Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Anyone ride with bandanas?

I left a party tonight at 3:30am and was riding my usual route back home. The temperature dropped so i took out my red bandana from my bag and tied it around my face, covering my nose and mouth. On my ride home I passed a pakred cop car that immediately tailed me and flashed me down to stop. The officer driving told me to dismount the bike while the other cop pointed his flashlight at me. They began to ask if i was armed, intended to commit a crime, or affiliated with a gang. I told them "politely" that I was going home and hadn't done anything wrong, yet they insisted that because I had a bandana on I was dealing with trouble. I gave them my ID, they checked me out and let me go, but seriously, ****!!! That got under my skin so bad...whenever the weather gets cold here I ride with a bandana to avoid breathing cold air. This ain't LA, and I'm sure as **** not a Blood. Anyone else ever come across this kind of harassment?

Yeah, but then as soon as they believe me and go to leave I BUST A CAP!!!
See, we bloods have to resort to whole new ways to bust the po-po's and it seemed like this bike thing might work

no, but a bandana probably looks more "suspicious" than, say, a balaclava because of whatever mental connections to cops and robbers type ****.

http://static.flickr.com/29/100703872_7606e82a32_m.jpg

That image of "robbers" with a bandana over their mouths seems so wild west. Are the po' just re-living their childhood movie-spawned fantasies?

Seriously though, if you wanna look like a ****ing terrorist, wear the bandana as mentioned and add a hood and ski goggles. It's great.

ps - also, I find that frost tends to form on the mouth part of the kerchief, forcing me to breathe creatively.

hey, koyman, i agree with you about the frost thing, but to each his own.

and yeah, that image is pretty wild west, but i was just using an example...but just about any time you see someone with a bandana over their face, they're doing it to project a tough guy image, and maybe it projects that image because that cowboy thing's some archetype that's imprinted in our brains, i dunno.

but sure, some'll wear a bandana to keep warm, but i don't see how that works that well. then again, it's l.a., so even if it's "cold" to a person used to l.a. weather, frost may not actually form.

Roger that. I was just throwing that out there. Deep down, I'm just happy that other people (who are on this boards) wear their bandanas like me. I also kind of hope that a police stops me some time for wearing mine. I always enjoy being immaculatly innocent; like that time I was "drunk driving" with root beer.

yeah...i'm just thinking about why certain things will make others assume things about you.

i don't wear a bandana, though. i've tried, and discovered i don't like it because of the frost.

still, i think there's an inherent fear of people who hide their faces, for many good and interesting reasons going back a long way, and as far as bandanas and why they ""look tough", i think it's probably an american phenomenon.

I read you loud and clear, good buddy. I can see how face-hiding is "empowering" (wrong word, but close) for those behind the mask. I know I've thought of doing things (whilst masked) that I would never have thought of otherwise. Also, there's the living dead to think of. I mean, they've got to disguise the tell-tale slack jaw somehow, and why not a kerchief?

ha ha ha...i remember in some class in high school, i think...reading "lord of the flies" and the teacher emphasizing the face painting for exactly the reason you bring up. "empowering". or, maybe...stripping away inhibitions by sort of suggesting that you can get away with whatever you want to do....

whatever it is, any mask understandable frightens some.

though, come to think of it, i am curious as to why i never got pulled over while riding in cold boise winters with a balaclava on, and good mr. accident here did get pulled over with a bandana...people just expecting that reaction to cold weather there?

I tie one around my ears when It is cold here. They make a ski mask for your mouth. it works great and mine cost me 2 bucks at goodwill. I think they are less then ten at a ski/snowboarding store. and it is easyer to get on and off. and you can talk though it. but stores still don't like you wareing it in them.
Plus they you look like a ninja. ninjas are way cooler then cowboys.
Eric...... Schnayke for short.

****in' a! who doesn't ride wif a bandana?

i use bandanas as grease rags, *** rags, blood rags for those terrible spills, for those times when you ain't got a scarf.

oh and for indie street cred at shows.

http://www.sillyjokes.co.uk/images/dress-up/acc/ties/bandana-1.jpg

I ride with all types of face covering. I've got balaclavas which are really fun to wear in traffic because it freaks people out. I figure if they can have their tint, I can wear my bandana. Of course, I'm in Texas, and it's rodeo time here in Houston, so I guess there won't be too much trouble wearing a bandana. My bandana is black though, and it says "Jack Daniels" on it. Guess the cops here don't have too much trouble with that "set" around here.

oh...that make more sense. At first, I read this thread as "anyone ride with BANANAS"
now that would be a sight!

http://www.austinyellowbike.org/galleries/there_is_no_gallery/banana_bike.jpg

hahahaha.....shweet banana! i like how you roll

you live in tallahassee. how cold was it?

