Melt

anyways, so i was coming back from annadale in santa rosa and decided to avoid sonoma so i took trinity road to dry creek here in Napa ca, which is a REALLY windy road. Anyway, i get to the wide part of dry creek right before you hit napa so im cruisin at 55 (speed limit) and this gay road biker waves his arm up and down (the slow down motion) so of course since i wasnt speeding that pissed me off so i hit the gas and i look in my rear view mirror and hes flippin me off!! What happened to the community brotherhood of cycling.

A) He was on the other side of the road, so its not like i came close to hittin him or some ****
B) He shouldnt have tried to tell me to slow down. Just because my car has a modified exhaust system doesnt = fast
C) Whenever i see other road cyclists on these 2 lane roads with no bike lane where they probably shouldnt be, im a nice guy, ill go to the other side of the road and give em plenty of room
D) Usually when i see road bikes i wave or they wave ... we are all supposed to be cool with each other.

So in conclusion, if it was YOU I got your finger right back. And if youre wondering if it was me attached is a picture of my car with the bike on the roof to remove all doubt.

diamondback_man

Maybe he just thought you were being a dick. Like, you did the oppisite of what he wanted. I bet he woulden't have done that if you just keep your speed, as apposed to getting him agrivated and flooring it.

Melt

He was being a dick by telling me to slow down in the first place. We have chp for that.

a2psyklnut

Let it go MELT, he didn't have a radar detector and probably felt you were going too fast for the roads.

Don't let it bug you.

Life is too short to be burdened by strangers flipping you off while driving. Even if they are cyclists.

L8R

Melt

I aint trippin, this thread is just part of my ethug self letting off steam.

a2psyklnut

Cool brutha, then vent away!!!!

L8R

forum*rider

I love getting flipped off. Then I smile at them and wave like I don't know whats going on.

Melt

man i was about to turn around and throw my soda out the window at him but i restrained myself cause i woulda had to drive 20 extra miles to pull it off.

SteveE

Not according to the California Vehicle Code.

I think you should give the guy a break. Why not just cruise around him instead of blasting by him? Maybe he just had a close encounter with an automobile before you showed up. And with the recent cyclist fatalities in the Sonoma area, I'd be a little nervous with cars myself.

RonH

GAY???? How do you know he is gay? Even if he is, he's still a cyclist and being gay has nothing to do with this incident.
Perhaps he was waving his arm for you to slow down because he may have thought you were unfamiliar with the stretch of winding road and didn't want to see you on the 6 o'clock news. Or perhaps there was another cyclist or group of cyclists ahead of you on your side of the road and he didn't want you to go flying around a turn and plow into them.

sm266

I'm with Ron H and Steve E. Sometimes, on my hilly windy training routes, I wave cars around with my arm as to say "Hey, I know I'm slow. This hill sucks, go on around." How do you know that wasn't his intent. Maybe he was in trouble and saw another cyclist or a cop clocking people up ahead. There's too much info lacking for me to side with you. However, justified or not, your reaction was wrong.

Mtn Mike

The reason you got the finger was for stepping on the gas. I'm not saying you're in the wrong, because you did follow the law, but you certainly didn't promote good relations with other cyclists.

There's an old saying among road bikers...."Man who stomp on the gas of their sportscar while passing a cyclist = man with small d!ck".

geneman

Or maybe an animal in the road ...

-mark

timmhaan

a lot of roadies get pissed off because there are few places where they can ride alone. a road bike has to be ridden on pavement, so often times they are forced to share the road with cars. it gets really frustrating having cars whizzing by you all day long (whatever the speed limit is) and anyone of them could kill you. with a mountain bike, you can drive up somewhere, hop off and enjoy a dirt trail without these hazards. a roadie can't do that - so i think it's understandable when they don't like cars hitting the gas when they pass.

BlackDiamond

Uh...anger management? There could have been soooo many reason why he was trying to get your attention. Bottom line you should have slowed.



It’s kind of like when you are struggling to climb a hill on your mountain bike and some dumbass come screaming down it causing you to move to avoid being hit. You loose all of your momentum and end up having to dismount and walk.

RussellM

thats why cars and bikes should not share roads, if you want to ride a bike, you can ride in the woods on a trail where the bikes belong. Im not convinced that roadbiking should even exist. We have a rediculous number of roadbikers around here. I have come around a corner or over a hill had a road bike on each side of the road going in oposite directions and cars going both ways at 35 40 MPH with no sholders. I would never risk my life out on the road. On my way home from work there is a long section of stop and go trafic. The roadies fly through there passing cars on the right, if one of the cars is too close to the edge they ride between the cars and up the yellow line for a while before swerving back to the edge. One of those cars moves up at the wrong time, smush. Stupid sport if you ask me.

Raiyn

Sounds like someone's a touch immature. You should have slowed down

temp1

One of the things I like best about riding my road bike is the tension between cyclists and drivers, its all part of the fun.

temp1

Give driving with that attitude in downtown Chicago or NY a shot and see how long you can keep the windows on your car intact.

timmhaan

i kinda do too. if i'm in the right mindset, i can get a big kick out of it. if i'm in the wrong mindset i can get pretty pissed. just got to keep a sense of humor about it.

don d.

In an era of increasingly invasive encroachment on wildlife habitat and diminishing public lands dedicated as wilderness areas, I get mad sometimes with mountainbikers who insist on their right to access to areas I think should be left to the life forms with whom we co-exist on this planet.

Did you ever think that guy was waving at you because he may have needed help? Maybe he thought a fellow biker would help him out?

crgowo

Thats what I was thinking.

ImprezaDrvr

Man, there are some neandertals here, huh? Russelm, stay on the trails. There are enough arrogant roadies already, and we dont' need someone as profoundly arrogant as you on the roads, too.

Melt, chill. You should (operative word) try to see where the guy's coming from and not be a dick to a fellow rider. He may be on skinny tires, but what did he do to you? I must've missed the part where he banged your mom.

d_D

Would you rather they where in cars? Just think how much longer you would be waiting in the stop and go traffic jam if all the cyclists where making their journey in a car.

Maelstrom 

Wow...this is an incredible thread...