Cycling: Post your unpleasent cycling stories.

[terminator363]

Write about the driver that acts like a jerk, the people that stare at you like your the problem in society, etc..

I ride a hybrid and I ride on public roads, I follow the rules of the road. So I was just riding home after a long ride around a bunch of neighborhoods. Returning home I crossed the road and a driver turned behind me, he was driving with EPIC RAGE . There was no where to turn in to give this a**hole room (cars were parked up against the side of the road) so I picked up my speed and began to turn into a gap to let him pass. As soon as I start turning in (the bastard seeing me give room) he starts honking like I killed one of his family members. I take a look at the asswipe, he was with some chick he had shades on so he could keep a witty "poker face". He had one of them beginner driver stickers so it occurred to me he was one of those high-school kids that drove dangerously to impress their girlfriends/friends.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF............ This got me so raged! I hate drivers like this. Imagine if you were in my position only that gap wasn't there. The guy would have run you over because he was "too cool".

The blue things are cars.

 

[Akmuq]

I was in a similar situation where there was no room on the side and no footpath to pull onto, and this idiot comes up behind me while a lot of other cars are coming past and he honks the horn, so I flipped him off and pulled into the middle of the lane.

 

[boiltheocean]

Some stupid middle aged witch nearly ran me down then gave me verbal abuse for blocking/riding past a turn in she wanted to take, so I caught her up and rubbed my metal bar ends down the side of her car.

 

[terminator363]

...so I caught her up and rubbed my metal bar ends down the side of her car.

You did what? Please, explain in better detail.

 

[Tornado]

You did what? Please, explain in better detail.

He keyed her car, basically. I've done that on accident, and those scratches don't buff out.






Worst cycling experience? I once hit my sister on my bicycle. Going down the hill to my grandfather's house. My sister was a good 50 yards ahead of me walking. She looked back and saw me, and ran right out in front of me (Even she didn't understand why she did it). I pulled to the left to try to avoid her, and she started running left thinking I was going right. When I caught up to her she was about half a foot away to my right, but she was had just stopped running and still had some forward momentum.

I pulled the rear brake to try and slide the back tire to the left to try to miss her (and I'm fairly certain I would have broken her leg if I hadn't done that), but the pedal caught her leg and tore 4 half-foot parallel gashes into her thigh.



I got thrown off the bike and skidded about 5 feet on asphalt, then skipped a good two yards on gravel and smacked into an apple tree. I ended up spraining my ankle. She got several stitches and a really cool looking scar out of it.

 

[1241Penguin]

I was riding with my friends, as all the other bikers would on the street we were on. Some teenage 🤬 in his silly BMW 3 series decided to go up behind us and give us a honk, FOR NO LEGITIMATE REASON. Seems to me that some people like to impress their girlfriends (and their girlfriend's parents) by making others angry.

Another incident was when I was riding alone around my neighbourhood. The guy in front of me decided to brake all of a sudden (he was also in a bike), causing me to crash into him. Further to that, there was a chain of bikers behind me, and the guy behind me decided to swerve to avoid me. He did avoid my bike, but he didn't avoid me, when I had stopped and planted my foot on the ground.

 

[terminator363]

He keyed her car, basically. I've done that on accident, and those scratches don't buff out.

LOL you silly.

 

[W3H5]

I'm lucky enough not to have had any major accidents over the countless miles I've done cycling.

Most of qualms are with other cyclist that have no road sense and are a danger to themselves and anyone riding on the same road as them.
Recently a guy was out exercising on the same stretch of road I commute on, he thought it would be a good idea to use my slipstream to make his ride easier so when I came to a light turning red a hit the brakes, quite hard as I was quite close to the crossing, and the idiot had no time to react, pulled an evasive and ran straight into the path of the car in the next lane. I'm sure if the driver hadn't had such good reaction times the plank would have been road kill.

 

[boiltheocean]

He keyed her car, basically.

Yup and I'm ok with it. People like that shouldn't be allowed to own a car, she clearly didn't understand how to slow it down and wait for me to pass the turn in.

 

[terminator363]

Yup and I'm ok with it. People like that shouldn't be allowed to own a car, she clearly didn't understand how to slow it down and wait for me to pass the turn in.

See, I can't do that because I've got these rubber tips on my handlebars...

I should add an oil dispenser on the back of the bike so I can wreak havoc on other riders and drivers behind me!

 

[slowman]

My most frequent bad cycling experiences are those on the bike path. Morons that:

1. Ride 2 wide or even 3 wide, chatting with each other, ignorant of their surroundings.
2. Bring their dogs on the bike path.
3. Kids playing (insert game here) in the middle of the bike path.
4. People that litter cups and banana peels on the bike path so I unclip and kick whatever off to the side.

