I saw that too. Kinda makes you think, there are frame mounted bike pumps, how about frame mounted pump shotguns? Might make people think twice.


-

---

I don't work here, I just live here

I was riding in Olean NY last month and someone through watter or somthing on me. Wackos are all over the place I guess. He gave me the finger to. Those mechanized couch potatoes are nuts. Live free or die !
Dirtball

just because we live in paradise (North SD county) doesn't preclude us from idiot drivers. There are young kids with a DL and no respect for anyone let alone themselves, all over the country.

When I lived in LA (lower Alabama), there was a roadie that I rode with a couple of times, until I found out that he carried a Derringer in his seat bag. Nice to have the protection, but that is a recipe for disaster.

---

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

I loved the pump shot gun idea. You need a swivel mount on the handlebars to help control recoil and make aiming and firing a 1 hand operation. Remember to aim just in front of where you want the pellets to hit to compensate for the cars velocity. Maybe we should get a group ride together, an armed posse out for a fast 50 miler.

---

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

It's a complete lack of consequences being associated with poor behavior that have brought our country to this point.

While the American ideal of independence and freedom is a good one, it presupposes that freedom for all, and so we are responsible so see that our actions do not interfere with the freedom or welfare of others.

Sadly, due in large part to litigation that would hold no one responsible for their actions, many, if not most, Americans feel they can do whatever they want and there will be no consequences for their actions. Nothing except clinical detachment from the laws of physics and causality else can explain Boston drivers.

As far as the mean-spirited nature of pop culture today is concerned, I can only see that it is founded in the meaninglessness of these people's lives. The only way they can validate themselves is to do something bad to someone else. Back in the good old days there was natural selection and/or lynch mobs. Now we're all victims of broken homes and cough medicine, with no large dumbass-ivores lumbering around thinning the herd.

I'll stop before my rant really gets going.

As a post script, I think my favorite is the lit cigarette butts that I get flicked at me on my Sunday morning runs. Apparently, everyone who drives in Ashland, MA on Sunday mornings smokes cigarettes.

Be careful out there.

---

------------------------------------------------------------

JM,



I had a cigarette purposefully flicked at me not too long ago while out running. It is crazy that people will do these types of things :(

My two North-Coastal San Diego favorites:

1) The day some dick on a Yamaha sportbike buzzed me while doing around 70MPH, passing about six inches from my handlebars. Three miles later I found the guy laying in the middle of an intersection, being peeled off the asphalt by paramedics. Karma's a bitch; don't ignore her.

2) New Year's Day 2003. Some a**hole in a black Benz E-class lays on his horn, hits the accelerator, and drifts into the bikelane, trying to push me over for some perceived slight. I saw that car traffic was stopping at a bottleneck up ahead, so I spat on his shiny Mercedes and started hammering (I was close to home.) I never saw him again. Punk.

---

__________________________________________________
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell

>Sadly, due in large part to litigation that would hold
>no one responsible for their actions, many, if not
>most, Americans feel they can do whatever they want
>and there will be no consequences for their actions.

In this case, I don't think that's it. Cruel or sociopathic behavior is not the result of a rational decision based on observations of litigation.

Show me a teenager who assaults cyclists and I guarantee at home you will find parents who encourage that behaviour through either actions (at worst), attitude (most likely), or apathy (at "best").

Where does the resentment of cyclists come from? I have no idea. The only logical conclusion I can reach is that many people are fuckwits.

Furthermore, this particular asininity is definitely culturally biased. In Switzerland (and I suspect much of continental Europe) drivers are not thrown into homicidal rage at the site of a cyclist on the road.

happy 4th of july

"Where does the resentment of cyclists come from? I have no idea. The only logical conclusion I can reach is that many people are fuckwits."

see why i can't turn away from this forum? people like pyker who cut straight through the crap and get at the core truth.

still i have found the best way to handle most situations with agressive drivers is a smile and friendly wave. early in my cycling career i would give the finger and on two occasions had cars stop and got into fights. not feeding the negative vibe will just have theperson drive on. the anger you will feel after though is hard to swallow. the best thing isn't the easy thing.

