[Closed] Altercations with motorists - what's your highest level?

There was the humorous one.
Land Rover Discovery squeezed past me through a pedestrian refuge, extremely unpleasant. I shouted some abuse and the driver stopped so I went to the door, still swearing. The driver was huge, I mean absolutely morbidly obese, spilling out of the seat and over the gear stick. I started laughing and the driver was yelling "don't swear at me" so I replied "what are you gonna do - effing' eat me?"

Glad the vast majority of my riding over the years has been done outside of rush hour TBH!

I've been on the end of it as a driver before. Just remember when your about to take somebody's head off that we all make mistakes sometimes. I'm a cyclist who has made mistakes while driving. Also a driver whos made mistakes while riding. Never have they been deliberate.

I also always remember the story of a mate who was driving in London a few years back. Had a bit of a road rage incident. Bloke in the other car pulled out a gun. He said sorry and drove to the nearest police station. Just have to remember there are some proper nut jobs out there. Is it worth it?!

Last year was the worst one for me, on return to the cafe from a club run and we had been split up at a roundabout so there was a group of 3 of us left behind, traffic was heavy so it was slow going just gently filtering our way through the town, honestly 5-10mph stuff asit was so busy, then I overtook one car and as I got in front of her the traffic started moving a little so I just stayed in front of her and behind the car in front, no drama nice and normal but I became aware of shouting from behind, took a quick look back to see an irate young woman literally bouncing up and down in the drivers seat with rage yelling profanities at me, as the traffic slowed again We came to a stop and I turned round and asked what she was going on about.

She started yelling "get back on The side if the f'in road where you f'in belong you f'in piece of shit" and a few other variants of the same, I was actually a bit stunned ecause I've not come across someone quite that upset about a cyclist before.

As the car in front moved off again she revved really hard and tried to go around me, but there was a car coming the othe way which beeped at her so she swerved towards me, I was still standing still at this point but in a spur of the moment 'you're driving a car at me reaction' I slapped her wing mirror, I still to this day don't know if it broke or not as I didn't see but she slammed on the brakes, stopped blocking both lanes to much hooting, jumped out of her car and came running over to me arms flailing and I'm not sure whether I'm proud or ashamed to say I just stood there getting punched in the face and slapped round the head by an angry woman, a few bystanders came over at this point and in between fits of yelling she pointed at me and uttered the immortal words " I don't know who you are but I'll find you you f'in ****" the jumped I. He car and wheel spin away to join the traffic. It was only as she sped off that I noticed she also had her screaming daughter in the car, she behaved like that in front of her kids!

Suffice it to say next hour or so was spent in the police station giving statement, they did eventually track her down from reg. number provided by witness, she made up some story about me riding erratically and then punching her wing mirror unprovoked and asked for them to charge me with criminal damage!

Fortunately several witnesses had also reported seeing the event and supported my side of the story so that went nowhere but she got away with an official caution in the end.

Took 3 weeks before my neck and jaw were right again after being punched by a woman, not my finest hour but shudder to think how her kids are going to grow up if that's normal for her.

On the humorous front, my drunken rides back to the station when I worked for one of the big 4 consulting firms (bit of a drinking culture to put it mildly) passed into legend. Once I ducked under a transit wing mirror and ran a red light. I never do it when sober but needed a wee 😉 Transit was mostly white with some blue bits and full of policemen.

After pulling me over, I was told 'you do know sir, it's an offence to be drunk in charge of a bicycle' to which i responded 'I'm not really in control of it'. Moment of silence followed by chucking in the van. They let me off but insisted I used the cycle path through the park.

Other time - Jag story reminded me - I was weaving between two lines of traffic on the mall outside buck palace and got caught on someone's wing mirror. Was high summer and he had his window open. I leant in - all beery fumes and bonhomie - and apologised profusely. He seemed very keen to be somewhere else 😉

I sort of miss commuting in London. Only not really.

