Az B
During this mornings ride I had a woman in a BMW convertible apologize to me after racing me 50ft to a stop sign. It was completely unsolicited as I had made no gestures or indications that what she did was stupid. (and one of my pet peeves) I'll give her 1 point for realizing that the move was stupid completely on her own, and extra credit for taking responsibility for it. Maybe, just maybe, she won't do it again.
The funny came a little later as I was crossing a fairly busy street on a four lane road with a green light. I was all the way over to the right, and the left lane was completely clear. Yet some nitwit in an SUV decided to buzz me in the middle of the intersection. I didn't see him coming, but I had moved over a little farther to the right in the intersection to miss some debris in the road, so he had to come over farther than he planned to buzz me. And what he didn't realize is that the road shifted over slightly, maybe a foot on the other side of the intersection. The shift isn't a problem for a bike going 12-15 mph, but it proved to be too much for 5000lbs of SUV going about 50mph. He smacked the curb really hard with both right side wheels and flattened those cast aluminum wheels nicely. I mean the tires were shredded, but he ruined the wheels as well. I wouldn't be surprised if there was extensive suspension damage as well.
I pulled over to help the guy out (actually I was considering dragging him out and beating him senseless) knowing of course that there was little I could do in the way of help. But I wanted to reinforce the fact that I'm a living, breathing person to this guy that apparently just tried to kill me. Of course I acted like I thought it was all just a big accident. I think he had a pretty big slice of humble pie. And maybe, just maybe, next time he has the opportunity to harass a biker he'll remember that some of them aren't all bad.
Az
The funny came a little later as I was crossing a fairly busy street on a four lane road with a green light. I was all the way over to the right, and the left lane was completely clear. Yet some nitwit in an SUV decided to buzz me in the middle of the intersection. I didn't see him coming, but I had moved over a little farther to the right in the intersection to miss some debris in the road, so he had to come over farther than he planned to buzz me. And what he didn't realize is that the road shifted over slightly, maybe a foot on the other side of the intersection. The shift isn't a problem for a bike going 12-15 mph, but it proved to be too much for 5000lbs of SUV going about 50mph. He smacked the curb really hard with both right side wheels and flattened those cast aluminum wheels nicely. I mean the tires were shredded, but he ruined the wheels as well. I wouldn't be surprised if there was extensive suspension damage as well.
I pulled over to help the guy out (actually I was considering dragging him out and beating him senseless) knowing of course that there was little I could do in the way of help. But I wanted to reinforce the fact that I'm a living, breathing person to this guy that apparently just tried to kill me. Of course I acted like I thought it was all just a big accident. I think he had a pretty big slice of humble pie. And maybe, just maybe, next time he has the opportunity to harass a biker he'll remember that some of them aren't all bad.
Az