---

customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

That's the best advice -- just rise above it. Sometimes it's very hard to do that though. Here in England a guy hanging out of a van tried to push me off many (about 10) years ago and this year a t*sser in a van spat out banana flavoured milk all over me as he passed. In these situations I couldn't just smile and would have happily killed both these people had they had the guts to stop and face me. These situations are hard to rise above tho...

Of course you're right, I can't blame everything on lawyers. A lot of the blame rests with parents who never should have been allowed to breed. (This is part of the rant I spared you last night.)

The wisest thing Keanu Reeves ever said: "You need to take a test before they let you drive a car, but any swinging dick can be a father." from Parenthood.

Concerning drivers singling out cyclists, I don't think they do. I think that runners and cyclists offer an attractive target, one that can't give chase, and one that can't retaliate. (Unless you own the 2004 Kestrel Talon SL Viper edition, with fork mounted Phalanx-Series Vulcan cannon. Sure it weighs 1400 lbs, and you can't ride it, but it can cut a semi in half in about 2 seconds.)

By way of proof, I find that I get more crap thrown at me on main roads than on side roads, so most likely these people would be throwing stuff out the window anyway, but we offer them something to throw it at.

My suggestion: A $1.00 deposit should be placed on ALL cigarette butts, drink bottles, and of course McDonald's packages. This would accomplish two things: First, we could make some money while we ride, and second, all those stupid people would be walking at the side of the road picking the stuff up...then we could throw empty CO2 cartridges at them.

---

------------------------------------------------------------

Even a $0.10 bottle deposit like they're got in Michigan works remarkably well. And I'm all for a cigarette butt deposit too. Those suckers can cause wildfires when they're chucked out still smouldering.

 

The wisest thing Keanu Reeves ever said: "You need to take a test before they let you drive a car, but any swinging dick can be a father." from Parenthood.

Concerning drivers singling out cyclists, I don't think they do. I think that runners and cyclists offer an attractive target, one that can't give chase, and one that can't retaliate.
snip
By way of proof, I find that I get more crap thrown at me on main roads than on side roads, so most likely these people would be throwing stuff out the window anyway, but we offer them something to throw it at.

[/reply]

I doubt that my assailants were just coming back from the grocery store or the paintball range. They were out cruisin' for someone to assault. Cyclists are easy targets but it's not always a crime of opportunity.
It's just plain ignorance and bad upbringing especially in the prankster incidents.

The punks are the ones you want to strangle. The hostile jerks are probably best left alone. It's impossible to know what's taking place in their squirming little minds but there's no good that cn come from a confrontation with a pissed off head case.

Larry

I never have as much sh.t going on while riding as when I was living on the Gold Coast...
things thrown: beer cans, banana once, and even a vegemite sandwich!
chased once by 3 high school punks drunk on christmas day...
hit quite a few times...

so the conclusion of pyker stands...many people are fuckwits...besides they are cowards, because they will harrass you when you can't do much about it...
then with 10 riders together, you get hassled far less.

Though, a behavior that I have seen often from riders is going through red lights with no visibility,
not respecting road rules, or riding 2 or more abreast ignoring the cars slowed down a lot behind them, and doing this on purpose.
When I see riders doing this, I get pissed, because the next rider they see is at risk of being a target...
they start thinking, all riders are fuckwits, they do not respect road rules and don't care about cars being faster, and when you are there alone a car arrives, that was slowed 10' behind 10 riders oblivious to the situation, you get in trouble because of them.
it does not excuse the driver's behavior of course, but some riders are pushing a bit too.

I've been hesitating to bike commute. See, I'm historically something of a car magnet and currently living in Montreal - drive here once and you will understand why - but finally bit the bullet and rode my single-speed mountain bike this morning. Not 15 minutes from my house a guy I was stopped beside in a line up at a red light turned into me. I was not in his blind spot. I was ahead of his A pillar, so he HAD to see me. At this point, I had not broken any traffic laws beyond a rolling stop at a stop sign.

