Yahoos Throwing Things?

Robert S. Dean said:

However, my question for the day is how often do riders have things
thrown at them by yahoos?

More often than not, what gets thrown in front of me is the car
itself, by the inattentive or too much in a hurry driver.

Sigh.

Neil Brooks said:

Bob said:

Robert S. Dean said:

However, my question for the day is how often do riders have things
thrown at them by yahoos?

Once in the last 30 years or so. It simply doesn't happen all that
often IME.

Regards,
Bob Hunt

It's gotta help -- if only a little -- to have a Glock .40cal in your
Sam Brown belt, though.... <g>

I thought for sure you were gonna say something about someone "throwing"
open a door!

Bill "too soon still?" S.

On Mon, 05 Sep 2005 19:35:24 -0400, "Robert S. Dean" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

However, my question for the day is how often do riders have things
thrown at them by yahoos?

If something gets thrown at me, it gets thrown right back, along with a rock
added to the mix.

--

Buy my book about school bullying here:

http://www.lulu.com/content/112781 (recommended)
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=1411626559
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1411626559

Neil Brooks said:

Bob said:

Robert S. Dean said:

However, my question for the day is how often do riders have things
thrown at them by yahoos?

Once in the last 30 years or so. It simply doesn't happen all that
often IME.

Regards,
Bob Hunt

It's gotta help -- if only a little -- to have a Glock .40cal in your
Sam Brown belt, though.... <g>

I suppose it would but I never wear a Sam Brown and one would be hard
pressed to "read" me as a cop, especially on the bike. Then I just
blend in with all the other trim, athletic, incredibly attractive
cyclists with great legs and charming smiles. <g>

Modestly,
Bob Hunt

Teens in a truck threw a beer bottle at me. Caught up to them at the
light. Reached into the truck and turned off the ignition, grabbed the
key, and threw it into the grassy median. Then I got the heck out of
Dodge. :P

Stupid, but honestly, no regrets.

maxo said:

Teens in a truck threw a beer bottle at me. Caught up to them at the
light. Reached into the truck and turned off the ignition, grabbed the
key, and threw it into the grassy median. Then I got the heck out of
Dodge. :P

Stupid, but honestly, no regrets.

stupid or not...you rock!

--
Paul M. Hobson
Georgia Institute of Technology
..:change the words numbers
if you want to reply to me:.

"Robert S. Dean" wrote ..

Quoted message said:

So, today I went out on my long weekend ride, taking advantage of the
holiday. I covered 53 miles, which isn't too bad for me, but there's
work to be done before the first century <sigh>.

However, my question for the day is how often do riders have things
thrown at them by yahoos? I was out in southern Pennsylvania (Lancaster
County) and a group of three yahoos in an old red sports car spanged
what I deduce to be an empty beer/soda can off my front spokes. I
particularly enjoyed :-P the way they thoughtfully came by for a second
pass to see if I was still standing. I tried not to think too many bad
thoughts, but I must admit that I don't feel the world needs people like
that very much...

Rob Dean

I get a fair number of losers yelling at me to "get on the bike path" or
"get off the road". Most of the offending parties seem to be tourists and/or
rich kids driving Daddy's monster SUV. I've been told by the local sheriff's
office that this can constitute harassment or disorderly conduct, depending
on the exact circumstances. Might be fun to get a license number and vehicle
description and see if I can get them busted.

A few weeks ago, coming home from work around midnight, a large SUV
(Navigator/Suburban/similar) pulled along side me and pitched an egg at me.
I called the sheriff's office and filled out a report, mostly so that law
enforcement would know that this sort of behavior is going on around here. I
bought a can of Mace after this incident, and I now keep the cell phone and
a pencil and paper close at hand when I cycle after dark (which is most
nights, given my work schedule).
--
mark

Reporting an attack to the police might seem like the right thing to
do. I don't want to discourage anyone else from taking this course of
action, but do not be surprised if your local police do nothing.

Several years ago some yahoos threw garbage at me from their car on my
daily commute home from work. Enraged, I got their license number and
a description of the car. When I arrived home I called the police.

Several hours later two officers drove up. They ran the plate and
verified that the license belonged to a turquoise Mercury. They
listened to my story and were sympathetic.

While they were there, they did a safety inspection of my residence and
recommended that I upgrade my window locks. That tipped me off that
they thought this was too trivial for them to bother, and that they
weren't going to do anything about it.

Ron McKinnon said:

Robert S. Dean said:

However, my question for the day is how often do riders have things
thrown at them by yahoos?

About 15 years ago some guys in a van threw a half-eaten bag of chips at
me. It landed 10 feet ahead of my front wheel. To this day I don't know
why they threw out that perfectly good bag of chips. It must have been
galling to have missed me by so far and to have wasted their munchies
without the satisfaction of having hit anything. (I guess the ballistics
of chip bags are hard to judge at speed.)

Other than that the only thing hurled at me has been invective, and
that's lessened over the years. Either I look meaner than I used to, or
motorists are becoming more civilized around cyclists. 🙂

Maybe meaner 🙂 I had a driver, with one passenger cut me off on a
blind corner when I was riding in deep snow on the way to work. I was
just passing a primary school at the time. I yelled something like "You
IDIOT!" at them and they came at sliding halt ( I believe they tried to
do a screeching halt but that is difficult in 15cm of snow). By this
time I was off the bike and charging the car. They took one look at
me, hit the gas and spun off.

