I behaved badly: a confession

wyadvd

I suppose these forums are partly here so we can get the day's crap events off our chests and get a little tea and sympathy from fellow cyclists.....

well today on the approach to some lights got overtaken by a chav mobile accompanied by jeering a 30 second horn blast and wan*er jestured from the three young male occupants.

anyway heres where I went wrong:

Came up to the lights behind the car and rammed my back wheel into their bumper ---I was very angry.

So the driver reversed into me......just enough to make my front wheel go sideways on..no damage.

anyway two mini roundabouts later i see the car trying to stop and attempting to flag other motorists past until I caught up with him....goodness knows what he was planning.

anyway a police car came the other way and he thought better of it.

I now realise that every word of John Franklins has thought and reason behind it/

just swear quietely to yourself and carry on he says....wise words but difficult to do when you are pi**ed off!

also realise the vale of multiple bikes and helmets etc

gaz545

You learn from your mistakes and move on. Next time don't confront them at all. and just sit 1 or 2 cars back from them in traffic, no need to filter so they can pass you again and do the same thing.

I cycle with a camera, and just report these numpties! and hardly confront people, but if i do there is no anger involved.

gbsahne001

a friend of a friend was involved in an altracation with a white van; normal hand gestures exchanged, steam vented said cyclist thought that was it.

A week later on the same road the cyclist was happily going about his business when the same van pulls up alongside and someone leans out of the window and uses something like a metal bar, baseball bat? (who knows) to hit him on the head with sufficient force to knock him off the bike and split his bike helmet.

In light of that incident I tend to be less confrontational these days.

AndyManc

Don't be confrontational .... get a head-cam.

Then report it to the police and drag the b astards through the legal system.


.

wyadvd

i suppose the obvious question is whats a reasonably priced helmet cam giving images a judge might accept?

dilemna

wyadvd wrote:

I suppose these forums are partly here so we can get the day's crap events off our chests and get a little tea and sympathy from fellow cyclists.....

well today on the approach to some lights got overtaken by a chav mobile accompanied by jeering a 30 second horn blast and wan*er jestured from the three young male occupants.

anyway heres where I went wrong:

Came up to the lights behind the car and rammed my back wheel into their bumper ---I was very angry.

So the driver reversed into me......just enough to make my front wheel go sideways on..no damage.

anyway two mini roundabouts later i see the car trying to stop and attempting to flag other motorists past until I caught up with him....goodness knows what he was planning.

anyway a police car came the other way and he thought better of it.

I now realise that every word of John Franklins has thought and reason behind it/

just swear quietely to yourself and carry on he says....wise words but difficult to do when you are pi**ed off!

also realise the vale of multiple bikes and helmets etc

Huh? :? How did you manage to ram your rear wheel into the car bumper when approaching from behind? Confused. Never take on a car with more than one occupant. Never take on a car and it's driver. Period.

nation

wyadvd wrote:

i suppose the obvious question is whats a reasonably priced helmet cam giving images a judge might accept?

There's a thread in the MTB buying advice forum about a hong kong ebay seller flogging unbranded veho muvi cameras for about twelve quid. They're pretty good. Certainly good enough to catch a number plate.

wyadvd

typo meant front wheel. All point taken

OldSkoolKona

I think you come in quite high on the Beaufort Scale of Angry Cycling
http://realcycling.blogspot.com/2009/08 ... lists.html :-)

Seriously though, you are completely correct in your original post about John Franklin's advice - and I say that as someone who used to get REALLY wound up by bad/dangerous driving.

However, thanks actually to this forum, I rethought my attitude and the thing is, if you get cut up, what does getting angry achieve? You get cross and so your concentration goes and then you're more likely to have a more serious incident. It is very unlikely you're going to reform an agressive driver by being agressive back. If anything, you run the risk they will get more agressive and you may have to be careful on your route for a while incase they decide to have a go at you again. Or worse still, they will just take it out on the next cyclist them come across.

So, take the cycling Karma route - be like Zen - and you'll actually find you have less near miss incidents. At least that is what I've found and it makes my cycling a lot more enjoyable :-)

rjsterry

+1 to the above. You never know quite how much of a headcase the person driving the car is. Tried getting angry once and had a bit of a narrow escape. Just. Not. Worth. It.

wyadvd

Thanks guys

Kind of makes me realise cycling is a great "allegory" for living life as a mature person. (anyone who has done the 12 steps knows what I mean!)

to stick at urban vehicular cycling you have to be resilient and calm and very tolerant.

And I genuinely think it makes you a better person if that doesnt sound too cheesy (which it does!)

wyadvd

oops.. this morning I......

1gave the middle finger to a lorry who hooted me and left me no room when he had plenty

2 shouted oi! At the top of my voice and f off as i went past through an open passenger window becuase she was drifting into the cycle lane i was using to filter left running up to lights.

3 was going straight ahed on a two lane roundabout with a small lorry behind me (im in prp in the left lane) hes half over both lanes slightly behind me. I look over my right shoulder look him in the eye and shout f off while giving a woahh signal with my right hand .....felt good cos he held back and i got over the roundabout before him . He looked kinda stunned.

So much for zen! I need to do more 'work' on that.

Porgy

zen's hard when you've got all that adrenaline pumping through your blood. I've been trying for years now - much better than I used to be - but I am known to lose it on occasion. The up side of not losing is you're better able to come up with those devastating killer put downs - not much use against chavs i know - but perfectly able to silence the so-called upmarket types i tend to encounter in the city. I even get the occasional apology these days. 8)

Jamey

That cheap Hong Kong MD80 camera looks decent for the daytime but the only night time video I could find on eBay was terrible - really laggy shutter speeds giving motion blur all over the place.

What other cameras do people recommend for good night-time riding images?

If you can't still read a car number plate at night time when you're following behind then it's pointless as far as I'm concerned.

wyadvd

Jamey wrote:

That cheap Hong Kong MD80 camera looks decent for the daytime but the only night time video I could find on eBay was terrible - really laggy shutter speeds giving motion blur all over the place.

What other cameras do people recommend for good night-time riding images?

If you can't still read a car number plate at night time when you're following behind then it's pointless as far as I'm concerned.

sure ley depends if you have a maxx daddy or a el320?

Jamey

Well, I'd expect the camera to work fine with no lights on the bike at all tbh... At least in areas lit by street lights anyway.