[Closed] Dealing with a neanderthal who's ready to punch you?

Sorry to hear that OP. Hope you’re okay and try not to dwell on it. Some people are just dicks. Younger me would’ve hit him repeatedly before he had chance to hit me. Nowadays I would just laugh and walk off unless he hit me first. Don’t know which way it would go then. I’d like to think I’d walk away, but doubt I would if I’m being honest with myself.

I had a bloke pretend to swing at me, who stopped when I didn’t move an inch. He seemed a bit puzzled by my lack of being bothered. He ranted at me, even told me that he’d broken all his knuckles punching. That was the point I started laughing at him and told him I’d put him in touch with someone who could teach him to fight properly. Didn’t help! No violence occurred though. 😁

I'd have been up that bridleway in a flash. If he'd swung I'd be in no position to give it anything.

I can't fight my way out of a paper bag but I'm a stubborn sod when I feel I'm in the right... and probably not going to get the absolute crap kicked out of me.

This has meant being hit a few times in earlier life, so more fool me tbh. These days I prefer the long game or just forgetting about the incident.

He's local and known?.... Stealthier vengeance is my preferred option. I'm not condoning it though.

Best option is to have a camera fitted to be honest. Can have amazing effects on a guy that needs his licence to make a living.

Stealthier vengeance is my preferred option. I’m not condoning it though.

My mind has been in overdrive on that one!

No patio needed I assure you.

My mind has been in overdrive on that one!

Try and forget about it. He’s not worth your time or energy.

That being said you should hammer frozen sausages in to his lawn, wee in his shoes or own him with a pair of bombers.

Sign up loads of email accounts and get his Trust Pilot score down to zero...

I'd have decked him then thrown him in his own skip. Or legged it. Actually yeah, I'd have legged it

Walk away, it's not worth it.

I'd only resort to violence now if I had no other choice by being backed in a corner, or if I felt my family were being compromised.

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Fight or flight. Be clear in your own mind which is your plan and stick to it.

If you choose flight, don't be there. If you choose fight, unless you're really good, don't go for the gallant let them throw the first punch BS. If you're certain it's going physical and you're out of options, go in first, hard and fast and accept that you're going to get hurt.

Also, don't use fists, fingers and knuckles are easily broken.

Y’ mean you don’t carry a taser?

🛸💁

I'd definitely have knocked him out.

Knocked him out with the shock wave from my speed-of-sound retreat, that is.

Point to his feet and tell him is shoe lace is undone when he looks down hit him as hard as you can grab the bike and bolt 🤣

I'd have left, the kind of person who behaves like that probably has more experience fighting than me.

The last two people to do it to me have had a call from the police shortly after. Call 101 (or 999 if in progress). I know one lost his licence and got a hefty fine - probably hurt more than a few bruises.

toomba
Member
Point to his feet and tell him is shoe lace is undone when he looks down hit him as hard as you can grab the bike and bolt

And the chain drops.😄

You did the right thing op.
Your life’s worth more than rolling around fighting some pillock.
He’s probably boring his mates with it right now, in whatever flat roofed pub he frequents.

I have learnt a lesson today that I'm going to stop shouting at drivers when I take issue with their driving. Unless you are prepared to actually go down the fisty cuff route (which isn't me) then I've concluded don't put yourself in that situation.

Still, it would be nice to know how to handle yourself and feel confident should a situation arise where you don't have a choice but to tackle an aggressive driver.

If you are wearing road shoes then you could be Floyd mayweather and you'd still have found yourself on your arse.

Depends who it was..someone I know who is reasonably handy..off I trot.

Some random angry middle aged bloke who may think he's hard but 99% chance isn't.. I'd probably stick around and see what happens. In fact I have on a number of occasion out of sheer stubbornness ..and it's either turned out they are all bluster and never actually intend to throw a punch, or the only time someone actually took a swing at me they missed by a long way..because basically most folk aren't remotely useful in a fight (myself included).

You can however tell someone that is proper handy I reckon..they have a certain look about them. And i wouldn't be sticking around if that was the case. Same goes for angry yoofs ready to give you a kick in.

Is he self employed or does he work for a company? If it’s the latter then why not ring up his boss and complain that one of his employees tried to violently assault someone.

It can be a soul destroying realisation that you were scared. But think of it as a natural and instinctive self preservation response.
You recognised this person as being the type who can use his hands, so already you would have most likely come off worse because you were intimidated as soon as you recognised him.
If you were mentally and physically ready to fight then you would have felt that heat between your ears and been aware of the dense thuds of your hands, elbows and feet impacting on his head and upper torso ... they seem to have a life of their own when you are truly ready to fight, and it takes greater effort/control to not fight than to actually fight. Don't be angry after you've been afraid.

