ugh....

[obtuse]

so i've been off the bike for a while because of this stupid nerve damage in my hands. i rode for a few hours yesterday and went out for a few easy hours today; where of course i got in an "altercation" with a motorist. he wanted the bunch of us off the shoulder of the road so he could hurry on home in his gigantic four door pick-up truck thing....i quite loudly propositioned him to perform fellatio on me. he turned aroud his giant truck and chased me and threw a rock at me and kept pulling over because he wanted to fight me. he was in his fifties five foot nothing and really fat and threw rocks like a girl.....he was also on his cell phone trying to call his cop buddies.

anyway, long story short; i spend all day being kind and courteous and polite to people. riding my bike is my time and the only time in my life where i am ever selfish; mean, competitive and/or crazy. i know i shouldn't have yelled at this guy; i put my fellow riders who were with me in danger and its not like there was anyway for me to teach this guy a lesson...it's just so infuriating to have these people with their gigantic suvs yelling and beeping at you. if there was an escalade pulled over on the side of the road taking up twice as much room as we were this guy wouldn't have said anything. if there were a tractor doing 28mph down a 45mph road these same motorists who beep and yell would politely follow untill it were safe to pass....

anyway, i feel like a complete idiot right now. other cyclists generally seem supportive of my antics if they are a)male b)racers or c) crazy. women and recreational riders tend to find it scary and creepy. i need psycho-therapy. i'm going to go listen to the replacements now.

obtuse

(maybe my testosterone levels are just naturally high.)

[yeehawfactor]

my buddy was punched by a motorist today. good times.

[catulle]

You should've kicked his butt. That you didn't is the only thing that should bother you (C. G. Jung).

[Ginger]

Did ya at least get the license plate and call the cops?

[obtuse]

You should've kicked his butt. That you didn't is the only thing that should bother you.

if i were i alone or with fstrthnu i probably would have stopped and confronted him. but i was with other people. say the guy was some super fat short ninja; were he to kick the crap out of me; i'd be putting my pals in an odd spot.

obtuse

[obtuse]

Did ya at least get the license plate and call the cops?


ahm...he was calling the cops....the lincoln cops were his buddies i guess.

obtuse

[yeehawfactor]

if i were i alone or with fstrthnu i probably would have stopped and confronted him. but i was with other people. say the guy was some super fat short ninja; were he to kick the crap out of me; i'd be putting my pals in an odd spot.

obtuse
you've not disclosed if your friends are, in fact, ninjas, so you might have then had him exactly where you wanted him.

[catulle]

if i were i alone or with fstrthnu i probably would have stopped and confronted him. but i was with other people. say the guy was some super fat short ninja; were he to kick the crap out of me; i'd be putting my pals in an odd spot.

obtuse

Jung's just pulling your leg. He's being like that ever since Freud used to take Emma on long walks in the woods. The fat fart will probably get a heart attack soon so why bother. Hey, take care.

[Ginger]

ahm...he was calling the cops....the lincoln cops were his buddies i guess.

obtuse


Of *course* he was calling his buddies the cops (or so he said...did you get to check the number?) On their private cell phones if anything. You would be calling a dispatcher, preferably of the state variety...recorded, legal...all that crap.

[slowgoing]

And what were his cell phone cop buddies going to do? Arrest you for telling him to blow you? Doubtful. You should have let him take a swing in front of your witnesses and at least have him on the hook for battery/road rage. No undoing that.

There is only one thing you can do now, and that's find out where he lives and take care of business the old fashioned way.

[oracle]

so i've been off the bike for a while because of this stupid nerve damage in my hands. i rode for a few hours yesterday and went out for a few easy hours today; where of course i got in an "altercation" with a motorist. he wanted the bunch of us off the shoulder of the road so he could hurry on home in his gigantic four door pick-up truck thing....i quite loudly propositioned him to perform fellatio on me. he turned aroud his giant truck and chased me and threw a rock at me and kept pulling over because he wanted to fight me. he was in his fifties five foot nothing and really fat and threw rocks like a girl.....he was also on his cell phone trying to call his cop buddies.

anyway, long story short; i spend all day being kind and courteous and polite to people. riding my bike is my time and the only time in my life where i am ever selfish; mean, competitive and/or crazy. i know i shouldn't have yelled at this guy; i put my fellow riders who were with me in danger and its not like there was anyway for me to teach this guy a lesson...it's just so infuriating to have these people with their gigantic suvs yelling and beeping at you. if there was an escalade pulled over on the side of the road taking up twice as much room as we were this guy wouldn't have said anything. if there were a tractor doing 28mph down a 45mph road these same motorists who beep and yell would politely follow untill it were safe to pass....

