language & as it changed when they saw me approaching, including suspicious facial expressions, not quite smiles, but suspicious, I tucked & sped up as fast as I could, not aiming at them but not shying away from them. If they wanted contact they would get it. their body language changed & I passed w/ no incident. dumb kids had no idea my bike was a POS & not worth thousands

livedarklions

Who said you were? I'm actually not terribly afraid of meeting anyone on a lonely bike path as my evasion skills are pretty damn good.

Pretty sure no one said anything like "better safe than sorry is wrong" and "always take candy from strangers", and I have to question the paranoia level of anyone who would equate those statements with "help people if you can". Like that's such a crazy concept.

Rolla

I think at the end of the day, we make the determination whether or not to offer help based on too many factors to generalize. I once gave water and food to three guys walking north in a remote part of far-southern Arizona. I've been told that doing so was dangerous and possibly illegal, but we all calibrate our moral compasses differently.

GhostRider62

On a training ride today, I either bonked or overheated. I decided to sit on the side of the road. A kind lady comes out of her house with a bottle of water and asked if I was diabetic or if I needed medical care. I was thirsty.

Good thing I had my portable HPLC with me.

Hit the spot.

livedarklions

The water is quite possibly life-or-death aid, so yes, screw the legalities and some risks to our safety are worth taking.

PBC peugeot

hey, you are the one advocating locking people in bomb shelters when you don't agree with them
and I am the crazy one ???

livedarklions

Wooooshhhhh!

Let me explain this to you--I'm not proposing to lock you in, I'm suggesting you're so fearful that you might want to lock people out of your bomb shelter while you work out.
You obviously think this world is too dangerous to ride about in.

Get it now?

PBC peugeot

caution and fear are NOT the same thing
I should not have to explain this to you

Polaris OBark

The internet is getting weirder by the day.

rumrunn6

when giving someone water is illegal, you know the evil that is in charge

rsbob 

or the paranoids. However in Russia, I would decline.

rsbob 

Something similar here. Was on the side of the road gasping for air after going for a personal best on a hard climb. I must have looked pretty bad because a woman pulled over her car and asked if I needed help. She was shocked to hear me say No thank you, actually I do this for fun. Must of thought I was demented. But then, she is probably right.

livedarklions

Uhh, I'm pretty sure I have a better idea of where the line between rational caution and irrational fear is than you. Hate to break it to you but any food you buy in a grocery is potentially poisoned food from strangers.

rsbob 

Am sure you are being quite literal rather than alluding to all the processed, carcinogenic, antibiotic laced and additive laced crap sold by the big industrial producers. And can you pass me a Dorito, please?

c0urt

I always make it point to stop and offer help, some say no, but I have had to try to help push a car in my cleats, life varies, my wife doesn't stop for anyone but gets mad when she doesn't get stopped for either, we create our own world

PBC peugeot

paranoid much?

3alarmer 

...if I disappear from the forum, I think my wife has been slowly poisoning me with arsenic. I can't really blame her, because I'm hard to live with.

3alarmer 

...sometimes I think this, too. Then I think, "No, it's probably just me." I go back and forth like that.

livedarklions

Woosh yet again. No, you are. You claimed you never take potentially poisoned food from strangers.

I'm making fun of your logic by pointing out that literally all food you eat is handled by strangers at some point unless you're growing and raising it yourself, and any food is "potentially poisoned."

Do you never eat out? Do you only buy from restaurants owned and staffed by people you know?


Which one of us made fun of other people for not worrying about being poisoned? Who claimed people were advocating "taking candy from strangers?" Do you actually know of ANY incident where a camper poisoned a stranger with food or a meal?

The actual stranger poisonings that have occurred have happened in stores and restaurants. Those grocery incidents are rare enough that I literally don't think about the possibility at all. I personally know women who have had strangers spike their drinks at bars, but since I don't drink, I don't personally believe this is a threat to me. I also wouldn't think it was paranoid if someone was very careful about not leaving their drinks unattended in a crowded bar.

And btw, not taking candy from a stranger is a warning given to children to avoid stranger abduction. Were you suggesting there's someone kidnapping cyclists by luring them with food?

livedarklions

Yes, I'm quite literally referring to the "stranger danger" poisoning spectre the other guy raised. You want an argument about the food industry, this is probably the wrong forum and definitely the wrong thread.

And Doritos are gross, I don't eat them. You can have mine.

BTW, the last time I rendered aid to a cyclist, the main thing I did was give him a Kind bar because he may have been bonking and that was the only food I happened to be carrying. I assure you I was not trying to "poison" him with any ingredients you didn't approve.

70sSanO

I wonder what the response would have been if you had offered him a Kirkland Nut Bar.

John

PBC peugeot

its like talking with all Dorothey's companions
say hi to toto for me, and I hope you find the emerald city

70sSanO

I’m pretty certain that after Dorothy came to her senses and looked around, she probably thought, “This place really blows compared to the emerald city.”

Be careful what you wish for.

John

livedarklions

"Give me a name brand or give me disorientation!"

He was a really nice old man and I was the first of about 6 people who gathered together to help him. He was sitting very awkwardly in the middle of the path in front of a bollard with his bike sitting (also awkwardly) next to him, but he denied crashing. Just said that he had gotten dizzy all of a sudden, leaned up against the bollard, and just needed to sit down to recover for a bit. It was odd enough that we decided to stay with him to make sure he really was ok. I offered him the bar because he mentioned something about blood sugar. After about 5 minutes, he took up another person's offer to ride home with him to make sure he got back ok. While he was recovering, we spent a few minutes talking about his bespoke 1990s Litespeed that he claimed had been delivered to him by the president of the company. It was a really nice bike, so I decided his story probably checked out and it was perhaps the most enjoyable conversation I've had assessing someone's level of orientation.