1) to OP: Why not use a scarf instead?

2) to that banana pic: that better be photoshopped or I wanna know who this man is and how I can rent him for parties.

I ride with a bandana sometimes but you should check your local laws. In a lot of places it is illeagle to wear a mask or cover your face in public and a bandana looks suspicous...just saying.

you live in tallahassee. how cold was it?
It was drizzling, 35deg. last night, we get sporadic cold fronts, but like other people, I carried a bandana as multi-purpose; obviously balaclavas and scarves are warmer but I need to look into it being illegal in Florida.

you live in tallahassee. how cold was it?

It gets pretty cold here ;)

Well... for us I guess. It was probably around 35 - 40 degrees out.

I just noticed the OP was from Tallahassee though. Yay :)

No because I'm not a hipster and use a dorky balaclava.

Just get a bandana from Crucialbrutal. The cops will be too scared to pull you.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v154/gore_galore/NEWS_PRODUCT_bandana.jpg

Il pirato!


http://www.france-cyclisme.com/nicolas/pantani3.jpg

...check your local laws. In a lot of places it is illeagle to wear a mask or cover your face in public and a bandana looks suspicous...just saying.
Word. Last halloween nearly 400 children were arrested in my town.

that's why I always tell you not to ride without me. Cops are scared of me.

i have to wear one in the summer or else i get sunstrole very bad

Word. Last halloween nearly 400 children were arrested in my town.

In CT it is a "class D" felony to commit assualt while wearing a mask or hood...which would give them probable cause to stop you and question you.

Were you wearing a bandana AND concealing a dangerous weapon?

I wear the cut-off neck of a turtleneck shirt as a neck warmer and pull it over my nose when it gets real cold. When its stupidly cold I've worn my ski mask. Cops saw me and never did **** about it. In a lot of places it is alright to wear a mask but not alright to enter a buisness with the mask still on (obviously).

I have one on me all the time for assorted things, so I love them as masks. I work in a cabinet shop for 4 hrs a day then head to work. Most of the time when I come home and it's dark, the temp drops about 15 or so degrees. Around the mouth and nose and over the ears keeps them from getting cold from the wind. I do notice that after about 10 mins of riding that you create a little 'atmosphere' in the area around your mouth. For the ride I take, it's fine for. However, in a longer haul I can imagine that it the moisture would get quite cold. At that point I would use my ski mask.

While I've gotten strange looks from cops, I have yet to be stopped. I've wondered the same thing myself though.

While we are on the topic of face wraps, does anyone else have trouble with breathing through scarves? Do I just have a wierd allergy, or do scraves just make it difficult to breathe?

http://myspace-722.vo.llnwd.net/00511/22/70/511820722_l.jpg

Jack is a poser.

kerry is a meanie

Can we stop calling them balaclavas and refer to them as what they really are....Ninja Masks!

Sparks + Road conversions + Overexposure + Whitie flashing gang signs = ???

Umm, all those bikes that I can see have gears.

..

No because I'm not a hipster and use a dorky balaclava.


you suck...

that girl is totally in the bloods.

maybe they're going to rip those gears off once they finish their sparks. booze often leads to breaking things.

The gears are there to throw off hipsters' scent. Once they get a few more Sparks, they'll head off to the tall bikes at the JOUSTODROME.

i wear a balaclava sometimes. i know a retired nypd cop and he told me just the other that- in nyc at least- it's actually a crime to wear one if you're in a group of 3 or more with everyone wearing them.

Don't player hate cause you got issues.
http://2.srv.fotopages.com/2/9581774.jpg

dam! I'll try later

I rock the bandana for clean air, not warmth. Cars suck for breathing.

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/2404/fixedupweb23hl.jpg

Is that a celeste bandana?

Nope, old bandana from cub scouts back in the day.

I rock the bandana for clean air, not warmth. Cars suck for breathing.

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/2404/fixedupweb23hl.jpg


Oh ****, you have one of those microfiltering bandanas from the future? Kickass!

In CT it is a "class D" felony to commit assualt while wearing a mask or hood...which would give them probable cause to stop you and question you.


yeah... if an assault had just occurred and the assailant had been reported as having left the scene with a bandana on his face.

otherwise it's without probable cause and is just harassment.