Oh and not a motorist. but this altercation was brilliant: http://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=53 - funny how it went a bit viral and the lady in question was a very serious runner for the county. Made me feel a bit better about getting my arse handed to me 😉

Short version - threw my bike down in the middle of the road in front of a Golf and was screaming at the driver to "get out your car and fight me!". He declined.

I had a full on stand up fistfight with a bolshy builder type who was shit at driving. He looked surprised when the smartly dressed bloke stuck him on his backside.
It wasn't funny, in fact it was very, very stupid. It's highly likely that I had a lot more to lose than he did and it'll never happen again.
In fact, some bell-end went mental at me for no reason on the M5 yesterday. Laughing at the idiots makes them more angry so it seems.

Tried to talk to a Merc driver who had passed very close and fast on a country road just before a T junction onto a dual carriageway which he had to stop at.

He was very heated and as a result I didn't pay attention to my road positioning and nearly got killed on the dual carriageway. To give him his due it was he who shouted at me 'watch out!'.

I avoid anything other than B road riding like the plague now.

i have been told by to crazy women (in an audi) that they will kill me if they see me again, for being in what they think is their lane which took 4 sec out of the quality time they usually have at the red light, which is where i ended up next to them and the threats were made.
A few days later i found out they work for the company next to mine but guess they have not seen me since.

Left my bike blocking a womans car on a singletrack country road while I screamed at her through her passenger window. All the while her husband stared straight a head not saying a word.

The road was too narrow to overtake so she held the horn on for the best part of 200 meters. When questioned "WHAT THE **** DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING??" She replied "I wanted you to get out of the way". That's when the rest mist really descended. Not even sure what I was saying after that.

Some absolute pearlers here! Cheered me up this morning.

Just remember when your about to take somebody's head off that we all make mistakes sometimes

I think this is a good point. But, most of the aggression I face is from people who have not patience and don't like having to wait behind for a couple of seconds whilst I cycle in the middle of the road to prevent them passing.

I get exasperated with mistakes, but I understand that having done it myself.

It's the people who deliberately dish out aggro just because they think you are somehow less than they are, because you are on a bike. They piss me off.

I can't understand how they think that way. After all there's every chance I am also a motorist as well as a cyclist.

In fact, some bell-end went mental at me for no reason on the M5 yesterday

In fairness, you probably shouldn't have been cycling there.

I've used the 'F' word quite often, but mostly in a passive-aggressive sort of way.

Otherwise, I do shout at people for speeding when they are going in the other direction, in the hope that they will read my lips but not have any possibility of turning around and catching me. 😳

The road was too narrow to overtake so she held the horn on for the best part of 200 meters. When questioned "WHAT THE **** DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING??" She replied "I wanted you to get out of the way". That's when the rest mist really descended. Not even sure what I was saying after that.

I totally sympathise with you there. That kind of intellectual vacancy would probably push me over the edge.

@davidtaylforth, that's true. But I also think a lot of it is down to drivers not understanding what the cyclist is doing. Your example of ridding in the middle of the road is a classic. Used to wind my Mrs up until I explained to her why they do it. Now she's fine with it. Unfortunately do many drivers are not interested in listening to our point of view.

My scariest driving incident involved a road ridding group one Sunday morning. A nice long straight so decided to overtake. At which point they must have hit their strava markers do sped right up to a sprint. Also filling the nice gap half way down the line of them. Resulted in me having to break suddenly as I would not get past before the corner up in the distance...and yes there was a car coming round the corner. Got all sorts of things shouted at me. So like I said, there are idiots on both sides. Oh, and don't get me started on students ridding at night with no lights!