I have always suspected that they thought I was a kid from the school.
Being charged by an irate bearded middle-aged man seemed to take them
aback. Mind you I had no idea what I was going to do if I caught them.
John Kane
Kingston ON

John_Kane said:

I have always suspected that they thought I was a kid from the school.
Being charged by an irate bearded middle-aged man seemed to take them
aback. Mind you I had no idea what I was going to do if I caught them.
John Kane

LOL. I've often wondered what makes people who seemed so brash at first
back down all of a sudden when confronted.

--
Ron McKinnon ron.mckinnon
spam > [email hidden] at sympatico
http://www.magma.ca/~ronmck dot ca

In article <pan.2005.09.07.00.41.18.232730@for_email.ca>,

Ron McKinnon' see_sig@for_email.ca said:

John_Kane said:

I have always suspected that they thought I was a kid from the school.
Being charged by an irate bearded middle-aged man seemed to take them
aback. Mind you I had no idea what I was going to do if I caught them.
John Kane

LOL. I've often wondered what makes people who seemed so brash at first
back down all of a sudden when confronted.

Sheesh. Sounds like my dog. 15 lb. Jack Russell/Aussie Sheepdog, and it
lunges like crazy at any vehicle bigger than a pickup truck. I want to
break it of this behaviour, but I also have to wonder: what would it do
if it ever caught one?

My most notable recent incident was a few months back, when some lunatic
in a pickup passed me with barely any room, slammed on the brakes, and
then fingered me as he pulled into the McD's parking lot (no slander
meant on McDonald's here: I'm a happy patron of their coffee, hash
browns, and hot fudge sundaes, even if I have never forgiven them for
changing their apple pie from a fried item to a baked item). We then had
a heated discussion in which he explained he was mad because, well, I
had passed him in traffic a block back, and I told him (literally) that
I was not happy (mainly because I wanted to express my unhappiness to
this jerk, but without threatening him, because that's illegal, and
that's bad.)

Had I been more clever, I would have pointedly and calmly taken down his
license plate number, which generally makes people realize how much
trouble they're about to get into, especially when they realize that I
(ahem) don't have a license plate on my vehicle.

I also had an incident about a year back where someone nearly right
hooked me and then nearly plowed into an oncoming cyclist in one
smoothly executed motion, a play-of-the-week piece of bad driving. We,
strangers both, chased the driver down to get a plate number, and filed
police reports.

Given that we didn't have a driver description, the police allowed as
they would send a letter to the registered owner. I considered this a
satisfactory conclusion, since the goal is recognition and admonition (I
probably wag my index finger at a driver once a week, usually for the
sin of cutting me off: when you move at 40 km/h on city streets, that
seems to be outside of the approach speed parameters some drivers will
ascribe to bicycles), not vengeance.

-RjC.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Robert S. Dean said:

my question for the day is how often do riders have things
thrown at them by yahoos?

I get something thrown at me about twice a year. I've been hit by fruit,
eggs, lit cigarettes, garbage, water balloons, bottles and cans, spit,
and once by a shoe. I don't know why: I don't say anything to
car-drivers, I try to stay out of "their" way, I don't gesture at them,
look at them, or otherwise antagonise them, but something about me being
on a bicycle seems to light their fuze. The offender is usually a young
white male passenger in an old rattletrap sedan or mini-pickup.

--
"Bicycling is a healthy and manly pursuit with much
to recommend it, and, unlike other foolish crazes,
it has not died out." -- The Daily Telegraph (1877)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

However, my question for the day is how often do riders have things
thrown at them by yahoos?

I've had more thrown at me as a pedestrian than as a cyclist.

--
mac the naïf

"Ryan Cousineau" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sheesh. Sounds like my dog. 15 lb. Jack Russell/Aussie Sheepdog, and it
lunges like crazy at any vehicle bigger than a pickup truck.

Sounds more like a Jack Daniels Terrier.

On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 23:09:31 -0700, LioNiNoiL_a t_Y a h 0 0_d 0 t_c 0

m said:

Robert S. Dean said:

my question for the day is how often do riders have things
thrown at them by yahoos?

I get something thrown at me about twice a year. I've been hit by fruit,
eggs, lit cigarettes, garbage, water balloons, bottles and cans, spit,
and once by a shoe. I don't know why: I don't say anything to
car-drivers, I try to stay out of "their" way, I don't gesture at them,
look at them, or otherwise antagonise them, but something about me being
on a bicycle seems to light their fuze. The offender is usually a young
white male passenger in an old rattletrap sedan or mini-pickup.

the goal seems to be to inflict some kind of bodily harm. given the
vuneralbility of a moving cyclist, my personal reaction would be that
the person is attempting to seriously injure or perhaps kill me. i
would most likely draw my 9mm in such a case (back when i lived in the
US i packed daily).

Michael J. Klein & Asian Castings Consortium
[email hidden]
Yangmei Jen (Hukou), Taoyuan Hsien, Taiwan, ROC
Please replace mousepotato with asiancastings
---------------------------------------------

Mike Kruger said:

Quoted message said:

However, my question for the day is how often do riders have things
thrown at them by yahoos?

May 11, 1974, small hours of the morning, passing pukes tossed a beer
bottle and hit me square in the middle of my back.
Fortunately, for the one and only time in my life, I was riding with a
full-sized, fully loaded external frame backpack on. I'd been to school,
up a local mountain overnight, and then to work until late.
I still have the cook pots that bottle hit, and they still have the
dent. If not for the pack, that bottle woulda hurt.

Bill

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