Originally Posted by
Helmet Head
Why do you think I'm making ANY assumptions about your skill level and experience of riding on the road? It's very interesting that you think I'm doing that.
Well, you're insistence that anything I say that doesn't agree with your kockamamie theories must therefore be wrong was a clue. (see below - you're still doing it)
Originally Posted by
Helmet Head
You're some guy on the internet, I have no idea how much skill and experience you have, just as you have no idea how much I have. But I can tell you this, I know dozens of cyclists with decades of all kinds of cycling experiences and extraordinary biking skills who do really scary stuff in traffic. They're the ones who like to emphasize how sometimes stuff happens and there is nothing you can do about it, and don't seem very interested in talking about whether or not there was something you could have done about it if you roll back the clock 30-45 seconds prior to the collision, and analyze what happened, and why.
Do you think that applies to me?
Originally Posted by
Helmet Head
In one classic conversation with such a guy (state racing champion, toured all over the world, etc.), he was telling me about why his wife wasn't riding due to an injured shoulder. I asked how it happened, and he told me they were on a residential street near their house when some ahole suddenly opened the door of his Ford F-250 4x4 pickup truck, knocking her down, etc. I empathized, and then made a comment about why it's important to never ride in a door zone. Get this. He insisted she was not in the door zone. It was a personal conversation, not an internet forum, so I backed off. But the point is here was a highly skilled and experienced cyclist who was not even willing to consider that maybe an adjustment to the way he and his wife ride could have prevented her from being affected at all, much less injured, in a crash like this, ever. His mind refused to go there. "The ahole guy in the truck was 100% at fault, and there was nothing that could have been done about it, period. You weren't there, you don't know. End of Story." A basic dooring! This is cycling safety 101. It was astonishing.
How utterly fascinating
Again, do you think that applies to me?
Originally Posted by
Helmet Head
Anyway, I've seen the "do you know how much skill and experience I have?" blinders in person, and I've certainly seen them on this forum.
Me too.
Originally Posted by
Helmet Head
Experience and skill, if anything, makes people less likely to consider what others are saying. The folks with whom I've probably had the most influence here, like JoeJack, were relatively inexperienced. So their minds were not as closed as yours apparently is.
You really are quite amazingly full of yourself, Serge. So unless I automatically agree with you, my mind is closed?
