Why so many suggestions to change his route "for a while"?

The bloke just had his face smashed in by a cyclist "built like a bear"!! HArdly likely to forget after a fortnight is he?! Not saying the guy didn't deserve it but I would be expecting a nudge from his car at some point. Good luck and keep safe.

Ps. Talking of taking on people. In Hudds a bloke once kicked off with me and a mate outside a club- I promptly lamped him (a bloody good one aimed at his jaw as well) and he fell over a wall into a basement (probably about 6ft) and landed on his head vertically (Plaza club- the lip/drop over the wall if you know it). He got up straight away, laughed and came at me again. Its not worth fighting, some people are just inbuilt hard as nails.

Pick the wrong bloke (one of those nutters) and he'll be up for manslaughter not you.

Just chill. 🙂

Maybe now he'll reflect a bit and think twice next time.

A few people have agreed with this on the thread. I'm not so sure. Granted, he may think twice about picking on someone ton's size 😆 But he's also learned that shouting in someones face instead of throwing the first punch is stupid, therefore actually becoming more violent.

maybe you could celebrate by buying a new bike
or three

brakes – Member
maybe you could celebrate by buying a new bike
or three

the wheels are in motion………… 😉

I reckon the tags on this post are as good as I've seen. I can't imagine someone doing a search on "I'm gonna get you Butler" on the STW forums, but if they did … it's there.

Struggling to see how Blakey's catchphrase from On The Buses fits this scenario, but it's funny as **** nevertheless.

and to those who have met me and ridden with me,dont worry it wont happen if you pinch my line on the next ride…….

Don't let him in front of you or you will never see any sort of line . . .

I'm sure that you were just bending down to speak to the little man when he jumped up and hit his head 🙄

You have the right to defend yourself and it is legal to do so, as long as you do not use unnecessary force. The bloke's behaviour was threatening and also threatened to kill you, so you defended yourself. Not got a problem with it.

Had a similar incident when I lived in the UK. But the bloke wasn't too keen to get out of the car to 'discuss things', 😆

And I'm not even a chef!

He got up straight away, laughed and came at me again. Its not worth fighting, some people are just inbuilt hard as nails.

Yeah, in my fighting days I met a few blokes like this. Certainly one chap just kept bouncing back until I got annoyed and punched him in the throat (which was horrible). I'll run every time now though, too many people are prepared to resort to stabbing to finish the fight nowadays.

mmm, it's hard not to react sometimes, but I've not seen violence ever sort anything, whereas creative non-violence has sorted stuff from small to huge. Surprise is the best thing.
Something non-violent that they don't expect often does the job.

I agree with the other persons post on head butting to be a cowardly act. I know in that situation you are not adearing to the queensberry rules! I would have been more impressed with your hardman status if you had given him a right hook instaed of the lowest form of shot in the book. Bet he had a BMW.

Wrong to say headbutt is cowardly. It takes a certain amount of courage to hit someone in any way. Unethical perhaps but cowardly is the wrong term to use.

Tony I'm sure you did what you thought was right and think you showed great restraint in not going further giving him what he really deserved.

You stopped him and then stopped yourself from becoming as low as he is.

Not read though all 4 (!!) pages, but a head butt is one of the most effective ways of stopping an aggressor in a fight/flight situation (even better with a helmet) planting your hardest part of your body into their 2nd (ish!) most sensitive.
When he was in your face you did the right thing, if you'd fled then he could have smacked you!
Must be human survival instinct to question/agonise any conflict whether aggressor, victim, right or wrong 😕
My event

Well, for having slapped someone's head yesterday eve (completly different situation) I still think you did the right thing. Some people are just animal incapable to live in a society.

I try as much as I can to avoid conflict (I told the guy 2 time to stop) but sometime it is just no feasible. In this case no matter what people say some shouting is going to kill you 5mm from your face is a threat. I don't know where the law stand in terms of self defense if you have to get hit first or not, but if it ever happens to me I would not try to find out. Better safe than sorry.

However I might disagree above about not reporting it to the police. What if the guy follow you home or anything else?

Let us know how it goes.