While I was lying on his hood, patiently waiting for him to remove his foot from the gas pedal and brake so as to stop removing flesh from my knee, I managed to meditate enough not to drag him from his car and thrash his sorry a$$ right there in Old Montreal, but next time he gets it from this hulking 148lb triathlete. I was going to hit his car with my bike (less jail time than hitting him...) but realized it was a government vehicle and I would end up paying for it through my taxes anyway. Two minutes later I had a cigarette flicked at me by some nice contractors in the famous windowless white van.

After these two incidents, I rode 'street smart'. I blew through stop signs and red lights as soon as they were clear. I hopped onto the sidewalk a couple of times and 'white lined' through stopped traffic to be the first vehicle at the intersection. No further problems and I felt great when I got to work. Francois, I hear you about following the rules of the road, particularly outside of cities, but in this town (and Toronto when I lived there, and I imagine everywhere in Texas, but that's a stereotype), the less time I'm on the street, the greater my chance of survival.

your post suggests there is a big part of luck too...
being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I lived 3 years in Montreal. Never had one single incident despite riding a lot. That said, I never ride just for commuting, just training.
I now live in Texas, and had one little incident (just one dude cutting me but I could see it coming) in 2 years.

I am going to be in Pittsburgh for 1 month (leaving tomorrow). I emailed a few people there, and one told me it was very good for riding, no hassle, the other said it was far from being bike friendly...
I hope I will feel like the first one :-)

Don't I love my third world country? Lots of people here _have_ to ride bikes to work and while nobody loves me for being out training on the roads, they at worst just plain ignore all of us and move on with their little lifes..
And my country is nothing compared to, say, China. I often wonder how can a civilized (?!) nation such as yours could be so low on road manners... well, GwB and all that texas oil... yada yada... [rant mode ON...abort abort abort..]

---

Ricardo Wickert | Team Magnesium Pur - Germany | My sporadically updated blog: The Thin Grad Line | My team-issued TT bike: Trek Speed Concept 9

2015 Sponsors & Partners: Magnesium Pur | Ullmax | B&W Bike Cases | Ristorante La Dolce Vita | Trek Bikes via Bici-Sport Binder

All I can say is that this stuff doesn't happen in TX.

Sure, I get harassed - people at convenience stores treat me like I'm Lance b/c I'm riding 50 miles today. The're always trying to buy me gatorade, or if I'm near the end of my ride, a beer. Damn it, every time I stop beside the road to fix a flat or make an adjustment some redneck (or 3) has to stop and ask if they could help. What really sucks is the car full of girls that pulled up next to me at a stop light. One of them whistled and another had the nerve to ask if I wanted to join them in their trip to the beach. Man, I hate all this harassment.

Get out of CA, I can't imagine living in all the pollution, crowding, socialism, rudeness, high cost of living, ....

I could rant here--I have had two close calls in the last week. Both were similar to the accident TriBriGuy had 2-3 weeks ago--cars shooting into parking lots or roads from the other side of the street right in front of me. The first time, I had almost no time to react, hit my brakes, and my training partner hit me from the rear. Luckily, we both managed to keep upright. Yesterday, a lady and her son pulled across the road in front of me into a convenience store. I hit the brakes and yelled, "Watch where you're going." Thought that was the end of the story, but they passed me later, and sonny boy threw a doughnut at me.

Before we blame all this on President Bush (wickert), didn't this stuff go on before he was elected too? Out of all the cars that pass us on the road, what percentage act this way? I would estimate that less than 1/100th of one percent actually make some overt act. Usually, it is the unintentional stuff that gets you. While I am a novice rider compared to many on this forum, I agree with some of the posters above--(1) Ride with a group when possible, (2) Stay off heavily traveled roads, esp. during rush hours when road rage rules, and (3) A friendly attitude does seem to reduce road rage.

We are blessed to live in a country where people can afford to spend $3,500 on bicycles (above the average per capita income of most of the world) and throw away food (doughnuts, milk, etc.).