I was riding my roadbike one day when this old guy said “Hey, a FlXlE!” Maybe he saw the bullhorns and assumed? Also, he was riding a roadbike with pink Aeroheads.
I haven’t had anything yelled at me ever since I moved to Madison. Probably because cyclists are so commonplace, and most drivers are or know cyclists themselves. Actually, I did get a whole lot of the usual “What the fuck?!” type responses the time I rode my tallbike down State Street at 2a.m. on a Saturday night, but that’s to be expected.
Back in Virginia rude drivers would just honk at me, although once some redneck kid in a ricer yelled something about looking at my ass. I can’t imagine what. Oh and once this dude in a pickup drove alongside me as I was doing about 30mph to say “That’s reeeaaaal dangerous what yer doin right there.”
One time I was riding my old IRO, which was set up with road drops with dual levers, and a front brake. I came across a guy who was commuting to work on his BMX bike, and we started talking. Then he asked me “Is that a fixed gear,” I say yeah. He says “That sucks.” I got kind of apprehensive and ask why, and he said “Because it must be hard to stop that thing.” I pointed out that my bike had a brake, and quite obviously so, and he says “Yeah, but still…”