I've been keistering cassette rings to use as shuriken since I was a young 'un.

i got rammed a few years ago here in Munich.... pootling to the ice cream parlour, a lady was hugging the GF's tyre. i turned around, glared and shooed her away. on e the next bend she over took leaving not much more than a gnat's cock between her wing mirror and my handlebar.
this pissed me off.
caught her as she was turning onto the main road, i got in front and skidded to a stop about 5m in front of her(bear in mind, this was rush hour and lots of people around). i wanted to point out to her how close she has passed me. however, she thought that revving the engine, letting in the clutch and driving at me. fortunately i managaed to dive at just the right time.... the bike went flying across the road. i started smashing on her window until the GF told me to step away.
ended up taking her to a cash point and getting her to pay out or else i'd have her before the courts.... read all the details [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/i-got-attacked-with-a-car-yesterday-evening ]HERE[/url] if you want.....

have hit a few cars before in town, but always turned off before they could turn ther car around....

when guiding on Gran Can, we had one Austrian guide who was known to us as "Addi", as in Adolf. he was known as having a bit of a temper, but on the whole was a good guy.

one day he came back from a tour absolutely fuming.... turned out that his group had nearly been wiped out by some guy at a roundabout. he followed this guy (with his group in-tow) to a car park. he begun shouting at the guy in Spanish. when the guy stood there stuttering, obviously not understanding anything, Addi asked "Bist du Deutsch?", "Ja" came the reply. So Addi smacked him square in the face and floored the guy.
viewing his headcam footage was fun until we thought it better he get rid of the evidence...

I'm really not proud of altercations on the road. I tend to find being disinterested and shrugging at the angries on the road is the best response, although I've not always been like this.

Again, something I'm not proud of.

I had a guy wind down his window screaming at me for being held up in traffic. Proper foaming at the mouth type. I started edging ever closer to his car (we were both moving at a reasonable pace) as he was looking at me leaning out of his window yelling. He was too busy yelling at me to look where he was going, I almost edged him into the coming traffic island in a head on.

Full emergency stop. A split second later he would have hit it hard.

I'm not the malicious type and I felt super guilty about it afterwards.

I'm crap at this game..

Other than a raised hand and a dismayed look, with maybe an occasional ****er hand signal if someone passes tooo close, I tend to just get on with my day

she held the horn on for the best part of 200 meters. When questioned "WHAT THE * DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING??" She replied "I wanted you to get out of the way".

I was riding to work one morning when a bloke came up behind me on the approach to humpback bridge and beeped his horn. I ignored it. He overtook, saw the car coming the other way and side-swiped me into the gutter. He stopped while making unimpressed gestures/grunts, I rode round him. He sped up again so I hopped onto the pavement out of his way. He stopped his car and came running out, knocked me to the floor and punched in the head a load of times for 'kicking his car'.

I reported it to the police. He did too, went to a police station, said "there was a cyclist in the road. I beeped my horn but he didn't get out the way so I punched him". Police decided that with two witnesses and helmet cam (I was obviously asking for it!) footage that it wasn't serious so made him write me a letter saying "I'm sorry that we bumped into each other". That showed him.

Also got accused of slander by a lorry driver. 😆 I reported him to his company for a terrible overtake in the face of oncoming traffic. I only avoided being dragged under the back wheels of the trailer because I was paying attention. I was waving an arm and shouting "NOOOO" when I heard and saw the overtake start because I could see the oncoming car. I dived left as soon as the cab passed me. The company replied with something along the lines of "a difficult situation developed and Geoff dealt with it well by avoiding the oncoming car". This was a car doing less than 40mph, on a flat, straight road, in broad daylight. There was only a "situation" because the lorry driver overtook at a stupid time. I ended up stationary with my wheels against the kerb and the wheels of the lorry passing 6 inches to my right at 30+ mph.

