I just had to give someone a lift across town. I rarely drive during the week and never at rush hour as I’m always on my bike. Doing my bit to ease congestion and keep fit etc etc….

Just before we hit town there’s a lovely long stretch between farmers fields with perfect visibility in all directions and sparse traffic. I moved out to go around a cyclist. Did the usual, back off a bit, move out, check nearside mirror before I move back over, move in.. hang on a second! When I checked my mirror he was giving me international sign language for masturbation!

For a split second I was outraged, then just perplexed. My passenger and I had no idea what I’d done to upset him. I know cycling to work can be a tense affair but I couldn’t ride around so highly strung. Unless he just does it to everyone. Imagine arriving at work in that mood. He probably gets to work every morning and tells everyone who’ll listen about the maniac that just nearly mowed him down in broad daylight. He must be a right laugh.

Did you clear the white line or did your exhaust just dump all over him??

It’s an outrage.

Maybe he was just shaking his small bottle of energy drink before taking a swig and you are being paranoid? 😉

Or maybe it was an invitation……

Get the bombers out

How confident are you that you gave him a wide berth?

No puddles about were there?

Do you have a BMW? 😉

Perhaps is was Gareth Hunt* testing some coffee beans ?

* OK so he’s dead but p’haps it was a wannabee.

Perhaps he was taking part in a retro-influenced guerrilla marketing campaign for Nescafe

You were to close to him. Yes I know think you weren’t but the best judge of that is the cyclist. Alternatively he could have personal space issues.

…and out will come all the other cyclists with bad attitudes to draw their own conclusions and criticise either you or him. 😉

Some cyclists people are just angry.

Last week I was driving along a piece of road where for about 1/2mile it was not safe for me to overtake 2 cyclists due to the narrowness of the road, clear visibility or cars coming the other way so i just kept a safe distance behind them until it was safe to do so. When i did eventually overtake one of them shouted at me for following them for too long!! Sometimes you just can’t win.

Was it this guy….

I was driving near Ingleton on a tight country lane with high hedges either side – came up to a sharp and totally blind corner, and gave a short beep on the horn to warn anyone coming the other way (I was taught to do this – someone will probably tell me I’m wrong). Drove round the corner slowly and there was a large group of cyclists who all started swearing their heads off and making rude gestures at me.

I can only assume they were indignant at being beeped at. Nobbers.

Are you sure it wasn’t just someone who knew you taking the opportunity to let you know what he thinks of you? So nothing to do with your driving.

I swore at four people on my ride in this morning. Two of them were cyclists. It’s Monday for ****’s sake! Nobody’s happy.

It’s Monday for ****’s sake! Nobody’s happy

This, still no excuse. Maybe he was fooled by yesterday’s barmy spring weather, and wasn’t suitably clothed for 2 degrees?

Do you have a BMW?

🙂

I was very much expecting a ruthless flaming for this thread but somehow I’m escaping so far. (fingers crossed!)

Just to give a sense of the geography this is a long, open road with a huge 8ft wide pavement separated from the road by a substantial kerb and a strip of grass. Said pavement has been divided in half with a painted green cycle path with little white bikes on it and everything. I know from experience it’s lovely and smooth and there’s no storm drains or pot holes to avoid. So he didn’t need to be mingling with the traffic if he has personal space issues. It doesn’t bother me where he rides I can he’s still easily avoided.

It just wound me up a bit because I’m a ‘cyclist’ myself and I deliberately give them a lot of room in order to not freak them out and give them a buffer zone for their own sometimes wayward technique. I’ve been on the receiving end of cars before and last year I was the victim of a hit and run when a car jumped through a give way line. That accident was very nearly the last thing I ever did.

EDIT: not a BMW sorry but just as elitist in my VW T5 with bike rack 😉 I just realised he should have seen the bike rack and known I was a bikeist!

I think that it’s someone that races you on your commute every day and he thought you were soft taking the van. 🙂

allthepies – Member

Perhaps is was Gareth Hunt* testing some coffee beans ?