I really understand someone losing it in this particular scenario, but everyone who is saying it was right to bop him is just plain wrong, without a question of doubt.

Ton, you seem a really nice bloke matey, but you're a big guy and could easily have killed him, given him a blood clot on the brain or something.

Not something you'd want to have to live with for the rest of your life. The really tough thing to do would have been to walk away, you know it…

Then ram a potato up his exhaust pipe or something.

hare krishna etc etc

At least ton did the right thing. Hit the driver not his car. Shows he has balls.

No, it shows balls to walk away. Hitting him shows a lack of restraint to the silly plonker who instigated it all, at which point who is the better man? It's asking something very special to do the right thing here, I know I know, and like I say, when someone shouts and is hyper aggressive in your face I reckon we are programmed to respond like Ton did.

The truth is there is no knowing what response you get to violence and where it will end, either in terms of damage you do to the other person, or how they respond with equal or bigger force, at which point where do you go next?

When you look down on someone lying motionless in a big pool of their own blood as a consequence of this sort of thing, rather than them just having a bloody nose, the senselessness of it all becomes quickly and horrifically apparent.

that's exactly it. it's really not that hard to kill someone. even if you don't, and you consider yourself in the right to act first in self defence, you could easily end up on a charge of abh, gbh or whatever, and have to defend yourself in court.
i've genuinely no idea how i would react in the same situation ( who amongst us does, really ), but i really wouldn't want to end up on a charge that's for sure, let alone responsible for someone's death – whether they 'deserved it' or not, i would still find it incredibly difficult to live with if someone died as a result of my actions.

So it is ok for the guy to get out of the car, shout I am going to kill you, and then hit you and possibly kill you?

What if the guy it ton on his back while he was walking out?

STW is pretty hilarious for 'male ego' anyway, but this thread is the best of the best!

Its interesting that the bloke got 5mm from tons face but still didn't touch him. Since he was so close, had he meant anything serious, he would have gone straight at it instead of stopping where he did. Granted what he did was intimidating, but his behaviour suggests that it was bravado.

I'm as happy to have a pop as the next man, but I'm not that great offensively. Defensively, I'm happy to break the bones of any limb that's kindly offered, but I've never been one to drop the first strike.

Ton could have just walked away, but his choice seems not-unreasonable.

'Never rub another man's Rhubarb'

It takes balls to walk away = myth propagated by mothers and people who have never been in that situation. It's far harder to initiate violence knowing it might be the last thing you ever do.
The way I see it is, if ton didn't stand up to the guy it would have to be someone else more than likely less able to defend themselves. Left unchallenged bullies like the driver (yes that what he is, not ton as described earlier) will just carry on and be encouraged by their "victories". People who do not stand up to bullies, and I don't mean that you have to be violent, are worse than the bullies themselves. Those that believe that, once they have angered a nutter, they can get on their bike and run away without further consequence or incident are burying their heads in the sand. I spent a few of my formative years "a bit lost" and have been an aggressor on a few occasions. Running away would have made me angrier. The moment of go/nogo decision was just before the w@nker signal. If you start a confrontation and then think "oh no this is a bit scary" and run away then you are as bad as the crap driver in the first place. This has been the 2 penneth according to devs.

snowslave again I do agree with you! but if hes in your face shouting at you- you definitely feel imminent threat/fear and its escalating. As said before- Im not a fighter (more an internet Pugilist) but if it got to that point I wouldnt want to wait for a headbutt from the other bloke. True the other bloke might then wipe the floor with you but hes crossed a line firmly.

I'd never scream at someone and put my face into theirs. I'd call them a name and keep my distance, if they started getting closer then I'd start getting worried. If they came into my personal space I'd honestly be sh*tting myself. Thats the point where you either want to curl up (thats what the bloke is hoping for- you to curl up for him) or wrong-foot him.

TBH – he probably wont roadrage someone quite so readily again. Hes probably done it a few times, got away with it then picked on someone who isnt a walkover to be bullied.

Ive only met Ton once- he seems to be a salt of the earth type/old-school? (Is this right?). If so he sees situations like this as firmly black and white?