anyway, i feel like a complete idiot right now. other cyclists generally seem supportive of my antics if they are a)male b)racers or c) crazy. women and recreational riders tend to find it scary and creepy. i need psycho-therapy. i'm going to go listen to the replacements now.

obtuse

(maybe my testosterone levels are just naturally high.)



that's the problem with the mobile phone era... gone are the days when you could pull the golf-ball sized rock out of your jersey and send him packing to maaco...

[Too Tall]

Just saying what you said is change happening. Likely you'll find a better way in the future. You scared the carp out of yourself. this 'chit escalates fast, you know it, I know it and so does the dumbarse.
Quit that, we need you and prefer to have yah in once piece ;)

[Ray]

Road rage is a proud American tradition. There's absolutely no reason why it should be restricted to motorists. ALL road users have the same right to get extremely pissed at real or imagined slights / actions. Stand up for your rights to road rage now!

I know, I know, we're in a position of weakness, what with our vehicle/passgenger weights generally being in the 150-250 pound range. But I usually don't lose it at someone until AFTER they've passed me and by that time, they're gonna have a hard time hitting me with their vehicle. If they look like they want to, I can usually avoid getting back ahead of them and/or can usually use other traffic to block their way. If they stop and get out, then we're on equal terms.

Everyone feels stupid and full of regret after a road rage incident, but AFTER isn't the point. Sometimes you have to act instantly and insanity is the best response. I'm getting older and don't seem to lose it anymore, but if I ever do, I reserve the same rights to do it from the seat of my bike as from the seat of a car. Dammit!

you GO Obtuse. No shame. You lost it - fair and square.

-Ray

[Climb01742]

you were so well behaved saturday. maybe i'm a calming influence. (insert dancing banana.) hey, we all say things we wish we hadn't. plus, lincoln roads are tough; almost zero shoulders. look on the bright side: you're riding again.

[stevep]

relax happy legs. go for a nice ride today. tell hal you'll be in late.
dont fry your ( limited ) brain w/ shiite like this.
move on.

[William]

You need to call me dude.



William

[stevep]

craig,
skip my earlier post. i forgot who i was talking to.
you need to go out and buy a bigger truck that that idiot and show him whos a bigger idiot. drive around behind him all day honking your horn and giving him the finger out the window and yelling that he drives like a woman ( apologies to ginger )... this will bring you great psychic satisfaction.
as buddha said..." he who drives the biggest truck is the most manly and powerful and will rule the universe while he who drives a small, fuel efficient car or rides a bike is a weakling and less of a man..." ( not an exact quote but a decent paraphrase according to dbrk )
you should bring frysthtnu with you as he needs a few days off the bike.
i'm billing you for this diagnosis by the way.

[Climb01742]

You need to call me dude.



William

how would calling you "dude" help? :beer:

ps: howz your zank treating you?

[swoop]

well obtuse.. this is an almost everyday thing for me here in LA. first i am dumbfounded by the car driver's stoooooppppidity and then i am ashamed of the anger in my response. until i realize i'm fighting for every frucking time someone elses entitled ignorance is being used to inflict injury upon me. why are they always fat?

there is a psychological term:overcorrection. if you want to train someone to change a behavior you have to punish them severely the first time they do it. otherwise you are just desensitizing them to the punishment. so keep it up. you have to go after them hard to save the next guy.

just don't get arrested.

what feels bad is that you were prolly in a happy place on the bike and this little terd came along... and took all his anger and put it into you..and you took it in as yours. that feels bad. projection and introjection. it's like someone tagging you.. you're it... now you've got the anger.

somehow you've got to bang the mirror off the car and put your cleat into the door and hock a spitwad on the driver and do it all with a smile.

[Tom]

This morning a guy pulls over to the curb without any signal and my attention came back to him from the doggies the lady was walking a little late and I had to lock 'em up so I didn't get squished in there (it can get ugly - a guy I ride with got two cool titanium rods in his spine that way) but I never felt any anger at all. I guess you used up a pretty large area's worth.

Bringing peace to the world, you are.