Just curious how many people would have held their ground and actually waited until he swung and then given it their best?

Posted 1 hour ago

Internet answers will be very different to real life answers . As has been said if you are in road SPD shoes you have zero chance . Don't start a war if you have to ask the price of a tank .

Nah, the next day he'll be in his skip lorry looking for people on bikes and it may be you or someone else he decides to drive at. Phone the police and get it registered

If you choose to engage in that sort of situation there is no good outcome.

When I find myself getting worked up at stuff like that I try to meditate on the fact that I've allowed some random act by an itinerant arsehole to negatively influence my state of mind.

Everyone has a plan til they get punched in the mouth

M Tyson.

Best advice I can give is to make a mental note of their registration and which company the vehicle is from then get away from the situation. When you can do safely, phone the company and tell them what happened, they have a duty under the Operator's License conditions to investigate. It's all you can do really.

Reminds me of something that happened to me a while ago now. Got cut up by a delivery van while cycling into work one morning, not one of the big boys but a small company with just their name on the side. Did what I said above and just tried to find a phone number but no joy so just tried to forget about it. Around 11 am I got a call from the front office to go down to the delivery yard and meet a delivery to accept it and escort the van off the premises (secure compound with vehicle trap, this is important). Lo and behold it was the same van that had cut me up earlier! Took the delivery off him without any mention of the morning incident and told him to wait at the gate while I got the front office to open it for him to leave. What I did was go to my boss's office and tell him the story from the ride into work. He rides motorbikes so doesn't like bad drivers, he phoned down to the front office and told them to let the van into the vehicle trap but not out. It took him 10 minutes before he phoned the front office asking why he wasn't being let out so he was told why. He started ranting and yelling so we left him there a little longer. Then we had a phone call from the guy's dispatcher asking what the hold-up was. My boss passed the phone to me and I explained everything to the dispatcher. Cue a few apologies and then the driver having to phone in and apologise to me! We then let him out, he'd been stuck there for nearly 40 minutes. He actually still delivers to us occasionally and every time he's really quiet and avoids me if he can.

Sometimes karma can be lovely.

Sadly he owns said skip company so not point ringing up and complaining. I am now rather concerned as to what might happen if I see him again whilst out riding. He obviously only works Mon - Fri and Sat am so most likely won't see him out on the road for a while. I've told my wife and decided that if I do have him jumping out of his truck at me then, I need to man up and just wrap my bike around his head!

Know good to switch mobile to video sharpish, ensure cloud back up is on (on 4g too) and video him losing it.

Cloud back up in case he snatches the phone. It he breaks it...Well.

To be honest though, get a cheap bar/head cam. Not just for this incident to be honest. It's becoming fairly necessary on the roads these days.

Oh,I personally wouldn't do the man up option. You are probably playing a game he knows well and on his terms.

Report it to the police: that is affray, an offence in itself.

The driving deserves reporting too.

This is unlikely to lead to anything, but that doesn’t stop it being the correct thing to do.

Enough reports might eventually get him a taking too, if not actually prosecution.

Sadly he owns said skip company so not point ringing up and complaining. I am now rather concerned as to what might happen if I see him again whilst out riding. He obviously only works Mon – Fri and Sat am so most likely won’t see him out on the road for a while. I’ve told my wife and decided that if I do have him jumping out of his truck at me then, I need to man up and just wrap my bike around his head!

I think humans beings are quite good at assessing 1v1 threat - so if you've had an initial exchange with this specimen and he is getting out of his truck to wallop you, safe to say he is 100% convinced he has the upper hand, no grey areas. He's not looking for a 50:50.

The good news for you (and us cyclists in general) is that sitting on a bike presents quite an emasculating picture to this sort of person, so if you are actually hard it's a great (and easy) opportunity to re-calibrate this person, forcibly.

If you're not especially hard, though, I'd be inclined to go with their assessment of the situation and give it toes down the bridleway.

Sadly he owns said skip company so not point ringing up and complaining

Do you think you might need a skip at any point in the near future?
Might be worth booking one just in case. Make sure you get your address correct though.

I have learnt a lesson today that I’m going to stop shouting at drivers when I take issue with their driving.

I think this is the best thing said in all the posts and it's the OP saying it. I am certain that most of these situations things only escalate because one reaction feeds the next reaction and before you know where you are its kicked off physically or your being rammed off the road. Being the bigger person in these type of situations and not reacting at all to some other idiot's actions is the best thing to do, it raises you above Neanderthal skip drivers and the like. Report it when you get home if you want to and send any camera footage and just leave it there....

