Does anybody else get abuse from passing cars?

Denny69

CrookedCucumber wrote:

I get fairly frequent verbal abuse, usually from the kind of person who drives a battered small car with a stick-on plastic mock-spoiler on the back. There is a word for people like that, but I'm too polite to use it.

Dickheads...there you go did it for ya!

babyshambles

Its about making the cars aware that you are a good confident rider and give back as good as you get. I tend to have a fair few arguments on a certain stretch due to the idiot drivers there are. They pass you then stop at traffic lights an inch away from the curb... that really gets my goat and i make it known.

I also always thank those who ARE considerate to show them that i do appreciate the good drivers.

Cyclists must make themseves known. I read that more femail cyclists get injured or killed on a bike at traffic lights or round a bouts as their road stature is more timid !!

BE SEEN AND HEARD

Dirty Gertie

I was cycling to work when a car up ahead indicated it's intention to make a right turn and moved to the centre of the road. A following car who was just starting to overtake me went for the gap that was left, pushing me with it's front wing physically into the curb. The lady driver realised what she had done and braked immediately to stop behind me. As I was picking my bike up, her gentleman passenger, wound down his window and gave me some abuse, before gesticulating, and shouting at her to get going again. She did this, and accelerated rapidly, but at the next set of traffic lights I caught them up. I hammered on the passengers side window, but neither of them would look at me, nor wind their window down. In frustration and anger I screamed at her 'You f*****g ugly bitch' (actually she was quite pretty) But the purpose was to get the 'gentleman' to step out of the car. They sat still and totally silent for about five seconds, his face reddening and her's draining of colour, then amazingly, she started a ferocious attack on him, both verbally and physically, with nails, fists, elbows, spit, four letter words, the lot. The traffic lights had long since changed to green but no cars moved forward as the drivers were all to enthralled in the ongoing scene of domestic bliss. It put the smile back on my face too)

krakow

It seems to happen almost every ride for me. A man on a bike is a great oddity still it seems, at least to numpties here in Glasgow.

mozwyn69

I was starting up a particularly steep hill on Gower last year when 2 guys pull up in a white van and insisit I hang onto the van as they tow me up the hill. Didnt like to say no really and hard to explain it was defeating the object.The vast majority of drivers are fine but its the odd c***t that sticks in the mind.

wilkies80

I've had a similar encounter with a taxi driver.I was on my way home from work on a good down hill stretch doin over 30 mph(honest !) when the d!ck in question pulled out in front of me, only to come to a complete standstill 10 yards further ! As i passed him I politely questioned his parentage and his eyesight.Can laugh about it now but at the time I was sh!ttin bricks

bigjim

Regularly get abused around this area. Think it is the UK generally and seems to be getting worse. I ride in Majorca about 4 times a year and it is paradise compared to UK. Motorists are brilliant over there. They give you acres of space and will stop and let you go first if there is no particular right of way. Found the same courtesy on the mainland.

Jim.

Jez mon

Creasting a 10% hill about 30 miles from home last winter, suddenly bottle of Lucozade gets thrown at me and i'm drenched in sticky sh1t. Car speed off at a rate of knots never to be seen again.

The other day riding two abreast along a very quite country lane, single up and wave the white van driver through, he overtakes and starts shouting stuff. Then some of our group wave back. The van driver suddenly stops (almost loosing his cargo) and gets out and starts shouting incomprehensible stuff.

Eventually he calms down and says we shouldn't ride two abreast, our group wasn't up for an argument so we just wave him away.

However, for a few moments it felt like it was going to escalate to a fight.

Rich Hcp

A can was chucked at me. It missed....

I do get the occasional yell, by a passenger.

You know when it's going to happen, you hear the music and "Boy racer" exhaust on a Corsa/Saxo/Clio shopping trolly. I expect it to come and don't jump.

Most people are fine

andy_wrx

Mrs wrx is currently reading one of Jane Tomlinson's books.

She tells how she was in the middle of one of her courses of chemotherapy whilst in-training for an Ironman, went out on the bike on a cold wet day because she had to train, even though feeling like death because she'd had chemo the day before.
Some *rsehole in a chavmobile leaned out of the passenger window as it passed and physically pushed her into a ditch.
On top of the way she felt, the chemo and the wet day, she just sat there and cried.
It nearly put her off cycling, for months afterwards everytime she heard a souped-up exhaust coming-up behind her she cringed in anticipation.