[Fat Robert]

that's why i like it here

nobody bothers you much

for what its worth...the south carolina demographics of driver-cyclist hatin' seem to be (from my limited and unscientific research):

white males -- the kings. usually lower-middle or working class. its gotta be a power thing. their car is the prized posession, the road is where they don't have to take any "crap" and where they are "in charge."

white females -- a very distant second. similar socio-economic status to the guys who usually bring the grief. makes me think its class more than anything else..."who's that rich faggot on the bike getting in my way" thing.

I've never been hassled down here by blacks. the young guys are laughing at you, but they're cool about it. no insults, profanity, objects. When riding through some 'hood sections I often hear a current or former student say "yo DK."

everybody has this conception that the rural south is full of malicious rednecks...not true...I get hassled maybe once every three weeks. York county is ok.

my useless two cents yo


(obtuse -- start carrying roses in your jersey pockets. hand them out to obnoxious drivers and say "I love you" with a beatific grin. that should scare the h*ll out of em)

[jmewkill]

As FR.

The demographics of the insult hurlers seem to be pretty much the same around Durham-Chapel Hill and surrounding counties.

[Bradford]

Perhaps you misinterpreted his actions. Perhaps he pulled over because he was so excited to perform fellatio on you.

Seriously, this has happened to me a few years ago on a tour when I was crossing a bridge in Maine. Because I have a bit of a temper, I jumped out of the saddle and started to sprint at the a$$hole screaming at the top of my lungs. I really did want to pick him up and throw him over the bridge and I am pretty sure I would have killed him if I caught him.

Turns out that this guy was a coward and as soon as he realized that I was A) bigger than him, and B) really wanted to kill him, he jumped back in the car and peeled out.

I say next time try you best to catch him and kick the **** out of him. :banana:

Look at it this way, what are the chances of loosing in court? He had to stop his car and get out for you to catch him, didn’t he? All he had to do is keep driving or stay in the car. Just by stopping and getting out he is threatening you and you have the right to defend yourself. Use that right and pummel the creep into the ground.

[davids]

i need psycho-therapy. i'm going to go listen to the replacements now.

obtuse
Suggested listening:Stay right there, go no further
Don't get a doctor, don't get my mother
It's too far to walk, gotta decide
Turn around, we're takin' a ride

So take another pill from your purse
Take a little ride in a hearse
We're takin a ride
We're takin a ride
We're takin a ride

Going real fast, hanging out the window
Drinking in the back seat, half the bottle
The light was green, so was I
The radio's blasting, turn that ***** off

90 miles an hour, slidin' on grease
I got my doubts we'll make it in one piece
Just takin a ride
We're takin a ride
We're takin a ride

Stay right there, go no further
Don't get a doctor, don't get your mother
Out of the car, your hands on the hood
Takin a ride but it's doin' no good
Hope you're feeling better about stuff now. It's funny - Lately I've been noticing how courteous most drivers are, both here in Boston and up in Maine.

[tomwd3]

We've had a bit of that going on here in Albany, NY lately.
Recently a drunk driver hit & killed a cyclist on a road frequented by our local cycling club (myself included). One of the local papers that covered the story, came out to one of the club rides and ran a story on the front page with photos (very prominent placement). This then prompted letters to the editor about inconsiderate cyclists forcing motorists off the road and endangering drivers. Pretty much the the usual complaints being voiced by both parties. At this point I'm feeling as though I want to avoid any large group rides and as far as dealing w/aggressive drivers, I'm going to put my well being first, and avoid a roadside conflict w/any automobile wielding bozos.
I know this defensiveness has gotten to me as about a week ago, I had a....let's call it an eposide. I'm on a group ride approaching the top of a fairly long climb. We're in the middle of a couple hairpins, and a motorist drives by and yells out the window. I was certain he'd barked something about being a homo. So I yell back "F-U you fat A$$" He just sort of looked bewildered. 10 seconds later my buddy rode up next to me and told me the guy was saying "almost home!!!"
I need to chill.

[Fixed]

bro
say anything you want just keep your hands off me .
cheers

[david]

i always feel lousy after exploding on some bonehead.
so i try not to do it.
don't think it does much good. just confirms in their minds what a-holes we cyclists are.
however, like you obtuse, sometimes i just lose it.
as a countermeasure, i've taken to full diplomacy the other 99% of the time.
i wave to cars that have had to wait before passing me. i wave to cars at intersections. basically, i try to make a good impression.
doesn't work with the real idiots, but if it makes one driver fall on our side of the fence, then it's worth it.

