Assaults on cyclists

some shoitehouse child spat on me from an overhead walkway once

I had a group of kids drop a couple of massive potatoes on me from a bridge over a cycle path. 😯

Comedy choice of weapon – but they hit me with enough force to crack my helmet and knock me off the bike.

Called the local police and they said there was “nothing they could do”. (Assault? Criminal damage?)

I suggested that maybe, given the bridge was all of 5 minutes walk from the police station, that they could at least pop out and make sure the little toerags weren’t still there as the next person might not be wearing a helmet.

Not interested. 😐

They all seem to get themselves into an inordinate number of scrapes/incidents.
It’s almost as if they’re deliberately looking for it.

Some of them are good guys (i.e. CycleGaz) – he posts videos of bad cyclist behaviour as well as poor driving, and offers advice on how to avoid conflicts and accidents.

He also makes the point that if he posted the 99.9% of his cycling where nothing happens and it is all fine, then no one would subscribe.

Am I the only one that HASNT (touches wood) had any serious ‘road rage’ encounters?

I’ve had the odd too-close pass, and people pulling out in front of me, however none of them have been close enough for me to have actually felt too worried.

These threads always put me on a bit of a downer, and makes want to get out on the bike less. For the purpose of balance – maybe we should have a thread about GOOD experiences while on the road/commuting, etc 🙂

I was thinking about this last night on my road ride. I’d just been shouted at in Luxembourgish (a language I don’t speak) by a bloke on a Harley for what I assume was holding the traffic up (I’d been doing 40kmph on slight downward slope in a 50 zone so wasn’t THAT slow). Anyway, I was thinking about the number of near misses I have in the car and I don’t think theyre significantly different in number or type (plenty of SMIDSY style pull-outs and moves). The big difference is obviously how fragile you are on a bike compared to in the car and that in the car you’re probably the best balance between protected and quick.

Maybe it’s just where I ride, but car/bus/truck idiots don’t seem to be much worse for me however I travel.

http://app.strava.com/segments/3575983 😉

Yup, that’s a bridleway according to OS maps.

Upon pointing out that it’s a public bridleway (a rather large sign saying so was 20ft away) he went berserk saying “no it’s no it’s my road”.

Your local Rights Of Way officer might be (have been?) a good person to speak to about that – sounds like that idiot was trying to intimidate and forcibly prevent people from using the public bridleway – so he can then claim that it is unused/abandoned and eventually have the RoW status removed.

so he can then claim that it is unused/abandoned and eventually have the RoW status removed.

I can never understand why people would want to do that. What do they have to gain and why are they so protective over something a strip of land?

Painey said »
He kept telling his mate “Ray” in the car to call the police and tried to steal my bike. Things got heated at this point and I “politely explained to him it wouldn’t be a good idea”. If anybody on Strava ever comes across a segment near Ditchling called “Ray, call the police” this explains the name!
http://app.strava.com/segments/3575983

Yup, that’s a bridleway according to OS maps.

Yes it definitely is and has large signs pointing it out! Was rather amazed at why he thought the police would be interested in somebody riding a bike down it?