Takes a tiny brain, even smaller dick, to do things like this I think.

fizz

I've been shouted at once and told to ride on the cycle path and a while back it was tipping with rain and I was riding primary almost to keep out of the stream that was running down the side of the road and I got shouted at because I held my position and it made it difficult for a muppet to overtake me on a blind bend and he had to wait 10 seconds to get passed me.

Thats the only time in the last 18 odd months I've had any greif. I think alot of it depends on mindset, your "attitude" on the bike and what you wear.

Felix-da-house-mouse

yeah i've had empty cans of juice thrown at me once plus dogs of abuse, oh the scottish public are really nice people :roll:

cee

dennisn wrote:

I'm with you. If you must fight, then break bones. This sends a lasting and very meaningful
message to the person you did it to and they will think twice about doing it again.

Dennis Noward

My father taught me a slightly different tactic, but of equal value. Yes breaking bones sends a strong message, but if there is more than one of them, you need to make the first one you hit bleed as much as possible. Shock and Awe!

So....dad always said fire in twos..........one right on the mouth/nose, the other right in the eye socket. The mouth is almost certain to pish blood and if you cut the eye (easy to do) the look on the chappies mates faces is usually one of "I don't want to get involved with that nutter".

He also said hit the biggest one first. Again.....Shock and Awe...

And lastly he said.......OK so you ARE gonna get a kickin now and again, but just make sure one of them gets it really bad....really quick!

Fire for effect folks.

huggy

Going round a series of tight bends through a village and I hear a car revving up behind me wanting to get through, but there's bends all the way, overtaking would be blind and stupid. Anyway, after 3 bends of waiting behind someone doing the speed limit anyway (30mph) he decided to give overtaking a try. I thought I best get over to the edge 'cos this guy was mental. He started pulling forwards in the middle of a bend and just his luck, a coach came round the corner on the other side. Heard a screech of brakes and the coach driver looking like he was about to die. Just zoomed off after that.

On my 2nd lap of the circuit, the exact same thing happened with a white van against a coach. Hopefully they've learnt their lessons! Also had some chav abuse but nothing too bad. Worst is being called a 'sexy cyclist' and being told to get a move on.

Shadowduck

Garry71 wrote:

A question for those who have had abuse regularly:
Do you get more aggro when wearing lycra than if you were wearing normal clothes?
I haven't got any lycra clothing, but I get cut up more in a tracksuit than if I'm wearing jeans and a normal looking jacket.


garry

I suspect it gets worse the more "commutery" I look, and also the better the weather is. I definitely get more grief on the hybrid with hi-viz and flashing lights than I do on the road bike with lycra (though it still happens occasionally), and I've noticed it almost never happens through the winter months - only in decent-ish weather.

I had a theory that for some reason, the more "commited cyclist" you appear, the less abuse you get. Then it occured to me that maybe the chavs just don't want to wind their windows down in bad weather... :roll:

Eat My Dust

cee wrote:

My father taught me a slightly different tactic, but of equal value. Yes breaking bones sends a strong message, but if there is more than one of them, you need to make the first one you hit bleed as much as possible. Shock and Awe!

lol, that reminds me of a fight one of my friends had. He was a very good amatuer boxer, but out of the ring he was all over the place. Anyhoo a fight had been arranged between hin and a giant of a guy with a BIG reputation for being a hardman. I kept telling my friend to remember his boxing skills. So this guy comes up to him, mt friend dances about a bit and lets off a few punches. The guy went straight down. My friend was so chuffed and excited that he was completely ignoring my shouts of "kick 'im, kick 'im". The result? the guy got up off of the ground and gave him a severe beating!!!!!

The moral to the story would be if you are going to do the shock bit, remember to follow up with the awe bit

ColinJ

cee wrote:

My father taught me a slightly different tactic, but of equal value. Yes breaking bones sends a strong message, but if there is more than one of them, you need to make the first one you hit bleed as much as possible. Shock and Awe!