[Lincoln]

i always feel lousy after exploding on some bonehead.
so i try not to do it.
don't think it does much good. just confirms in their minds what a-holes we cyclists are.
however, like you obtuse, sometimes i just lose it.
as a countermeasure, i've taken to full diplomacy the other 99% of the time.
i wave to cars that have had to wait before passing me. i wave to cars at intersections. basically, i try to make a good impression.
doesn't work with the real idiots, but if it makes one driver fall on our side of the fence, then it's worth it.

That is exactly my MO. Including the 1% exception.

[William]

how would calling you "dude" help? :beer:

ps: howz your zank treating you?


A little chat about de-escalation techniques. If that doesn't work and the chit's gonna hit, Counter-offensives that appear to all around as defensive techniques. Perception is everything. Just saying.... ;)


Effin Zank is getting there. :banana:


William

[Kevan]

it's gettin' to everyone, I tell ya!

[William]

it's gettin' to everyone, I tell ya!

It involves carrying a Cabbage Patch doll under one arm too.




William ;)

[Grant McLean]

You need to call me dude.



William


from cyclingnews.com

Canadian Cycling suspends Danika Schroeter

The Canadian Cycling Association (CCA) has suspended downhill mountain bike racer Danika Schroeter for three months after an incident at the podium presentation of the Canadian downhill national championships on July 23.

The women's championship was won for the third time by Michelle Dumaresq. Because Dumaresq is a transsexual, Schroeter and some other Candian female downhillers have been vocal in their opposition to Dumaresq competing in the women's category, according to canadiancyclist.com.

At the podium ceremony, Schroeter wore a t-shirt with the slogan "100% Pure Woman CHAMP 2006" while her supporters shouted insults and obscenities at Dumaresq.

The CCA found that Schroeter's conduct was in breach of its rules governing the conduct of racers, which read, in part, "All license holders shall at all times be properly dressed and behave correctly in all circumstances... They shall refrain from any ... insults or any other improper behavior... They may not in word, gesture, writing or otherwise harm the reputation or question the honour of other license holders... The right of criticism shall be exercised in a motivated and reasonable manner and with moderation."

In its statement announcing the suspension, the CCA said, "The Canadian Cycling Association takes offences of this nature committed by its members very seriously. While athletes have the right to hold and express their opinions, they also have a duty to express them in a manner appropriate to sport and to Canadian society."

Danika Schroeter has until August 11 to appeal.

[Tom]

I ride early in the morning to avoid the heat, myself, and most cars... and guys driving home from work with two or three Labatts Blues in them or people without the Labatts Blues who want to kill their boss and think I'm a fine substitute. I notice many more incidents in the morning when it's been one of those hot nights nobody can sleep. People crabby.

[ti_boi]

I truly believe that we are in a crisis mode as a civilization....there is so much anger out there....it really pisses me off!!! :crap:

[Kahuna]

I have nothing of value to add other than to say I hear what you're saying and I feel your pain.

Yesterday was one of those days for me. On my short lunchtime ride I had five (count `em, 5) dumbass locals spew driveby insults at me from their passenger windows. Two of them were shouts loud enough that they were obvious attempts to scare me, but as usual, I don't flinch. Instead I give `em the stink-eye while envisioning myself ripping their tracheas out of their throats with a combination of my teeth and bare hands.

Peace,

-K

[shinomaster]

What kind of problem do you have with your hands? My pinky would go numb for a while when I first switched to campy from shimano. The Ergopoower cables seemed to dig into my hand. I fixed the problem with some clever taping I think. Also using non-gay deep drops bothered my hand too..Ergo gay bars felt better, and fancy body geometry gloves didn't help at all.

P.S. cary a gun.

[toaster]

I enjoyed reading your description of the incident, obtuse. Too bad the dude in the truck ruined your day.

There's a little hand signal I like to give to the insignificant man-boy with the large lifted up four wheeler truck, it's done by indicating a one inch space with the thumb and forefinger to convey the length of erect manhood one who needs such a stoopid vehicle must possess.

Some of these guys are cool and never do anything to annoy cyclists, the ones that do know what the hand signal means. Same goes for the BMW blowhards who took the TV car commercial to mean that they are awesome just by driving the thing.

[ti_boi]

I like staying inside and typing on computer forums, but that is hardly safe anymore! :rolleyes: