[Closed] Angry/Violent walker incident. What would you have done?

Hmmmm ... I do believe there is a need for diplomacy skills and I reckon only blokes need it.

Seriously guys - you're all far too quick to react in an aggressive manner rather than attempting to diffuse a situation.

you're all far too quick to react in an aggressive manner rather than attempting to diffuse a situation.

more than happy to talk calmly to an irate rambler and be all sweetness and light.

As soon as anyone tries to hurt me/push me off a bike etc they are going to have a very very angry taz on their hands

You did the right thing mate. If that'd been me I reckon it'd have been 50/50 that I'd have lumped him

Just turn the other cheek and smile at them and say sorry i got you wet and then ride off into the sunset. That i find so upsets them. its just not worth the effort.
Flock

Hmmmm ... I do believe there is a need for diplomacy skills and I reckon only blokes need it.
Seriously guys - you're all far too quick to react in an aggressive manner rather than attempting to diffuse a situation.

It's the caveman in us, we can't help it 😆

 

You're all so darn defensive. 🙄

From memory, I've only had 'words' with one walker, a female being bloomin' awkward.

Much easier to be smiley and greet everyone on the trails. Heaven knows, we need a PR offensive.

Tazzy when he gets his grrrrrrr on.
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I've nearly thumped a few mtb'ers in my time 👿 .....not so many walkerists.

I think this was a definite case, as has been said above, that they may have thought we were kids.

Usually I do have, or consider myself to have a short fuse, and often when I read threads on here about people getting into altercations with drivers and the like I think I would flip out and level someone, just like everyone above has said. But on this occasion, well I suppose in the split second I knew I had the physical advantage, I also knew the outcome would have been very very bad, both for me getting arrested, and for him getting hospitalized.

I admit that when I "got up in his grill" so to speak I was on the edge almost foaming at the mouth, but I caught myself on quickly. He wasn't backing down verbally, but he was clearly thinking more of it.

I'm not proud of this btw, as I probabably should have stopped once I saw them obstruct my mate, but that would have been complete capitulation to sheer ignorance.

I'd like to thing I'd be calm and gentle, but anything directed at mates doesn't sit well with me. Not bothered(ish) if it's aimed at me though.

LOL at Rorshach - that behaviour is actually where the nickname came from. 😀

i like to think i would have acted with restraint, but i do have a bit of temper at times, if provoked, well done .

I also like to think I'd be nice and calm.......wouldn't want to waste energy with a wild swing, a calm and accurate shot is much better - besides I'm not fit enough to go wasting energy

Sounds like you handled the situation very well. Chapeaux!

IME theres a big difference between posturing/reflex aggressive responses + actual violence thats at risk of escalating. Giving people who do the former chance to realise they've behaved stupidly + offering them an exit strategy, is way better than responding in kind. The latter is thankfully pretty rare + a different kettle of fish.

Should have sat them both down in the stream, watching them waddle off with wet rses would have been priceless. 🙂

You did the right thing, but I'll bet they've told a different story in the Working Mens / Social Club this evening...

Give them a Chinese burn and then run away

Well done I have had similar experience from a particulary unpleasant short fat bald middle aged dog walker on a cycle track
When I stopped and rode back to him after his verbal he was being a complete **** and threatened to push me off my bike if he saw me riding 'here' again !
I retorted that just because he was short fat and bald don't take it out on me and if he pushed me off my bike he would be f#*!!!!!g wearing it.
Although to be honest ain't worth getting killed over take the high ground ride on and be the better person

Hopefully 🙂

Difficult isn't it? Say you'd resort to violence and you're the bad man. Try to diffuse it and your a nancy boy or at worst, a victim.
In all my years martel arts training, the following has been drummed into me, and in turn by myself when instructing. Firstly try to avoid the situation. Secondly try to get away from the situation. Thirdly, if the first two are not an option and the aggressor is already at the stage of physical assault, use whatever it takes to make sure you'll be ok. By this I do mean physically hurt them.
You could argue that you could have done no1, however I reckon by the time you'd stopped you were at stage 3. I'm sure I wouldn't have been brave enough to talk them down.

Arseholes are arseholes. Nothing you can do or say will change them. Get on with a good life, leave them in their angry self righteous self appointed world of petty mediocrity...

Never experienced a walker deliberately altering their path to get in my way, not sure what I'd do. The worst I've experienced are people who's faces obviously contort when you give them a cheery hello as you pass, which is just amusing. If it happened on a bridleway/multi user etc, guess I'd probably confront them and try to make them understand I'm just as entitled to be there as they are. Not sure if that's possible in the heat of the moment against a person prepared to try and knock you off your bike. I'm not sure how you deal with people like that, but like someone says, violence will only re-enforce their prejudice.

*round of applause for the charlie*

I got up in his face as it were

Classic

You did the right thing.

I agree with whoever made the point about many walkers confusing kids on bikes with actual mountain bikers. I do think a lot of the older more militant walkers can't tell the difference which is why they often come across so condescending and self-righteous.

Too true about cycling gear not helping here- I know 100% that if they saw me on the street in Manchester or sat next to me on the bus or whatever they for sure would be keeping their opinions to themselves.

I think shop-bought cakes are alright actually, and good value for money.

It's a lot of work to produce anything like that, home-made, so you might as well save yourself the hassle and buy one from a shop.

I'd have run him through with my duelling cane.

I really wish I could say that I would've reacted as you did, but I reckon I would've gone feral on him.

Good point actually- I might take a pair of white gloves with me out riding and if I ever get into a verbal argument with any walkers or trail users I will just slap them in the face with the gloves and challenge them to a dual, see what they make of that

I agree with whoever made the point about many walkers confusing kids on bikes with actual mountain bikers. I do think a lot of the older more militant walkers can't tell the difference which is why they often come across so condescending and self-righteous.

I'd have got out my 5mm, undone the stem and brake calipers, slid out the steerer and taken ownership of him with my marzocchis.
not really, if I were in your shoes, I'd have weed in his.

Good point actually- I might take a pair of white gloves with me out riding

so do i, but i use the power of mime to make them see the error of their ways

Sounds like a lot of sanctimouns twaddle. If someone hits you you have the right in law to self defence. I stand by what I said. And as far as having someone push your wife off her bike and turn the other cheek? I would stand up for my wife or children and not let them get pushed around. Sometimes you have to stand up and be counted.

I'd have dunked the tosser in the stream if he'd assaulted me in that manner.(acting purely in self defence, if he's lying in the water he can't attack me again)
Finishing his walk wet and cold might make him think twice about doing it to someone else. It might also have sent a message to his buddy to stop them ganging up on me.
That would have been my 1st thought in that situation. Neutralise the threat, then manage the situation.

I probabably should have stopped once I saw them obstruct my mate

I was thinking this as well and I think this is what you're really asking. I'd have probably let them pass then questioned why they blocked the trail like that. But this is easy to say in hindsight.
Being an enduro (motorbike) rider, where access is being reduced, poitive PR is everything.
Mountainbikers have nothing to gain from confrontation and everything to lose.

I had something similar a few years ago in the Pentlands. Someone who didn't understand Scottish right of ways law giving me and two others grief for being on the same trails as him, then he made the unfortunate threat to put his walkers stick (please note - NOT a walking stick) through any of our spokes if we went near him (we hadnt even been close and he had tried to block one of the guys I was with). I pointed out that he had actually walked in front of my friend and that he was in the wrong, he lifted his stick above the ground. I saw this as a threat and informed him that if he didnt back off not only would he not put his stick through my spokes but he would no longer be able to use it for walking unless he could guide it from his arse. One of his companions spoke to him and they walked away.

Its unfortunate when things like this happen, many walkers have a great attitude towards bikers, i have had people holding gates etc open for me throughout trails in Scotland and England but its very rubbish when you get the occasional idiot that seems to want to cause trouble (bikers can unfortunately cause issues at times as well). In the main I ignore it but sometimes they just need taken up on their attitude. You did well just to get away from this person by the sounds of it.

You certainly did the right thing even if your account does read a little like an 18th century travel story! Where was your sword at the time?

As a matter of interest what was the "mixed use" trail? Was it a footpath or a bridleway?

I've never had such an unpleasant incident. Apart from the odd rude comment the worst I can recall is some ghastly hag of a woman screeching "you're meant to get off!" at me and my family as we rode past her walking group on a wooden bridge on a former railway line. We weren't mean to get off; we were meant to give way to walkers as instructed by the notice at each end of the bridge.

[Devil's advocate] Mixed use trail, so that's a trail where us cyclists should give way to walkerists or at the very least not impeed or intimidate. You on a mild down slope but about go up a steep one so presume you were carrying max potential speed to carry you up the oncoming hill. Path is "only" 5ft wide and you were going through a stream for max splash potential. Put yourself in their shoes - could your actions have seemed intimidating or at least a bit presumptuous that they should be stepping off the path or slowing down to give you room? [/Devil's advocate]

As a cyclist I'm only too willing to get out of the way of other cyclists when I'm walking as I know what a pain it is to loose momentum but I guess not everybody feels the same. Could have been issues with other cyclists earlier had wound them up. A month or two ago I was [s]wasting a perfectly good afternoon[/s] doing a family walk around Rutland on a similar sounding path shared between cyclist and walkers. It was so busy the tension in the air was palpable as the throngs of cyclists hell bent on travelling along at road speed were getting wound up by the walkers in their way and the walkers were all getting very frustrated and twitchy with wanting to walk next to each other and talk but constantly having to look behind them for cyclists then squashing over to get out of the way. I could easily have seen a bit of vigilante action happening on either side.

Not trying to justify their actions, just maybe trying to understand. You did the right thing by riding away without violence.

Njee - I agree. Im not a very nice person. Thats the problem here - these idiuots do stuff like that without thinking about who they are doing it too. Anyone puts their hands on me and thats a real no no. I aint no keyboard warrior either. I also dont think being a nice person all the time solves very much.

Not [url= http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=rugeley&hl=en&ll=52.749571,-1.976477&spn=0.001841,0.005284&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=14.745606,43.286133&vpsrc=6&hnear=Rugeley,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=18 ]here[/url] by any chance?

the problem with your reaction, and i'm not excusing the walkers by any means, is that it concerns me who they might run into next, are they equally capable of looking after themselves?

and i wouldn't have splashed the guy. high moral ground and all that.

There was a time that I would have retaliated...as has been mentioned, you can imagine the negative spin. Big respect to you for commanding the moral high ground and thus perpetuating that MTBers are indeed an intelligent species.

As they reflect upon their immature actions, they will suffer as they experience social defeat 😉

Not responding makes the accuser look pathetic

I would have totally ignored them and continued on as if nothing had happened.

I stopped for a walker once on a narrow BW, it turned into a slanging match where he threatened to put me in the cells but he didnt have his Police warrant card , I often see him about and always am overly nice to him, it really really p155es him off.

Thing is, most walkers / horseists are really nice folk.

I ALWAYS TRY TO BE NICE TO EVERYONE

Chutney13 is exactly right.

What I would try to do is ask in a non-sarcastic, non-threatening way "what's the problem?" then let them rant for a bit until they have got is out of their system, then ask if they know what the "rules" are (bridleway use etc), then explain what might be polite and helpful ("even though you are walking if it is easier for you to move then couldn't you just do that?") - obviously this will have zero impact on them at that moment for fear of losing face, but it might make them act different in the future.

If I end up getting more confrontational in situations like that I almost always feel bad after, but if I try to stay calm/happy then I don't.

It's also quite fun to become more calm/reasonable in inverse proportion to their anger.

However, being pushed does cast a different light on things - tricky.

(edit: clearly all this also depends on how big and ugly they are. First rule - discretion is the better part of valour.)

"Elmo - Member
I've had similar incidents around the Wrekin in Shropshire."
The wrekin is a interesting one very few rights of way for anyone, but the owner has a openly "use it and look after it" approuch to access. Now there have been some instances of bikers not really playing the game (high speed down some of the main walkers up routes on a sunday morning....its going to be busy.. come on.)
There was a raft of walkers comlaining in the local paper a while back that something should be done. The owner replied that if "everyone" didn't get on he'd shut the place down. Top marks i think.

Maybe he was splashed as a baby and you evoked some deep down emotional outburst, perhaps you should of given him a hug rather than being aggressive. Everybody hurts sometimes.