I was "just riding along" on my way home after a lovely Sunday afternoon ride when all of a sudden I got hit hard between the shoulders by a nearly full liter bottle of pop. The murderous idiots who assaulted me must have been going close to 40 when they let fly.

Honestly, I don't know how I kept the bike upright. The hit knocked the air out of my lungs and left me coughing for several minutes.

What the f is wrong with people? There wasn't any reason for the attack. I was riding near the edge on a lightly traveled side road.

The worst thing is that these rotten bastards got away. There was NO way for me to get their license plate or ID them. All I know is that I heard them yelling and then the bottle hit me, HARD.

All I can do is whine about it here and hope that next time as they speed off they run straight into a semi.

yeah it was probably kids thinking they are better than you just because they are in a car. I hate when that kind of crap happens. It just pisses me off that someone would do that to an innocent person. That hasent happedn to me yet (on a bike at least) and I hope it dosent. All I can say is that I hope you are ok and that they get what is coming to them.

Kids in our neck of the woods thought it was funny once to drop a watermelon off a bridge onto a highway. A woman was killed when the thing crashed through her windshield and made her spin the car out of control.
I had some little moron in LA throw a melon out of a speeding car at forty miles an hour and hit my parked car. The door was dented to the tune of $500.00.

The only satisfaction anyone can have about these walking clumps of scum is knowing that sooner or later they will get too reckless and crash. One can only hope that it is a one-car accident.

And hopefully you're nearby when it occurs.
That way you could walk up to them and say, "Remember me Jackhole?!? How does if feel now Dippy?!?!"
Then walk away and let the next person manage their current grievance.
Because when they're hurt, it pretty much isn't any of your trouble.

they will get caught one way or another!

a few years back I had some kids throw a liter bottle of coke @ me while riding a new bike. They took off, but it seemed they followed me on a parallel road maybe a concidence, they kind of tracked me back towards my house, they slowed down @ a stop sign laughing and flipping me off accelerated while laying rubber and I got their license number.

I called the police gave them the description of the car and license number, I took them to court and won
They were charged with felony assult, and had to pay court cost.

same thing happened to me earlier this summer.....luckily I was able to get the lic plate number. I filed a report and although the case wasn't pursued to far, I hear the kids parents were not pleased when detectives showed up at the front door wanting to "question" Junior......seems Dad didn't need proof beyond a reasonable doubt......I sure wish I could have been a fly on the wall to hear Juniors and Dads conversation after the police left......

Anyone with a mentality that sees hitting innocent folks with a dangerous object at 40 mph. as fun will find out for themselves what it feels like to be on the receiving end of abuse someday--that, or they might wind up in prison, sadly.

Next time someone asks my what the use of knowing physics is...I'll remember to telll them of this: knowing why throwing a bottle out of a moving vehicle is a BAD idea.

seriously...makes me think about wearing motorycle armor, or at least some kind of tough vest.

People are such *******s. I can deal with the occasional "Get on the sidewalk!!!" comments but there is no forgiveness for anyone that assults another person. My brother had a similar thing happen to him and was in the head with a full beer bottle--yeah, no helmet. The State Victim's Compensation Board took care of his medical expenses, but the SOB that did it never was caught.

One time out on a ride i had a bunch of kids toss their ice cold water on me. I just said thanks i needed that. Seriously i did it was 97 out at the time and humid as hell heh.

Seriously though a 1 litter botte could kill these punks should be jailed for assult with a deadly weapon imo.

Little ot but on topic of items hitting cyclist.
I was riding behind a semi bout 30 to 40 feet from the end of his flat bed trailer. Windy as all heck that day. His load was pink styrofoam (love the stuff great for rc planes) Any how wind happened to catch a few sheets just right and snapped them in half. 3 half sheet flew right over me and hit a couple cars behind me the 4ths half sheet landed on edge right in front of me on edge. Thankfully i didnt panic and just plowed in to it strait as possible and snaped it again. I stopped at this point to clean the bits of it out of my front rim chain etc. The other half sheets now unsecured flew off like frisbies. After that the rest of oene entire stack just fell in to the road.