Good points well made on the bigger picture DeVs.

i'm of the opinion that more people should be drowned at birth, unfortunately this doesn't happen, and so the world is full of gits.

it sounds like our friend Ton has had to deal with one of these people, he was nearly killed, then shouted out, then threatened, he stood up for himself, he hit the git once and walked away (rode away). i wish i had his courage and restraint.

Ton is a big bloke – and? so what? – you wouldn't pick a fight with a Gurka and they're tiny!

or he just made it all up to see if he could get the 'longest thread of 09' award…?

'longest thread of 09' award…?

Nope only rudeboy can do that 😉

I'd still be careful for the next few weeks and keep an eye out. I'm 6'7" and still got assaulted on the Tube in London a few years back by some idiot who was being overly aggressive and intimidating to the passengers in the carriage (i was the one who stood up to him when others wouldn't).

He came off worse in the encounter (despite hitting me with a bottle) and got put down for 5 months (after the rather large chunk of his afro which got ripped off in the fight was used to collect DNA evidence against him!!). But it was only then that i found out he was on remand for armed carjacking so he could have pulled out something far more dangerous than a bottle. On hindsight i think i should have walked away and i was very nervous that he or his 'associates' would find out where i lived.

In Ton's situation though i'm fairly sure i would have reacted much as he did. Whether or not it was bravado on the drivers part i'd rather put him on the ground before giving him the opportunity to pull a knife or whatever these idiots carry these days. And like has been said, maybe the driver has finally learnt that you can't just act aggressively to any stranger just because you feel like it.

Sorry Ton but I think you did the wrong thing.

In the heat of the moment I can understand that its easy to lose composure.
Lets face it he wasn't actually going to kill you in the street. He was just waving his cock about.

I hate walking away from this type of situation but an eye for an eye makes everybody blind and all that.

I know its a stretch but I think Martin Luther Kings approach championing non aggressive protest in response to violence & hatred is the right thing to do.

The amount of anger from cyclists vented at car drivers on this site is incredible. You got's to chill.

you wouldn't pick a fight with a Gurka and they're tiny!

Fantastic and probably spot on. A great analogy.

Ton, I'm with you to a degree, but to be frank, it was pretty obvious from the way you described the incident ('blood pissing from his face', etc) that you enjoyed what had happened. I'm not saying you should come over as an apologist or anything, but it's all a bit tossy isnt it?

but it's all a bit tossy isnt it?

Kinda sums up this whole thread. Stinks of bullshit and egos in 'ere.

Good question. How would have Rudeboy have dealt with the same situation???

Good question. How would have Rudeboy have dealt with the same situation???

Talk him to death

soma_rich – Member

Good question. How would have Rudeboy have dealt with the same situation???

WGAF.

Dunno who she is but this is what you get when you put "ego bullshit" into google images

lol @ DeVs

The moment of go/nogo decision was just before the w@nker signal. If you start a confrontation and then think "oh no this is a bit scary" and run away then you are as bad as the crap driver in the first place

yeah

Lets face it he wasn't actually going to kill you in the street

statistically unlikely but does sometimes happen, and the guy coming to serious harm from having his nose bust is surely even less likely

The best outcome would depend on what this bloke's true intentions were, and we can't know that. If he really wasn't going to hit Ton (I suspect that's true) but was mad enough to want to harm him, riding off along the road would surely be a very dangerous thing to do, UNLESS you'd made sure that he wasn't going to come after you in his car.

Ideal: stop the bloke without hurting him & take away his car keys. If you've time (and witnesses) call the police – I'd imagine that would be the best deterrent to him driving like this again, which was the initial problem. If you haven't time for that, make sure he doesn't get them back in time to hurt you along the road. Failing those, butting an aggressive bloke isn't such a bad choice.

Whereas putting Devs into google

Just re-read some of the ridiculous posts on this thread. 'He must have had a death wish, squaring up to you mate' – are you inviting a lot of friends and relatives, or is it just going to be a quiet wedding?
Another one I liked was 'I'm a chef and a bit handy when pushed' – being a chef makes you a hard case then? bake me a cake, cake boy…