He saw me on the same road a few weeks later and he wanted to sue me for slandering him to his company. I refused to give him my details but gave him my british cycling membership number and told him to speak to 'my' legal team if he had a problem. 😆

The ones that make me really angry are the ones that just show complete indifference. Bloke in a Range Rover barged past me with <1ft of space while cutting across to the left a couple of weeks ago. Then immediately hit the brakes for a red traffic light. I was next to him at the lights and tapped on the window to say "that was a bit close mate". He glanced at me and then went back to the middle distance stare dead ahead. I was next to him for 30 seconds or longer and he was just trying to pretend I wasn't there. If you've made a mistake then put your hands up and say "sorry". If you're a psycho then I can kind of understand the "get out the way maggot, I'll f*** kill you!" reaction. But the "I've just nearly killed someone. Meh. I didn't [i]actually[/i] kill him, what's he moaning about " response is just infuriating.

I must be the worlds most placid cyclist,

Fight you for it!

I'd never square up to a tonne of steel, life's too short.

When you're vulnerable it's just not worth it.

Driver of an Audi A3 and I exchanged words, I chased him through the village, then I turned off into the pub.

He'd stopped, and was chatting to my mates by the pub entrance. When I walked around, he got out the car and things escalated quite quickly.

He got a Police caution for assaulting me by pushing me through a hedge.

I've only ever lost it once since, when a car squeezed past me driving along a bus and cycle lane - the A52 for those that know Nottingham. He got some abuse and hand gestures. He then pulled into a side road, waited till I'd gone past and then repeated the manoeuvre.

I pulled over, sat down on the pavement and had a quiet 5 minutes wishing I'd got his number plate.

And there was also the time a passenger in a car on the A6 threw cans of Carling at me as well as a volley of homophobic abuse. I was more hurt by the grief I got on here afterwards for suggesting that I had brought it on myself by riding a road bike and wearing lycra! 😐

in scenarios like that the likelihood of an escalation that could work out very badly for me is infinitely higher than that of an apology, or some realisation or acknowledgement of crap driving or general bell-endery.

Edit: Second closest to physical contact was a van driver who overtook me through a small roundabout and swiped me off it (we were both going straight, he used the right turn only lane to get next to me, then carried me off the RAB and tried to fight me for hitting his van).

And third closest was a guy who was perfectly civil out of his car, but didn't like me filtering. I stopped in front of him in a queue at a roundabout. He then drove about a foot behind me. My right heel was hitting his front passsenger side bumper as I pedalled. He didn't back off until i booted the front of his car. There was no room for me to pull over and let him through, and if I'd braked he would have hit me.

I pulled into a layby 100m up the road to let him through. He pulled over too. He was annoyed because he'd left the gap in front of his car for the learner driver that he was following, not for me. So I shouldn't have taken the space. So he tried to physically push me off the road 😕

Just a note - for all you heros that give someone a kicking, it does work both ways.

I was driving to a race and was royally cut up by someone in an X5. Got to a set of lights, jumped out my car with track pump in hand (god knows what I thought I was going to do with it) only to be faced by a veritable man mountain getting out the X5. He looked at me, I looked at him - he gave me the universal sign for 'come on then' and I responded with the universal sign for 'clearly there has been some mistake here sir, I'm going to return to my vehicle and hide behind the steering wheel until you go on your merry way'. He smiled and replied 'yeah, thought so'. I felt a bit silly.

The times where I have lost it, I've always deeply regretted it afterwards. Especially when the bloke I was about to get stuck into apologised over and over again until I just felt like a knob for shouting.

These days I just shout to let someone know I'm there and if they get wound up then its their problem. I'd rather get home in one piece than get 'shanked' because I was in the right.

brooess - Member

Never got into a full argument - the beauty of being on a bike is that you can get away from idiots faster than they can run

At traffic lights, I once banged the side of a car - can't remember why now - and the driver shouted at me not to because his kids were in the car. So far, so normal, but he got out of the car to have a fight, I edged forward down the queue of traffic. He followed, still ranting. I edge forward again, he followed and then realised I could play a game. How far could I lure the driver away from his car before the lights changed. All the way down into the middle of the junction, it turned out. About 10 cars, from memory. Great dad, leaving his car and kids abandoned so he could fight. 😆

Those of you that resort to violence does it only happen on a bike or are you up for fisticuffs in non cycling situations?
Been knocked off a few times and always too shook up to do anything about it. Close calls I just call them rude names and cycle off.