On the road, most folks are just fine. I'm overly cautious of ignorant/unaware drivers and always know what's going on around me at all times. Occasionally you do get the moron driver that acts as though people on bikes caused 9/11 and they take all of their rage out on you, usually never doing more than honking or yelling something unintelligible (and usually unintelligent too) at you. These people are the same as internet trolls, they want you to react. Don't give them what they want and they'll move along.

 

[terminator363]

My most frequent bad cycling experiences are those on the bike path. Morons that:

1. Ride 2 wide or even 3 wide, chatting with each other, ignorant of their surroundings.
2. Bring their dogs on the bike path.
3. Kids playing (insert game here) in the middle of the bike path.
4. People that litter cups and banana peels on the bike path so I unclip and kick whatever off to the side.

I've given up on "bike paths" it doesn't work, and I find it more dangerous than the streets. Especially those half bike half pedestrian ones. It doesn't work. Also if there is a pedestrian crossing in between the lanes.

 

[slowman]

Yes, that's what this one is. The only reason I take it is because it's a direct route to most places I go with few stops. I usually skip it during weekend days however, it's generally empty in the early mornings and evenings and just about any time during the week.

 

[Ibonibo]

Yup and I'm ok with it. People like that shouldn't be allowed to own a car, she clearly didn't understand how to slow it down and wait for me to pass the turn in.

Seriously uncool man.
Everyone capable of driving a car is allowed to drive one. That the standards are low and therefor idiots are also driving is sad, but it's life.
It's called public roads, for talented driver, untalented, people with legally allowed alcohol blood level, people on prescriped drugs,.... cyclists and pedestrians

And if she harmed you in one way or an other you could have called the cops.
Destroying propriety is stupid.

And after that cyclists worry that they are not accepted by car drivers

 

[boiltheocean]

Seriously uncool man.
Everyone capable of driving a car is allowed to drive one. That the standards are low and therefor idiots are also driving is sad, but it's life.

If she pulled that move on a test then it would of been an instant failure, our entire test is designed around the safety of those in or around the car. Nevermind the attitude afterwards, I'm pretty sure that if we had a test for that she wouldn't be allowed within 10 feet of a car, ever.

I'm not going to lose sleep because I scratched a car that could of killed me.

 

[David]

Would have expected people on this forum to have more respect for other people's cars of all things, regardless of the circumstances.

People do a lot of stupid things, and often paying attention to cyclists seems to be low on their list of priorities but nothing gives you the right to damage someones property like that. Was she wrong? Sounds like it. Was it a stupid move? Sure. But You made it out alive, and all you've done is make her have less respect for the next cyclist she comes across, while also causing literally hundreds of dollars minimum in damages to her car. Get the tag, get out the phone, call the police, but don't damage someones hard earned property, whether you think they deserve it or not. If you think she shouldn't be allowed to drive a car, then its gonna be citations and legal penalties that take her license away when the authorities get involved, not a scratch on the side of her vehicle. Its no different than if you were in a car or on a motorcycle and got cut off or had some kind of near miss. I don't think you or anyone else here would then use it as justification to sideswipe the other car in retaliation. I commute in the Washington D.C. area and I can say... As awesome as that might be, its not the world we live in, whether in the U.K. or the U.S.

You're pretty lucky that she A) Didn't decide to smack you with the car when you got up next to her or B) Didn't bother calling the police. I'm very glad that you're safe, and hopefully wont get into any trouble.

I don't want you to think that I don't understand how you felt. I currently only have a road bike so I've had my fair share of idiots do really stupid things around me in cars. We tend to stick to the country roads where theres less traffic, but even there you just get the ignorant rednecks in huge pickup trucks who want to do 50 mph in a 25-35mph zone. God forbid they get stuck behind you waiting for a clear moment to pass, because then they feel the need to pass within inches of you and then to diesel you for a few miles and then burn out in front of you before finally speeding away. Try keying one of their trucks lol. You wouldn't be making it home in one piece.

Just today a guy ran a stop sign in town to hurry up and pull right out in front of me and my dad. Guess he didn't realize we were doing the actual speed limit at the time and were going as fast as any car would have been. We had to slam the brakes real quick, then sped up, got in the left lane and passed him to make a point, but didnt say a word and certainly didn't touch his car.