The trouble is these days, that you'd stand a very good chance of ending up being kicked, stabbed or shot to death, while the whole thing was being filmed for YouTube .

Brian B

Had a young lad in a white van overtake me at a junction when he was turning left and he almost knocked me off and I was the one who shouted abuse. He stopped his van and got out and came running toward me. By this time I was off the bike and had took my helmet off and he stopped suddenly when he saw the size of me. I explained to him in the nicest of terms that I was not going to take any of his cr@p and advised him to get back in his van and enjoy his weekend.

I was not as brave when I had an ashtray of butts thrown over me by a car full of young lads and I decided to err on the side of caution as I was out in the country side on my own. Unfortunately I have had a lot of abuse from people over the years and give them abuse back when its safe to do so.

Once I had a girl try to spit on me and I caught up with the car about a mile up the road when they were stuck in traffic. I knocked on her boyfriends window who was driving and told him that she was obviously a classy lady and much to her disapointment he agreed.

de_sisti

Had a youngish woman (accompanied by a couple of friends) in a small small red hatchback
beep her horn aggressively and make a (half hearted) attempted to swerve at our group the other
Thursday night.

It was on a country lane, wide enough for 2 cars to pass side by side comfortably and we
were in no way hindering her progress.

What's got into people? !!!

Anonymous

I've had some stuff happen to me.

Was going along a quite back road and this white van man with some stupid kids in went accross the road as if he was trying to run me over, he nearly crashed into a tree, so I seen him coming the other way and just stuck me finger up at the ******. Every now and again I get idiots in crappy little cars do things like shout at me, beep at me, put fingers up and rev there engines up and just thrash it past whilst beeping the horn. It's got worse since wearing a helmet and lycra, was going through york and was 3 young lasses, all I heard was OMGZ!!! I would not be seen dead in that!!

GeorgeShaw

Some times it's just bored kids, though. I was doing a climb on the road to Lampeter last year, and got surprised by three kiddies shouting out of the window. They parked up in a lay-by a bit further up, and I gave them a little wave as I went past (not the two-fingered kind). They came past a little later and did the same thing. But when I go to the top, they'd parked up again and gave me a cheer and applause.

Rich Hcp

Yesterday, three of us, were going down a fairly steep hill and taking our time when this Corsa shot up the hill at a speed far too high.

He locked up and started to slide towards my mate in front, who managed to swerev out of the way in to the gully.

He put his foot down again and nearly took me off. I had to take to the side of the road where the surface is all broken up

It was all I could do to stay on.

My mate who was behind me said he was just waiting for both of us to get hit....

Someone shouted something from the car, I don't think it was sorry!

We'd been out on our MTBs, if I'd been on my roadie I'd have ended up with punctures at best and in the hospital or on the slab....

We always take care on that hill, and go very slow. Good job.

rossbarney2003

I haven't had any abuse myself, but my friend actually does try and scare cyclists when i'm in the car with him, even though he knows fine i'm a cyclist!

He tends to drive close to them when taking over and makes lots of noise. Oh and he drives a vauxhall!!! lol

Denny69

rossbarney2003 wrote:

I haven't had any abuse myself, but my friend actually does try and scare cyclists when i'm in the car with him, even though he knows fine i'm a cyclist!

He tends to drive close to them when taking over and makes lots of noise. Oh and he drives a vauxhall!!! lol

No reflection on your self (of course) but your friend is a TW@ and wants to learn the consequences of his actions i.e doing it to a cyclist and then being turned into a heap of blood, snot and tears because "the nasty cyclist kicked seven shades of SH*TE out of him for being a Pri*k"

I'll be first in the queue!!!!!! :twisted:

PS Does he wear a cap and have his tracksuit bottoms tucked into his socks?

Mettan

I had a couple of early 20's Women and one Bloke deliberately slow down, Beep me from behind (to try and alarm me), then laughed and driven on - however, unfortunately for them they didn't expect me to catch them at the traffic lights ahead - needless to say, they left the traffic lights feeling quite "shaken". They don't seem to acknowledge or care that their actions are very dangerous - I could have quite easily have fallen off (whilst doing around 22 mph on the flat) and seriously injured myself.

rossbarney2003

Denny69 wrote:

rossbarney2003 wrote:

I haven't had any abuse myself, but my friend actually does try and scare cyclists when i'm in the car with him, even though he knows fine i'm a cyclist!

