The NICE Things Pedestrians/Drivers Say And Do For You When You Are On The Road

when i wasted these two guys ran up to help me out. one of them used to be a courier (possibly in the 90’s) and showed me his leg scars/dents from when a truck crushed his ankle. brutal.

a few weeks ago i was riding pretty slow, about 25k, around campus in my full wool kit. a middle aged guy on a moped comes up next to me and we had a conversation about his 1980’s tommasini track bike which he had sent back to italy for a new paint job???

one time riding home from work, after spending the whole time on tarck, a car pulled up next to me at the lights. this girl driver said hi and i blurted out “sup gurl” on reflex.

One time I was trackstanding at a light, waiting for the left turn green, and a bunch of motorcyclists pulled up into the straight lane. They’re really loud and I thought it was a whole pack, so I was kinda freaking out, but it was only 4 dudes on cruiser type bikes. So anyways this guy says “HEY YOU HAVE GREAT BALANCE!!!” I’m so used motorcyclists being the uber-macho dudes riding crotch rockets but these guys were cool.

This winter when it was -30 with 30mph winds a dude driving an SUV with a few Marine Corp stickers on it honked at me, naturally I thought to myself ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ but when I turned and look at him he was cheering me on with his thumbs up and yelled. It was really encouraging and I felt kinda like a dick for jumping to conclusions.

will yell this at every party foul i see now

99% of the time at 4 way stops, and pretty damn frequently at stoplights when i have a red and the driver coming from the opposite direction has a protected left turn, they wait for me to go first and often beckon me to go ahead.
no one ever says anything to me though. i occasionally get smiles when i fly by on my tarcked out road bike.

One night leaving a hockey game, I was riding my bike home. It usually sucks riding around downtown at night, especially in traffic, and especially when the traffic is primarily composed of drunk hockey fans. I was at an intersection where the cross traffic did not stop and of course it was backed up. I needed to go straight through the intersection and had a few cars behind me trying to turn right. After it became clear I wasn’t going to make it across any time soon, I tried to leave room for the SUV behind me to turn right. She apparently really didn’t want to hit me so it ended up with me just getting off the bike and standing on the corner of the sidewalk. The driver behind me really didn’t expect me to give a fuck about her sitting in traffic a little longer so before turning, she rolled her window down and thanked me. That was pretty cool and made me smile.

My stories are pretty bland, since I usually ride in suburbia. I pretty much get waved through every 4 way stop, though. Except in the busier parts of town, and then people just expect me to blow the stop sign it seems like, they just sit there and chill, and I still end up stopped and then going after them.

I get the occasional “sup boy” from random highschool chicks.

nice

girl u got a heart

Not really bike but the last motorcycle crash i got into. I was riding on the back my friend was taking a left turn on a HUGE intersection (3lane each way) and he was gunning it as well cuz we were running a yellow light. Half way thru the turn his back tire blows out and we go down and slide across the road. These guys that see us go down comes over and help us up and even pulls the motorcycle from the middle of the road. We were all bleeding and fucked up and they were super nice and helpful even offered to take us to the hospital. I was so touched. Humans are ok.

When I clipped my trailer on a fence and went down yesterday, an older gentleman walking to his car asked if I needed any bandages or antiseptic stuff, and I thanked him, but declined the offer as my jacket n’ jeans had kept me from any abrasion. He then said “Your chain fell off!” as though this were a completely unsalvageable situation. I found that amusing. He was an arright guy.

In two years here, I’ve only received one angry honk, comment, gesture, anything. But nearly every day someone will give me a thumbs up or wave or smile. When I had my track bike, I would trackstand through the incredibly long lights. People would clap or give me thumbs up if I made it all the way through. Several times I’ve been drafting off of motorbikes with three people on them. The last person would turn around and see me and then tap the middle person on the shoulder, who would then turn around, see me, and tap the driver on the shoulder, who would look at me in the mirror. I would hang with them as long as I could. Most of the time they would speed up to see how fast I could go. If they slowed down or I caught them at a light, they’d give me a high five or thumbs up.

Since this is a positive stories thread, I won’t talk about how most of these people cut me off or nearly caused me to crash immediately following this interaction.

I am told I have a nice ass on a daily basis by drivers and pedestrians.

I am also one of the few people in my building at work that rides to work and I am constantly asked questions about it and given praise for riding. I try to encourage others, but most of them live in Virginia.

edit: this is the last time i will talk about my ass for awhile. i feel like i have been talking about it too much and it is getting annoying.

No one says nice things to me :`(

i’m sure yo got a nice ass bexley

if i see you riding one day, i will say nice things to you.

some kids in a car once told my friend that we were going 35 while sprinting. i cant think of anything particularly nice, but people are pretty respectful of me when i use my hand signals when making left turns.

The other day I flatted on Broadway and hopped up on the sidewalk to change out the tube and while I was sitting there putting the tire back on a dude in an SUV shouted “Hey man, you alright over there?” from where he was stopped at a light.
I was like “Yeah, just a flat.”

ftfy

I get told I have a sweet ass about once a month