Which reminds me - I had a bloke yell 'what sort of f'kin example is that to set you ****t' after I'd jumped up onto the pavement to get out the way of some traffic (I was completely in the wrong to be fair). Which would have been a fair point had he not had his kids in the back. Obviously poor riding should be dealt with but colourful language is fine

Just a note - for all you heros that give someone a kicking, it does work both ways.

I think you're probably right. Although it's possible to have a good idea who's gonna give you a hiding by the car they're driving I think.

THe last chap I had a proper word with the other week was in a new ford fiesta - definitely not a hard mans car. Passed way too close and then had to stop for a bus so I caught him.

Tapped on his window (which he wound down) and I told him he shouldva given me more room:

"well, you shouldn't be cycling in the middle of the road then"

"I'm David Taylforth; I cycle where I want"

See ya, bye.

I suspect the internet means the stories are embellished

Worst one i had a truck fail to give way at one of those traffic calming measures and as there was no escape route i had to cut across him and they were forced to slam on.

They then got out and shouted at me. I pointed to the sign saying they had to give way they called me nasty names and said they would kill me. I suggested we run around his truck till you have a heart attack you fat bastard. this did not calm the situation, I then cycled off

I've had my usual share of incidents on the bike and in the car, and i've never hit anyone or been hit - yet! But it has got very very close at times, and i'm not proud of it. On the bike I have made a conscious effort to try (emphasis on 'try' - it doesn't always work) not to overreact to smaller stuff like close passes. I give a shake of the head or opened palmed 'what was that?' gesture, which being less offensive I think helps to stop it escalating. As the vulnerable party on a bike, i'm (to a point) happy to let stuff go so I don't get involved in something where I can easily get hurt, like being rammed by a car. If I do shout I try not to swear, again thinking it helps not to escalate, and tend to do it if I have an escape route!

I recently had a car road rage incident where the guy pulled in and confronted me face to face calling me a c**t many times and threatening to hit me many times. I didn't swear at him or threaten him in return, but was ready to defend myself if necessary, and I didn't back down on him being totally in the wrong. The point was that as much as I wanted to hit him and as close to rage as I was, I knew it would be a brief satisfaction with long term consequences. And it's worth remembering that. Having a record/caution for assault would not be good for my employment prospects, nor probably for my relationship either.

I think that in incidents which have caused injury or very near misses, shock is the prevailing emotion and sheer self-preservation is what matters. In this way road rage is a kind of luxury, because nobody is injured and people have the space to vent their anger. All easier said than done though!

It amuses me how laughing at irate motorists often makes them explode with rage, so I do, every time the opportunity presents itself! Also sticking your tongue out at them has a similar effect, or blowing a kiss to a WVM or some tracksuited yob.

I've claimed a number of wing-mirrors on the roadie by way of retribution, but these were deliberate retributive acts, not emotional reactions. The one time the red mist came down was the kicking I dished out to the driver who knocked me off my old Vespa. He'd cartwheeled me over the bonnet but I wasn't hurt much, and before he'd even so much as opened his drivers door I'd done it for him, and then dished it out to him while he sat in his car whimpering. I'm not in the least bit sorry.

One of the other lads here got knocked off once - picked up his bike, wheeled it to the side of the road, went to talk to the driver who was still sat in his car but had wound his window down, and knocked him spark out. Then got back on his bike and rode off!

If all drivers knew that this is what potentially awaits them if they knock someone off then cars might be driven more considerately! Not everyone's in a position to dish it out though. Sadly.

If all drivers knew that this is what potentially awaits them if they knock someone off then cars might be driven more considerately! Not everyone's in a position to dish it out though. Sadly.

