Guess this goes here, nearly got right hooked when some dude pulled into his driveway as I was riding home from work. Canti’s squealed but worked great, and I looped around to wait for him to get out of the car and yell at him. He comes out angry and yells that he don’t need no talking to from me and I need to watch myself when someone pulls into their private driveway. I told him he could’ve killed me and flipped him off and went home. Looked him up by hiss address and he’s the asst dean of a local law school. Sent him an email to grab a coffee and talk about how things could have gone instead. Can’t say I totally blame him for his reaction, he was a good 5’5 and scrawny and I’m 6ft 275lbs with a big winter beard and looking pissed to high hell. I’m past the smash a mirror or smash a face over shit like this phase. Would rather change someones mind about cyclists and maybe get him to actively try not to kill the next one that drives past his driveway.
Hmm, that’s not an option I’ve considered. Interested to hear if he responds.
IF I don’t hear back in a few days (benefit of the doubt cuz all I found was his uni email) gonna leave an empty coffee cup on his porch each day he doesn’t respond, and probably spread his name/picture/phone number/address around some local cycling fb groups
be sure to wring his neck if he accepts
that will help the cause. (I’ve only broken one mirror in my day)
[quote=lukasz]Getting intense out there. Two monstertrack bros with carbon disc wheels hanging off my wheel today up a small hill in central park (whoosh whoosh whoosh). Soon as I saw them I dropped anchor and they droped the hammer. We saw them later and they’re actually “training” for the red hook crit. More hammer drop from one of them. Watching someone with more wheel than fitness try to spin one of those up while going up an incline is like seeing a sprint in slow motion.
I’m limiting my speed to 13 mph or so tomorrow.[/quote]
lovin this
i been changing my commute route up lately
every few days i have to go by this awzm bake shop and buy a baguette
so that thing pokes up outta my pannier and i ride down the east side as a change up
every few cycles of this commute i’ll see some of my pals at the coffee shop or pub so i stop and chat with them
but i usually don’t stop for a beer coz one pint easily turns in to 4 pints
the other day i saw thor (local drummer here and drummer for swans) in his old beater toyo corolla
he waved and said hi to me, nicest dude. craziest mullet.
the abundance of babes on bikes has not been what i thought it would be on the east side i must say
Still see hardly any other bikes on the roads here. I guess it doesn’t help that it’s spring break this week.
Some fucko not using their blinker almost got me this morning. Guess I’m going back to pretending every car is turning all of the time…
watch the front wheel of the car and keep a finger on the lever
lots of new cyclists this year in portland. went out on ankeny at 730 this morning and there were no less than 20 blinky lights in 4 blocks. kind of awesome
^ sounds trippy
on the right hook
yeah watch the front wheel
but also don’t ride in that spot where the car can smash you faster than you can react
i usually speed up or slow down to position myself better
I just imagine that if I give a car a chance to hook me that it will.
i gotta say im really scared of getting hit on new winter bike. not enough that i dont want to ride it but enough that i will go out of my way to maybe not take major thoroughfares on commutes
Yesterday I rode to a meeting and saw a brakeless fixiebro riding around carrying a pie in one hand. No racing, but i rode behind him for a bit to see if he would drop it.
Somehow I goaded a greybeard douchebag in a Porsche Carerra into peeling out through a red light the other day. I felt awesome.
Yep, almost hooked by an old fogie today. I knew it was coming and avoided it pretty well.
I was thinking about my small incident yesterday and got to thinking that I actually have not had that many “really close calls”, if I’ve had any. Like, 2 inches from running into a front bumper, could elbow a car that was passing me, etc. I mean there’ve been close passes that I didn’t appreciate and other shenanigans, but all of them were avoidable because I had my head up. My real injuries have been self-inflicted.
Not that drivers aren’t assholes because they are, just feel kinda lucky I guess.
I’ve had a few somewhat close calls where I’d be dead right now if I weren’t paying attention.
Had some teenage thug try to punch me off my bike last night. So I turned around and told him to be a fucking man and fight me for real. 3 on 1 and they wouldn’t fucking budge, just stood there staring at their shoes.
This happens about once a month. I fucking hate oakland.
whilst cruising to class, a dude on a brakeless/foot retention-less fixxay pulled up to the light next to me and asked: “you tryna race, bro?” i said nah, and when the light went green he sprinted away
ten seconds later, i cruised comfortably past him. two minutes later, i saw him in the same classroom as me. he wasnt pleased with me
moral of the story: dont race cat6 if youre not prepared to make enemies
Sounds like he hasn’t really gotten into the zen of it yet.
[quote=Straws]Had some teenage thug try to punch me off my bike last night. So I turned around and told him to be a fucking man and fight me for real. 3 on 1 and they wouldn’t fucking budge, just stood there staring at their shoes.
This happens about once a month. I fucking hate oakland.[/quote]
Never had any shit like this happen. Where was this?
This morning rolling into work on a MUP behind some Fredly dude in a sit up and beg position, fluorescent velcro strap around his pants leg, etc. Close on him really fast and hit the brakes to hang behind him as he went around a ped. Got around the ped and expected him to sort of ease to the right and let me go by. Dude steps on the gas like he wants to race. There were a couple of tight turns coming up that I wanted to rail and had no desire to sit behind granddad as he navigated his hybrid around them.
What the fuck old man? Had to stand up and give a kick to get by.