Anyway, my point isn't to pick on you Floats (you've always struck me as a good guy on here), but everyone just be safe out there. People like that lady are the type who will be more vocal when it comes time to vote on whether or not bicycles should be allowed on the roads haha (Seriously every other month or so theres some editorial rant in the local paper complaining about bikes because some road rage driver is impatient, but has the time to write in to the newspaper?).

 

[Crumpet]

Back when I was 9 - 11, cycling in our area was serious stuff..

I'm going to tell you about a full speed accident of which the person I was riding with suffered moderate injury. Now, in the area I used to live in, there is an enormous hill, a road going from ground level to the houses at the top. A lot of kids in the area played out, pretty much everyone was out, usually after school until about 9PM, weekends too. Aside from the big hill, there is a smaller one at the top which goes down to some more houses and flats, most people liked to take their bike for a run up and down that hill. Sometimes races went on, rarely money involved, I personally thought that was a little stupid. One day I was out roaming some of the lower areas, cruising about, when I noticed somebody from school. Quite a cocky chap, I didn't exactly like him, but as an accomplice, he was alright.

He wanted to race me, for fun as he says. But I could see it in his eyes, he had a grudge against me.. As my day wasn't really getting anywhere I accepted, and then he explained how he'd like to blast one down the large hill. By that I'm sure he meant full speed. Anyhow, after going through some woodland paths, through a shallow, rock infested river and through some disgusting back streets, full of those skin-headed rough kids, we got to the top. It takes a lot longer, and a lot more energy to get up than to get down. I really wasn't interested in racing, and I knew he was stupid for wanting to do so.

Eventually, we lined up on the yellow speed-bump, usually raced over by the skin-heads in their Ford Fiesta's. The fact that there was a slight drizzle didn't help, especially when the key to doing this is grip. At the most silent of moments, he spat out "Go!". He had practice launching on this bump, using his rear wheel as something to ledge against it, I started at the same time but quickly fell back.

The rain was blurring my utterly focused vision, I was front to rear on him and we were picking up speed that shook my body to a full. Before I knew another bump came up, I felt the force of my front tyre slamming against it, my rear coming up behind me. The surface had changed, it was rough, more grip but an unstable, painful ride. The small, leather seat went right up my ass, I did have an advantage though, as I had gears. With the blurred numbers, I shoved the nob in a memorable direction, I didn't want to keep my feet on the pedals, but I knew how important it was. We blasted right through a turn off, not even thinking of checking for cars. At this rate I was going to pass, I knew I was catching him, ever so slowly, but I was catching him, no doubt about that. Before I had time to, a car pulled from a driveway, I could see that neither of us would make it through. I immediately slammed the breaks.

Doing so resulted in loss of traction on my rear tyre, the bike fell onto its side, I was thrown off, I heard something rip as I drifted into the pavement and hit the back wheels of a car parked before the one I would've hit. I was in pain, but not exactly hurt. The other kid though, had a go at getting through. He hit the back side of the car, denting it at full tilt. He went right over the bars, across the car, and hit the road at half the speed he was racing, he also came to a stop by slamming another car, only his was more violent. The owner of the car that was hit got out, the alarm went off on the one I hit and the other kid couldn't get up. I ran off as I saw this coming, I didn't want to be further part in this. It sparked around for a while, but racing like an idiot on a road is never a good idea.. The thud from him flying through the air and hitting the ground was a loud one.

What a memorable day that was..

 

[terminator363]

What a memorable day that was..

I'm sure it was...

Don't do it again.

 

[Neal]

[listen here noob]I rode bikes as a kid, motorbikes from age 18 for 10 years and have got back into mountain biking in the last few years so could spend pages reciting 2 wheeled mishaps.[/listen here noob] Most of them were my fault but plenty were caused by other idiots not caring or paying attention. When you're on 2 wheels you're more venerable and more likely to come off worse in an argument with a car so you need to ride defensively which can sometimes mean riding aggressively. On my usual training route there are a few traffic islands in the middle of the road where the road isn't wide enough for a bike and a car so, after checking there isn't a car right behind me, I move into the middle of the lane so inconsiderate drivers can't try and squeeze past and push me into the gutter. Even if you do ride defensively you'll still get complete idiots trying to intimidate you or cut you up but you'll stop the majority of people who pull out on you because they’re not paying attention.

I agree with the Floats though, if someone nearly takes you out when you’re on a bike and you weren’t doing something stupid yourself let them know loudly and if you happen to clip their wing mirror then it might be a clue for them to use them in future.

 

[Crumpet]

I'm sure it was...

Don't do it again.

Trust me, I never even thought of going fast after that.

 

[terminator363]

You know bad decisions make for good stories.