You have to laugh!

jimboyle1967

Cycling to work the other day, me and my mate were left-hooked by an inpatient driver, who then turned into a car park round the corner from where he cut us up. Mistake on both counts! As I entered the car park muttering obscenities, he jumped out of the car and ran at me as if he is going to do me in. I didn't flinch one millimetre which probably made him think "oh dear, this guy is not scared of me" and "oh dear, I've just realised there are two of them". He backed down rapidly and tried to make light of the situation. Ironically the car park was for his workplace, Recyc-a-Bike, and he explained that he sometimes teaches kids bikeability. God help us. I pointed out his mistake but I don't think it was sinking in.

Anyway, as we were cycling away, he shouted "road cycling poofs, I do downhill". He actually said that! We just laughed and felt sorry for him, even though he is a big tough downhill cyclist.

imatfaal

jimboyle1967 wrote:

Cycling to work the other day, me and my mate were left-hooked by an inpatient driver, who then turned into a car park round the corner from where he cut us up. Mistake on both counts! As I entered the car park muttering obscenities, he jumped out of the car and ran at me as if he is going to do me in. I didn't flinch one millimetre which probably made him think "oh dear, this guy is not scared of me" and "oh dear, I've just realised there are two of them". He backed down rapidly and tried to make light of the situation. Ironically the car park was for his workplace, Recyc-a-Bike, and he explained that he sometimes teaches kids bikeability. God help us. I pointed out his mistake but I don't think it was sinking in.

Anyway, as we were cycling away, he shouted "road cycling poofs, I do downhill". He actually said that! We just laughed and felt sorry for him, even though he is a big tough downhill cyclist.

Love it! I think a quick line to Recyc-a-bike might also be in order. There are lots of us that might have not stood up to him and got the full blast of wrath ( I always back down if brain is engaged and never do when the red mist has fallen; I am working on this).

y33stu

I've had that a couple of times on the way into my housing estate. 1 particular road where a few times different people have turned left just in front of me, so I've made the point of turning left and casually following them onto their driveway so I can not so politely tell them how stupid they are.

In other you have to laugh news... I was riding along a 2 lane road, behind another cyclist, with queuing traffic ahead. Just as traffic starts moving again he decides to overtake a car in the centre of the road. The car (IMO) quite rightly didn't let the cyclist in as he would have had to brake and slow down to do so, so the cyclist gives a sarcastic thumbs up to the driver as he drops back, but then bangs on the car window. The car stops dead (I'm the next 'vehicle' behind at this point) and the cyclist rides straight into the back of him, and goes flying off his bike onto the road. Luckily the car in the right lane stopped before he got run over. Idiot.

I didn't even bother hanging around to tell him what a joke he was.

markhewitt1978

jimboyle1967 wrote:

Anyway, as we were cycling away, he shouted "road cycling poofs, I do downhill".
.

"We do uphill too!"

secretsam

markhewitt1978 wrote:

jimboyle1967 wrote:

Anyway, as we were cycling away, he shouted "road cycling poofs, I do downhill".
.

"We do uphill too!"

Downhill. I don't get it. I mean, I get the concept, but just riding downhill only???? errrrrr....why? What nailed it for me was when I saw that some bloke won a major downhill race despite his chain breaking before he started. So in other words, he might as well use a souped-up Like-a-Bike that kids use to learn on...

Snakebite the 2nd

I can appreciate downhill, never gone that route in a big way, but always enjoyed dabbling as a part of my "normal" off road routes.
It is a very skilful and ballsy past time.

As for the chain bit, well they used to have chainless downhill racing as part of the cross country race weekends many, many years ago.

markhewitt1978

SecretSam wrote:

Downhill. I don't get it. I mean, I get the concept, but just riding downhill only???? errrrrr....why? What nailed it for me was when I saw that some bloke won a major downhill race despite his chain breaking before he started. So in other words, he might as well use a souped-up Like-a-Bike that kids use to learn on...

It has a lot to appreciate as a sport, it takes a lot of skill to navigate the course at high speed, but it's not really cycling, not as we would understand it. I've seen a few videos of downhill courses and it's all very exciting but I can't help thinking that I'd like to see them racing *up* the course!

GMBN did a feature recently where they removed the chains from the bikes and did a course and they were a little slower, but not by much.

iPete

The quick guys know how to carry speed, chains are for us mere mortal to make up for our lack of kahunas. Oh and who also don't pay for the uplift service

rick_chasey

iPete wrote:

The quick guys know how to carry speed, chains are for us mere mortal to make up for our lack of kahunas. Oh and who also don't pay for the uplift service

I figured you did it fixie, non?

vpnikolov

Got V signed on Priory Lane last night on my return from Richmond Park from an overtaking car. Probably it was for not cycling close the pavement (but who would anyway, with all this water drainage on the side). And it was really quiet with no oncoming traffic (not really a challenge to overtake me), so could not understand the frustration of the driver (and his passenger). Unfortunately I did not have the power and will to catch him at the junction with S Circular Rd (I wish my legs were not that heavy), so just laughed it off.