😀

I don't think I'd be comfortable "dishing it out" to someone who'd knocked me off my bike though. The last time I got knocked off my bike was by a youngish woman who I think saw me but decided she had time to make the turn.

Genuine error; she was clearly upset. She also hung around for the police to turn up, whilst a nice shop keeper came out and mopped up my blood for me. It was all very civilized.

Yes, it depends upon the circumstances of course - and the contrition shown by the offender. In both of the examples I gave above myself and my colleague kicked off out of sheer indignation, because while we'd been bowled over the road, managed to get to our feet and approach the vehicles, the drivers hadn't deigned to so much as open their bloody doors!

a long long long time ago i had a swearing/cutting up battle with a Post Office van driver around the one-way system in Norwich, can't remember how it started but it went on for quite a while, aided by the fact it was a van with a sliding driver's door left open so insults were free and easy to exchange

the driver took the opportunity of me slowing down a bit to turn right to where i needed to get to by jumping out of his van (again, sliding door helping matters here) haul me off my bike and before i know it have me by the neck up against the wall, feet off the ground

i remembering thinking that things hadn't gone well

there was more shouting but luckily the rapidly forming crowd saw him cease his actions and get back into his van, whilst i got the names of willing crowd members as witnesses

a strongly worded letter to the Post Office followed and then a knock on the door some weeks later by the van driver asking for me to tell his employees that he didn't need to lose his job over his actions, i declined his request being young and full of hate and somehow my house wasn't fire-bombed or have any dog turds posted through the letterbox

i've had plenty others, but that's prob the best

Thankfully I've not had many, only one really stands out

Older bloke - 60 if i had to guess in a Passat. I was filtering up the inside and he deliberately edged over to trap me between his car and curb.

This pissed me off a bit. I think I shouted "Hey". He crept along for a bit right against the curb even though the traffic ahead had started moving again.

So I rode round him on the outside and of course he sped up as soon as I got alongside matching my speed so I couldn't get back in

This was all completely daft on my part as out sprinting an accelerating car on a Specialized Stumpjumper FSR that I was on that day was never a good idea. We exchanged shouts and gesticulations for about 100 metres before we both had to brake hard for the queue of traffic ahead and I got back behind him. As the traffic sped back up again I stayed behind him and didn't try to pass him again. This didn't stop him brake checking me though as the traffic started getting up to speed again.

Anyway on reflection it was pretty stupid of me to try and pass him. If I'd succeeded I'd have just had an angry arsehole driver behind me instead of in front

Still I've no idea to this day what I did to make him want to trap me against the curb in the first place

Only notable incident was being knocked off by a car turning across me *as it passed* into a parking space. No indicator, no obvious attempt to actually really get passed. Ended up with bike stuck in passenger door and me across bonnet. Large angry man got out spitting insults and tried to lamp me. I danced around a bit, guy in the following car got out and tried to calm situation, bloke smacked him, fella produced CID badge. Didn't end well for him I was told.

And here I was thinking about cycling to work a couple of times a week.

Some of the stories in this thread are terrifying 😯

zippykona - Member

Those of you that resort to violence does it only happen on a bike or are you up for fisticuffs in non cycling situations?

Well, you could run an experiment couldn't you? (But from a driver's POV.)

Find a huge queue at the checkout in the supermarket. Barge to the front, possibly with a bit of pushing. See what happens. Probably depends on the shop, or even the town, but it probably won't take long before 'fisticuffs' are introduced.

Walking along a pavement towards another pedestrian? Barge into them, shouting get out of my effing way. Again, see how long it takes before manners disappear.

It's just that when cars are introduced then people think a different set of manners apply.

I was hit a few months ago.

I tried to be angry, but to be honest, I was in shock, then just very sad/disappointed that my bike was broken.

To be fair the guy was nice and also shocked. Admitted fault, drove me home and paid for the bike to be fixed.

Other than that, close calls are dealt with by head shaking or an open palmed "wtf" gesture. Don't think I'd ever end up in a fight...

