bigboots

Anyone, including Lance Armstrong, who thinks Austin, TX could be a cyclist mecca are fooling themselves! I just had a GLASS bottle thrown and redneck scum shouting at me last night. I think I might declare war on pick-up trucks!! Saw a nice semi-tracter for sale on CL that would crush ANY a**hole masquerading as a HUMAN driving a pick-up! Good thing that scum can't throw any better than he can act human and missed me. I guess my only hope would be when a gallon of gas cost more than a pack of cigarettes or a six-pack of BudLight beer, than the waste of skin can only shout at his tv or dog and throw bottles at the repo-man!!

-=(8)=-

Wow...tht sux. Im glad it missed you.
I had a bunch of little gangsters throw one at me in Philly
and it came so close to my head I could hear the noise and feel
the air when it went by. They definitely can cause some serious injury.
Hopefully it will be the last one you have to suffer.
Yeah, rednecks suck.

bragi

Things like this do in fact happen, unfortunately. I've noticed in seattle, that as bikes have become more common, the vast majority of drivers have just learned to deal with them. Some drivers, though, have become really pissed off; I've even had a few altercations with people simply because I was riding my bike at all.

RomSpaceKnight

I've had soft drinks, bags of garbage and apples thrown at me. With my short fuse probably good thing I live in Canada and am not allowed to carry. Putting a couple rounds in the back of their vehicle does at times have a certain attraction. I chased down and stopped a school bus from which an apple had been thrown at me.

The Human Car

Here is a sign for you:

Roughstuff

Much the same over the years...some rocks, bottles, etc. Most of them miss, not easy to hit a moving target from a moving target. Watch out for pampers though!

roughstuff

gpsblake

idiots live everywhere and you can't escape them. If this is the first time this has happened to you, you've been lucky. Once it happens a few times, you don't even bother steaming about it on message forums.

Cyclaholic

You obviously didn't laterally position yourself correcly in the lane, must be your fault.

ChipSeal

Obviously you weren't wearing a helmet at the time.

Johnny_Monkey

I've never had any thing thrown at me nor any abuse that I can recall. What am I doing wrong?

bigboots

Hey, thanks for all the tips, encouragement, etc. I guess I'll just put my lock chain to double duty and put a spiked steel ball on the end so I can swing it at fenders and tires...

timmhaan

i've had a glass bottle thrown at me too. it actually landed on the top of my hand and hurt like a @#%@. guys took off fast so no chance i could catch up. probably for the best.

unkchunk

Glass bottle huh? Soda isn't sold in glass bottles anymore. Alcohol is. Probably a drunk driver. You can call those in you know. You don't necessarily need the license plate. The location of the road, the direction the car is traveling, a description of the vehicle, the color, the number of doors, and a description of driver and/or occupants is enough. You should be able to give that much. Oh, and a brief description of why you thought they were drunk. "Yelling and throwing glass bottles"... sound like a drunk driver to anyone. And yep, 911 will take the call. And then they will pass that information to any highway patrol officers in the area. So why get mad when you can easily get more than even.

And if you are really lucky, further down the road, you may get a chance to see the driver try to touch the tip of his nose a few times.

mazpr

Simply awesome, if I get one of those I will be homicidally smokin man. One thing is to get hit by it,another to feel and smell like it.

I remember well Lance mentions somewhere about aggressive drivers, the many times he got clipped, etc.

Me, the people here in Sonoma like to show me the vehicle's horn works by blasting it, its a very wonderful experience.

bigboots

I'm glad when people throw bottles at you it's only in daylight, and they slowdown just for you to take in all that information for a report that the police HERE in Austin never do anything about! Drunk drivers here NEVER get caught until they crash and wreck their vehicle enough so they can't go any further...

2skinnywheels

Do y'all have rednecks over thar in Italy?

CB HI

That is not quite true. Old style rootbeer and other gimmick soft drinks currently sell their product in glass bottles (generally they charge double other soft drinks). Snapple can also come in glass bottles.
https://retro-soda.stores.yahoo.net/grrobesoin12.html
https://www.sodaking.com/product_info...oducts_id/1008
https://www.bevnet.com/bevboard/produ...s-bottles.html

unkchunk

The OP indicated a "redneck in a pickup" not a "yuppie in a Prius". So I'm still going with my original statement.

unkchunk

If it was so dark then how do you know it was a "redneck" in a "pick-up truck" or even a "glass bottle" for that matter?

bigboots

You are simply not worth a response!

sosso

I was stopped at some traffic lights on a busy intersection today. There was also cyclist stopped at the lights on the opposite side of the road to me. I saw that he was talking to a group of young guys who were stopped next to him in the other lane and were waiting to turn left. As soon as the lights went green the cyclist started riding straight ahead while the car slowly turned the corner and one of the guys threw a glass bottle out the window at the cyclist's head. It made me so mad, I almost felt sick seeing it happen. Absolute idiots..Im pretty sure it missed and he kept riding for a few seconds before turning around and sprinting after the car, which by now was stopped at another set of lights. My light went green and I had to turn the corner, so I didn't get to see if he caught up to the car or not

dobber

fadedglory

The redneck was probably throwing a liquor bottle. I've ridden for years in TX and OK, and abuse, verbal and projectile, almost always (at least 95% of the time) comes from a pickup truck. And 50% of the time from someone who wasn't even in a position to be inconvenienced by the presence of a bicycle.

The worst projectile came at me in Dallas. I felt something brush my shoulder but didn't see anything, or notice a hostile vehicle. When I got home, lo and behold, I had a BB embedded just below the skin of that shoulder. I tend to wear ballistic rated eyewear when riding, now.

These days I make a point of not flinching or acknowledging the shouts or honks in any way whatsoever. I always hope it takes a bit of the wind out of their sails if I appear not to even give a flip about their "concerns".

CB HI

Would that be this original statement that you are going with?
The statement that I simply noted was wrong. I even tried being nice about it.

monk

I can't for the life of me understand why people do this. How can you be THAT hateful? I haven't had anything thrown at me (yet), but frankly I know it's coming. I read in a post once where a guy said we ought to wear NASCAR jerseys. Then, the rednecks might leave us alone.