Me and a few others helped the poor guy resecure the unbroken sheets and i took a few of the half sheets home that were not busted all to heck had my brother pick them up for me.

Realy have to watch your self it isnt just people being stupid and trying to hit you with a pop bottle. This guy did every thing right his load was properly secured to begin with yet it still came loose. Theres realy not any other way to secure this stuff. At first there is its wraped in plastic wrap but one full trailer does not tend to go to one loaction. In this case the load was 5 full stacs towards the front and one partial on the back. The back stack was the one that let loose.

Even though the original poster said he didn't get their plate number, I think he should report the incident anyway. Maybe the cops can put 2 and 2 together and either find them or catch them doing something else illegal.

I think you're right. At least the police will be aware of these things happening. It certainly sounds like this sort of thing happens to enough of us that its of some concern.

That's one reason I wear a helmet and a backpack. The objects in a backpack can add valuable protection and I've had cans of Coke glance off my helmet.

i wonder if helelemt head would consider this a lane positioning issue? was there a bike lane? what are your notions?


having been hit by tomatoes, and (unbottled) water before, i can relate. i got the finger today, on a four laner, by some jackstrap i passed at an intersection. i did nothing wrong, and still pissed this guy off. some drivers just plain don't like bikes.

Good questions. There was no bike lane. This was a low traffic road, a blacktop on the edge of town.

Iwas riding within 3 feet of the edge. I don't know if they'd have had a harder time hitting me if I had "taken" the lane. Maybe them having to pass around me would have affected their aim. I don't know.

The backpack isn't a bad idea. But it was 100 degrees here the last few days. Whew!

My father in law, got hit by a bottle as he was jogging a few years ago. It busted his head open and required stitches and a hospital stay. Some people are just idiots.

When you have shows like Jackass, and videos online of kids riding around on cars throwing things, shooting things, etc, it shows the direction the world is going.

Its not uncommon for people to be permanently injured or killed by these incidents. The parties doing these actions when caught never get punished enough imo to equal the crime.

I recall an incident a few years ago where some kids were shooting roller bladers with a paintball gun here in socal and a guy was hit, fell and even with pads and helmet, died. For someones joy, another person died. Sadly societies demise will be brought upon itself. If someone is caught doing this, they should be tied up for the other person to do the same to them.

Hey, I don't think this constitutes whining! I'm glad to hear you are ok

We read of these incidents or have one happen to us and ask "What were they thinking?" But often, I believe, there is no more thinking than that which goes on in a dog's head when he lights off after a cat or rabbit. What is a top pro soccer player thinking when he head-butts another player? What is a pro baseball player thinking when he bat-whacks an animated mascot? Much of road rage involves no thinking...rather some instinctual impulse.

I guess you could say this guy was 3 sheets to the wind

The conversation probably would have been, "You dumb ****, you're only mistake is you got caught. Next time don't let the ******* cyclist get your plate number, cover it with something. But good going son, you did me proud! (then they high five)"

heheh litterly.

Worked out well for methat foam sheeting costs about 20 bucks a sheet. Ended up buildign a scratch built rc plane out of it. All hand carved ended up being one of the few planes i got in to the air hahah. I sucked as a rc plane pilot.

I had something like this happen to me on the way home from work a week or two ago. Fortunately for me it was at a much slower speed, and the bottle was plastic. It hit me in the leg, but I didn't want to think about if it had somehow gotten caught up in the drivetrain/wheels.

Also fortunately for me, it happened on the main street of the small town where I live, where there are a lot of streetlights and traffic in the late afternoon/early evening. I caught up to them without even pedalling hard several lights further on, and hocked a huge wad of spit right onto the car. The passenger who'd thrown the bottle threw another at me (missed wide), we exchanged a few choice words, and then they drove on.

I know, I know, I probably should have taken their license number and called it in, but I was damn angry, and it felt good to clear the phlegm out of my throat.

The bottle that hit me was plastic, too. It was a nearly full, capped, liter bottle of pop that hit me like Mike Tyson would've hit like ten years ago.

BTW, glad you caught them and had SOME sort of revenge.

I'm alarmed at just how many people have had things tossed at them.

If you can dodge a hammer, you can dodge a bottle!