It is a bit unfair though, I+others got abused by a pedestrian crossing the road because we had stopped and other riders ran the red light.
Same thing here -- all riders were guilty by association. I actually yelled out to him that he was right, the pair were idiots, but he assumed I was calling him an idiot. Sigh.
"MikeyOz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Gags said:
He was clearly buggered by the top of the hill and I was having a bit of a chuckle to myself - I then let the gravity turbo kick in (steel bike + 102kg Gags + approx 8kg backpack + slicks pumped to 65 psi + hubs only repacked and adjusted last week) and I went past both of them on the downhill without having to turn a pedal.
ok maybe I am being a bit over-sensative or something I don't know, but why did you find that you had to overtake him anyway, did it just make you feel better about yourself ?? Maybe the guy had just ridden 200km's ?? Maybe he had been off somewhere doing long hill sprints or something and was at the end of his tether and now he has some-one tail-gating/passing him when he is exhausted.
I felt I had to overtake him because I was buggered if I was going to apply the brakes to stay behind the two guys!!! As I said in the OP, I didn't turn a pedal on the downhill (nor did I draft the guys at any stage) - I just let gravity take its course.
It had nothing to do with "feeling better about myself" - it was a Friday night and after a few beers I was already feeling good about myself 😉 As for whether he had just ridden 200kms - probably unlikely given the time and place........even if he had - so what - I didn't force him to try and drop me up the hill!!! If either him or his mate had said "G'day" as they passed I probably would have let them both go - as it was, both of them went past without even letting me know they were coming and when the second guy was clearly trying to smash past me I thought it was time to dispell his notions about an "old" guy wearing a back pack and riding a crappy old steel singlespeed being an "easy target" for overtaking. Bah Humbug.
... I was SOOOOOOO angry with the idiot but didn't have the right words to drill him with. I'm open for some useful input on the subject. I'm keen to speak to this guy. He's giving good riders a bad name and putting his life in danger.
I usually say something along the lines of.. "you know, that was a red light back there.. you make us all look like [censored] when you do that"..
if there's any retort (there usually isn't), ask them why they think cars should give way to them if they dno't obey the road rules themselves.
I'm thinking nice speed differential, straight arm, open palm, connect with the back of their helmet as I go past.
....of course, I'm too much of a big sissy to actually *do* it.
... I was SOOOOOOO angry with the idiot but didn't have the right words to drill him with. I'm open for some useful input on the subject. I'm keen to speak to this guy. He's giving good riders a bad name and putting his life in danger.
I usually say something along the lines of.. "you know, that was a red light back there.. you make us all look like [censored] when you do that"..
if there's any retort (there usually isn't), ask them why they think cars should give way to them if they dno't obey the road rules themselves.
I'm thinking nice speed differential, straight arm, open palm, connect with the back of their helmet as I go past.
....of course, I'm too much of a big sissy to actually *do* it.
When you're doing intervals and come up behind a seasoned commuter and have to pass, how do you do it without looking like a [censored] trying to race?
but sometimes I wonder what crosses their minds when a big fat bloke on a mountain bike whips by huffing and puffing for all I'm worth only to have them catch me up a bit further down the road once I've backed off again
As you pass them shout out "come on lard ar$e" 🙂
A couple of years ago on the Sydney Spring cycle, I had ridden at (for me) reasonable speed all the way to Olympic park. For the last 1K or so I had ridden with another guy about half my age. As we turned into the finishing straight I pulled out of his slipstream and said "so what have you got left?". He couldn't sprint for laughing. A great new tactic.
A few weeks ago there was a guy riding in front of me southward on Adelaide Ave.
<snip>
Quoted message said:
I was SOOOOOOO angry with the idiot but didn't have the right words to drill him with. I'm open for some useful input on the subject. I'm keen to speak to this guy. He's giving good riders a bad name and putting his life in danger.
Why bother getting angry? Just ignore him, stay cool, Darwin will take care of him eventually.
When this thread came up I started wondering about this one:
"No-Pass: If it turns out that the other guy really was just spinning along and is now happy to ride at your pace and chat, and seems capable of riding at your pace and chatting even though you are at your absolute upper limit, and continues doing so until you explode and collapse in a quivering mass on the road, set your score back to -25, for you have just been totally pwned."
Well I'm quite often overtaken by people during my commute to work and then I find once I get into their slipstream keeping up with them is almost effortless and after a few minutes of drafting I've rested enough that I can overtake again and ride off.
How do I manage that without looking like a [censored]? 🙂
How do I manage that without looking like a [censored]? 🙂
You're going to look like a [censored] anyway, so don't bother doing anything "right".
At my last ATBIAD, I had one [censored] that slipstreamed me for a while, then come up in front of me and said I could slip him for a while.
Why was I [censored]?
Being the eternal optimist that I am, I'm SURE it was purely coincidence, but he did that at the exact moment a hill came up, and by that stage we were moving too slow for slipstreaming to make any difference. Just to put icing on the cake, he was nice and fresh after slipping me for the past few Ks and took off up the hill ahead of me.
Had to have been a member of the [censored] Inc riding club... -- Linux Registered User # 302622 <http://counter.li.org>