To be honest, i avoid confrontation as much as possible, as others say there's no real good outcome, say you get lucky, put the person down, what happens if they press charges, same with getting confrontational with someone who turns out to be a good amateur boxer or similar, you end up getting a hiding, i think those folk in life who are like this guy have little to lose if they go to court, it's normal folk like us who end up on a shaky peg with work and so on.

I'm studying criminal law at the minute and the one thing that really hits home is the amount of people who's lives have been utterly turned upside down by minor disputes of one kind or another that have escalated out of all proportion to what the participants expected.

Even the weakest punch thrown by a weedy cyclist like me can cause someone to trip, fall, hit their head and die and this sort of stuff happens on a surprisingly regular basis.

Look at it this way: You're annoyed and probably your pride is hurt but it's not so far fetched that the alternative could be one or the other of you could now be either on a manslaughter charge, or in a coma. And you'd definitely then be wishing you'd walked away so you did the right thing.

Report him to the police and Vosa.

Say he cut you up. Mention the truck looked unroadworthy. Rule one of haulage dont **** with Vosa.

Oh name n Shame him on here and his google results will show hes a right dick

I'd love to name and shame, but I'd rather not be living in fear. I've subsequently discovered through a friend that the chap in question is violent and best avoided.

I've been reflecting on this and if I'm honest every encounter I've had and there have been a few over the last few years has resulted in nothing more than my ride being tarnished and me stewing at home afterwards.

Like @argee @Duggan mentioned above you can see how an initial exchange of words can have dire consequences. I have a professional job and will lose far more if I was ever to receive a criminal conviction. A skip driver on the other hand, probably requires one before he can drive a skip truck.

Going to get a camera for the bike and keep my trap shut. It will be tricky as I am a man who likes to try and educate bad drivers and get them to see it from a cyclist's view point.

He owns a skip company you say? As mentioned above skips are in high demand right now, make sure that he is aware of all the myriad requirements that exist out there. Being a skip type I'm willing to bet that he has a penchant for pizza. Save him some time by ensuring regular deliveries, from all the different providers so he can compare and contrast. He probably likes curries too. Probably a while since his portakabin office has seen some TLC. He'll want someone to come out and quote on curtains, carpets, copiers and coffee machines. Not to mention getting the windows cleaned etc etc. You get the message, more than one way to skin a cat!

Well worth keeping a schraeder valve remover in your pocket for the next time you happen to spot the truck unnattended.
Also, VOSA.

I let him assault me, then reported his memorable personalised number plate. He was interviewed and got a Police caution within a week.

0/10. Would not do again

Message a few of us privately with his company name..

Then, with no link to this thread we can make sure to sully his reputation with poor reviews, order skips to addresses at will, and generally annoy him!

It won't make him a better driver, or less of a xxxx, but at least it'll an not the shit out of him.

I’ve told my wife and decided that if I do have him jumping out of his truck at me then, I need to man up and just wrap my bike around his head

Put it behind you as nothing more than the funny shouty incident it was (bystanders would have seen it as funny); nobody got hurt except your ego.

Be confident that this person will again get out of his truck and expect to intimidate and embarrass some cyclist, but next time it may just be the cyclist is fully prepared and very keen to swap punches with him. I have had to calm situations down numerous times when a shouty driver gets out of their car and realised the feminine looking cyclist is actually a very big, strong fella frothing at mouth angry .. yes the driver visibly melts back into their car .. of course they will drive off and at safe distance beep horn or shout an obscenity out of window. But that just demonstrates they will be stewing over their lack of masculinity for next few days.

I personally subscribe to the not reacting to bad drivers; they are often 200 yds down the road within seconds anyways .. out of sight out of mind.

Don't let one incident spoil your cycling

I have learnt a lesson today that I’m going to stop shouting at drivers when I take issue with their driving. Unless you are prepared to actually go down the fisty cuff route (which isn’t me) then I’ve concluded don’t put yourself in that situation.

I came to the same conclusion a couple of years ago, I know I'm not handy enough for fisticuffs with strangers and shouting at them isn't going to change their behaviour either.

It will be tricky as I am a man who likes to try and educate bad drivers and get them to see it from a cyclist’s view point.

Honestly I wouldn't waste your time, trying to "educate" people who pretty much get a reinforcing message from so many other sources every day...

If you have to helmet-cam every ride fair enough, just don't go wasting your time putting every bad pass on YouTube, there's enough of that crap on there already...

I came to the same conclusion a couple of years ago, I know I’m not handy enough for fisticuffs with strangers and shouting at them isn’t going to change their behaviour either.

Same here. There's no way that a driver is going to listen to anything, take it on board and go "you know what, I've learnt something today, terribly sorry for my previous bad behaviour". You're just going to get a mouthful of abuse.

You could always pop round and let his tires down every night.