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06-08-03, 05:37 PM
Today, as I was about to make a full throttle, well earned descent down a local hill, a roadie coming up on the other side of the road made eye contact with me and shouted something at me. It was a lot of words, and, since I was accelerating, the only ones that I sort of made out were "rear" and "flat." I thought he meant that I had a flat rear tire. It didn't seem to be, but I stopped anyway. The tire felt fine. So I continued on. However, I do tend to obsess about safety, so in the course of the next 40 miles I stopped briefly about 4 times to squeeze my tires and check out this and that. With lots of time to mull over it, I began to think of alternative interpretations. Maybe he was saying "Your rear is fat." But he was coming in the wrong direction for that judgment and he would be wrong anyway. BTW, when I got home, I checked and both tires were at 100 PSI, hardly what I would call flat.
I have found that when other cyclists shout across the road, they are no more intelligible than when some teenage idiot shouts somethingat you from a passing pickup truck. Just by the look on his face, the guy who shouted to me today wanted to communicate something useful. However, he did not observe the rules of K.I.S.S.--keep it simple, stupid. He said far too much to make any sense shouted across a road.
Having lived with hard-of-hearing people for most of my life, I learned a long time ago to keep emegency messages short and accompanied by strong facial or hand gestures. Pointing at a wheel and shouting "Flat!" will be much easier understood than "I daresay it appears to me that your rear tire is a little bit flat."
Rich
I have found that when other cyclists shout across the road, they are no more intelligible than when some teenage idiot shouts somethingat you from a passing pickup truck. Just by the look on his face, the guy who shouted to me today wanted to communicate something useful. However, he did not observe the rules of K.I.S.S.--keep it simple, stupid. He said far too much to make any sense shouted across a road.
Having lived with hard-of-hearing people for most of my life, I learned a long time ago to keep emegency messages short and accompanied by strong facial or hand gestures. Pointing at a wheel and shouting "Flat!" will be much easier understood than "I daresay it appears to me that your rear tire is a little bit flat."
Rich