* OK so he’s dead but p’haps it was a wannabee.
Gareth Hunt is Dead? NOOOOOOOOO! 😥

VW T5 with bike rack

problem solved.

Do you have a BMW?

+1 🙂

Maybe he was apologising for his slow progress by explaining he’d been up all night masturbating?

When it happens again.. Stop, let him pass and re-overtake, just to make sure he was making signs at you. 😉

Assuming that your idea of a “lot of room” is the same as his (i.e. you properly crossed into the other lane) then I’m guessing from your description that your backing off then accelerating hard to overtake may have been misinterpreted as just revving hard to make a point?

Was it this guy….

Is that CycleGaz? If it was him then he’d have been shouting out the numberplate. 😀

(by the way I’ve watched a lot of Gaz videos, he is a decent sort).

i generally find i’m more annoyed by someone reving hard if they’re behind me, but even then it sounds like you didn’t do that.
The run in that still annoys me is a BMW driver who cut me up to reach a traffic light first, but he justified his action because he was a cyclist as well and he didn’t understand me taking the lane there. (Most cyclists take the lane at this bit of road to try stop being squeezed into the barrier or cut up by knobends)

The short answer is that since nobody else on this thread was there then we can’t really say why it happened. Maybe the guy was just angry at the world in general? However, if it were me I would be wondering to myself why someone should spontaneously take offence at a car safely and considerately overtaking them.

..he didn’t understand me taking the lane there..

Seems to be a common justification. I don’t really understand that mindset: “I didn’t think you were entitled to use the lane properly, so I thought I’d run you off the road risking severe injury or death”

I’d love to find them and say “I didn’t think you were allowed to park there – so I’ve cut your brake lines.”

You were to close to him.

…and out will come all the other cyclists with bad attitudes

tricky one, driver is a cyclist so leaves what he considers a safe distance, something has irked the cyclist tho, cyclist could be a sociopath or could be that
cylist-driver’s safe distance=/=cyclist’s safe distance
which is soooo subjective, the only way to find out is stop and ask at the time but from experience I reckon that will make him defensive and some people’s defence is to attack first so you might just get a load of abuse or a slap for your trouble.
Or it could be the revving thing, TBH anytime I hear someone revving the nuts off their engine on a public road my immediate response is to think tosser (not saying that’s what you did)

Are you sure he was doing a rude jesture ? i often do a sort of gentle wave through when it is safe to overtake.

I make a point of giving an appreciative hand, wave, nod to people who I notice have waited and then overtaken with lots of space, I shout and gesticulate at those who nearly kill me, so it seems logical to acknowledge those who show me some consideration.

He was deff. giving the **** gesture? You never know, the guy before you might have nearly killed him and not bothered looking behind to appreciate the gesticulation. All [insert user of specific transport here] are the same and routinely stop to compare notes in their secret clubhouse after doing the special handshake, find the relevant driver and pass on the message…

Are you sure it wasn’t a Masonic secret handshake of some kind?

Maybe he was being attacked by a bee?

Fog lights on?

Presuming it’s a diesel, it’s sometimes difficult to see the big cloud of smoke from the exahust, maybe it’s smoking under acceleration and he thought you did it just to choke him?

Could also have been mistaken identity, I’ve ridden up beside a car and started to give a friend abuse before realising it wasn’t them before! That actually works both ways, passed a colleague in a soft top and shouted good natured abuse at him, he looked like he’d poo’d his pants when I shouted. Turns out he’d knocked a cyclist off that morning (50-50 accident) and thought they were coming back for a second go!

Maybe he was apologising for his slow progress by explaining he’d been up all night masturbating?

This.

As you drove past, did you spot him holding a lead with no dog on the end of it?

Gareth Hunt is Dead? NOOOOOOOOO!

Thank god it wasn’t just me who didn’t know that and NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO too 🙁

I bet he had some new Jumping beans, the toy ones….

I only say this as Little DrP was wandering along Chichester high street on Saturday, giving everyone the ‘5 knuckle shuffle’ sign, when all he was doing was shaking his Jumping beans……

DrP