Well, you could run an experiment couldn't you? (But from a driver's POV.)

Find a huge queue at the checkout in the supermarket. Barge to the front, possibly with a bit of pushing. See what happens. Probably depends on the shop, or even the town, but it probably won't take long before 'fisticuffs' are introduced.

Walking along a pavement towards another pedestrian? Barge into them, shouting get out of my effing way. Again, see how long it takes before manners disappear.

It's just that when cars are introduced then people think a different set of manners apply.

That's an odd post.

Overtaking is a common concept on the road. Are you suggesting that those not in a car shouldn't be doing it?

I had a minor one on Sunday, riding through heavy traffic in Bury and there is a Lamborghini around making a lovely burbling noise so of course everyone is looking at the supercar. Driver in the outside/right turn lane is obviously too busy looking at the Lamborghini to bother getting into the straight on/left hand lane til its too late, so simply turns into me in the left hand lane.
I shouted "oi, f- off" and he stopped and went off on one about me swearing at him. I pointed out that he had almost driven over me, but that seemingly wasn't as important as his being sworn at. He offered to get out and knock me out so I responded with "that's fine, lets do that. This (points at bike computer) has a camera, so we can take it to the police can't we?"
All said in a normal tone of voice, as soon as a camera was mentioned he shut up & drove off.
Of course, my GPS hasn't got a camera but the mere idea was enough to defuse the situation without any more shouting or any silliness.

There does seem to be a general school of thought that, as a cyclist you are not worthy of a single iota of thought or courtesy from some drivers.

I got called a "white c**t" (apologies to the mods for filter avoidance, but it's relevant) by a delivery van driver who was upset that I shook my fist at him (literally all I did) when he pulled out on me and almost knocked me off. I then took a photograph of his number plate and him on the phone when he stopped at the red light 50m up the road, he was even more upset at that and got out of his van and squared up to me so I calmly got off my bike with it inbetween us and told him to calm down until he got back in his van and drove off. He hadn't seen the reason for my calmness which was the policeman on the pavement on the other side of the junction who I then went and spoke to who took a statement from me and the driver of the car behind him at the junction.

He didn't bother turning up to court when he was charged with racially aggravated assault, was found guilty and fined £600, made to pay a £100 victim surcharge, given 6 points and given 200hrs of community service. In his interview (carried out at 3am after the police picked him up at home 30 mins earlier) which was read in court he denied calling me "white" and instead suggested that he had called me "British" - the magistrates suggested that in their opinion this was still racial assault.

Given that I still haven't received the £100 victim surcharge almost 2 years later I would be surprised if he's done his community service (he certainly hasn't paid the fine as I'd get any money he paid first).

I've been forced to jump off the bike twice by drivers pulling in without looking. Both times I got very shouty, once the driver shouted back, the other time they looked like death and were very apologetic. After this I vowed to try to take a different approach.

This was tested last Thursday when I was doored, had to swing into the road and *just* brushed the corner of the car door with my shoulder, very, very close.

I swore and blasphemed loudly into the air. Took a second, and calmed. I asked the lady to promise to me she would always check her mirrors in future. She looked genuinely mortified and I think I may have actually done some good.

It's difficult not to go postal when you've come so close to a very nasty accident.

Slight diversion, but Golf rage is another. I used to ride with a guy who was a big lad with a short fuse. We were on a common that has a golf course as well as bridleways and public footpaths. Suddenly this golf ball whistles right past my mates head. He pulls over and shouts at the golfer who starts mouthing off at him, "I shouted 4 you idiot" etc (from a distance). Anyway I lit the fuse when I pointed out that on Sunday afternoons golf is not permitted. He went sprinting over, demanding an apology and for him to get off the course. The guy wouldn't apologise or leave, so my mate grabbed his bag, tipped it out and broke all his clubs over his knee while shouting 'you might be next'. The guy was on his hands and knees begging not to be hurt, even trying to pay him not to hurt him!