He tends to drive close to them when taking over and makes lots of noise. Oh and he drives a vauxhall!!! lol

No reflection on your self (of course) but your friend is a TW@ and wants to learn the consequences of his actions i.e doing it to a cyclist and then being turned into a heap of blood, snot and tears because "the nasty cyclist kicked seven shades of SH*TE out of him for being a Pri*k"

I'll be first in the queue!!!!!! :twisted:

PS Does he wear a cap and have his tracksuit bottoms tucked into his socks?

Lol, no he doesn't wear a cap or tracksuit. He is a twat to cyclists though....I really don't understand what goes on in his head, cus when I tell him stories about twatty drivers he has a moan about old people and neds being bad drivers, but then he goes and does it himself!

JesseD

rossbarney2003 wrote:

Denny69 wrote:

rossbarney2003 wrote:

I haven't had any abuse myself, but my friend actually does try and scare cyclists when i'm in the car with him, even though he knows fine i'm a cyclist!

He tends to drive close to them when taking over and makes lots of noise. Oh and he drives a vauxhall!!! lol

No reflection on your self (of course) but your friend is a TW@ and wants to learn the consequences of his actions i.e doing it to a cyclist and then being turned into a heap of blood, snot and tears because "the nasty cyclist kicked seven shades of SH*TE out of him for being a Pri*k"

I'll be first in the queue!!!!!! :twisted:

PS Does he wear a cap and have his tracksuit bottoms tucked into his socks?

Lol, no he doesn't wear a cap or tracksuit. He is a fool to cyclists though....I really don't understand what goes on in his head, cus when I tell him stories about twatty drivers he has a moan about old people and neds being bad drivers, but then he goes and does it himself!

Why are you still mates with the tw@t?

babyshambles

Brian B wrote:

Had a young lad in a white van overtake me at a junction when he was turning left and he almost knocked me off and I was the one who shouted abuse. He stopped his van and got out and came running toward me. By this time I was off the bike and had took my helmet off and he stopped suddenly when he saw the size of me. I explained to him in the nicest of terms that I was not going to take any of his cr@p and advised him to get back in his van and enjoy his weekend.


I was not as brave when I had an ashtray of butts thrown over me by a car full of young lads and I decided to err on the side of caution as I was out in the country side on my own. Unfortunately I have had a lot of abuse from people over the years and give them abuse back when its safe to do so.

Once I had a girl try to spit on me and I caught up with the car about a mile up the road when they were stuck in traffic. I knocked on her boyfriends window who was driving and told him that she was obviously a classy lady and much to her disapointment he agreed.

remind me not to cycle in West Lothian !!

I remember a group of girls driving REALLY close to me and reaching out to squeeze my bum... i wonder what would happen if the roles were reversed... i'd be on the sex offenders register before i know it !

CrookedCucumber

There is a certain kind of unintelligent, unreflective, narrow-minded person who seems to be unable to cope with people who don't fit their stereotypes of how people behave.

If you drive a knackered clio with over-loud shit music booming out of the back, and all your friends drive knacked clios with the same, and you see somebody happily pottering along on a bicycle, something inside your head says ``Does not compute''. And, like any computer fed with inadequate date, their brains crash.

It's not just bicycles, it's anything that doesn't fit the impoverished world-view. I've been abused when I've been driving my quadbike, for example.

I'm not saying that this behaviour is acceptable, but there isn't much that can be done about it. The problem comes from too much television and not enough reading in childhood. By the time these people reach adulthood, they're already too badly broken to be mended.

ownworstenemy

rossbarney2003 wrote:

I haven't had any abuse myself, but my friend actually does try and scare cyclists when i'm in the car with him, even though he knows fine i'm a cyclist!

He tends to drive close to them when taking over and makes lots of noise. Oh and he drives a vauxhall!!! lol

We were in the pub a couple of weeks ago talking about cycling when my friend's boyfriend announced that he hates cyclists and would quite happily run me off the road. Did he think he was being funny?! I didn't know quite what to say to him to be honest. I know where he parks his van and car though - a bit of 'preventative maintenance' could be arranged...