scotton

I love cycling. I love ride bikes, fixing bikes, watching bikes on TV. When it comes to bikes, I'm in. However, I don't subscribe to the bike vs car war that some people are constantly beating the drum for.

Don't get me wrong. I have been run into the ditch twice, doored a few times, swerved into, been used for beer bottle target practice, etc. But the fact of the matter is, I have 5 bikes and 2 cars, and I would give up all 5 bikes before I would consider giving up either car. So if we are at war, I'm not sure whose side I'm on. And just to blur the lines even further, 90% of the open garages I ride past have bikes in them. And cars. What the what?

Here is an uncomfortable truth. As much as I love cycling, a lot of cyclist are "ducci baggos". Have you ever referred to your wattage, and you aren't an electrician? Do you shave your legs to make yourself more "aero"? Do you refer to clothing as "kit"?

Guess what. You may be a ducci baggo. And that's fine. I love that there is a group of people making me look less like a dork for wearing black lycra shorts every morning.
But think on this. If we are at war, it is a war of sticks and rocks versus tanks and bazookas. Do we really need our fellow cavemen pissing off the guys in the tanks?

So here is how I have won the hearts and minds on my local routes. It's called the smile and wave. It's pretty simple. When a motorist is coming towards you, or at a cross street waiting for you to cross, take your left hand off of the bars, extend it up to approximately ear height and rotate the wrist 2-5 times. Try to keep your hand relaxed to prevent cramping. Now for the hard part. Simultaneously, lift the corners of your mouth and show a few teeth. The expression I shoot for is "Hey! I'm on a bike! Isn't that fun?! Yippee!" You will feel like a doofus at first, but remember this: you are wearing skin tight clothes, shoes that you can't walk in and a plastic hat. You gave up on cool when you left the house. A finger flick or micro-head bob will not get you the results we are shooting for. Every dead squirrel on the road flicked and bobbed, and look what it did for them. If they would have smiled and waved, they would still be alive.

I have gotten to the point where only one old man in a white Dodge pickup won't smile and wave back. So I've cut down on the number of people that might knock me into a ditch some day to one. I like those odds.

If you are halfway up a wall, in granny gear and starting to think about hiking the rest of the way, you get a pass. No one wants to see the expression you are going to try to pass off as a smile.

Golf used to be a dork sport, too, until Tiger came along. Lance tried to un-dork cycling, and he has helped humanize it for a lot of America. Walk into a cattlemen's bar in Lubbock and ask the old men if they know who Lance Armstrong is and most of them will at least know what sport he's famous for. But it still takes effort from the grassroots. If you insist on wearing the silly clothes, at least try to appear friendly and self-depreciating.

And if you ride in my neck of the woods, please wave to the motorists. It took a long time to train them.

StanSeven

Good post! Also this works better than the attitude of "take the lane because it's my right."

rekmeyata

Wow, all of that written when it could have been said in less then two sentences. Anyway, I only wave at motorists if they do something courteous to me, like wave me on through in intersection, stop to allow me to cross, slow down so I can get over etc. Yeah, I wave, it's to show appreciation for their kindness, most cyclists don't do that though, the cyclists think they deserve it and the motorist is just a hindrance to their way of life.

Actually taking the lane is not about, "it's my right", it's about maintaining your safety, and taking the lane will keep you safer and more alive then thinking you shouldn't so you crowd the curb getting close calls with cars attempting to miss you. So in some cases your actually increasing the danger you put on yourself by not taking the lane. Learn how to ride on the street properly to stay alive or don't ride on street.

Read this and learn something: https://garyridesbikes.blogspot.com/2...king-lane.html

And this: https://www.commutebybike.com/2008/03...why-its-safer/

Also sometimes I'll take the lane for blocks because I'm going just as fast as traffic is, and it keeps me in the lane so I can make lane changes to the left easier when a left turn is coming up.

chipcom 

The thread title reminds of of the old "How to train your killer whale" commercials they used to run for MUG root beer.

Tell your killer whale "Don't bite!"
If he continues to bite...STOP THE LESSON...and pour yourself a frosty glass of Mug root beer!

As for the OP...the last time I tried waving at a motorist coming up behind me and passing in the dark at 50mph, he slammed on his brakes and wanted to fight because he thought I flipped him the bird.

AlmostTrick

Cute post. I agree with the sentiment and do wave to motorists in certain situations, but I have too much traffic to wave to them all. Then there is the darkness thing which makes waving even less practical.

SBRDude

Great post (OP). I, too, am weary of the us vs. them approach of many posters here. I'm pretty sure that a very huge majority of cyclists also drive cars, so the us vs. them crowd are really out of touch. Maybe that's why they like it here...?

Bob N.

Nice post. Well thought out and articulated. Grammar and punctuation above-average for the interwebs.

I concur.

IrvJamison

Great post from Scotton! Although you can’t be waving and smiling to every car driver out there it will help remove the stigma that a lot of drivers have that bike riders are out on the roads just to piss off motorists. Say you move into a new neighborhood, how are you going to make friends with the new neighbors? Ignore them or smile, wave and say “HI”. A wave and smile with personalize you in the eyes of that driver (most of the time) that now you are a step closer to being their “friend” and not an enemy.

MMACH 5

At least you don't talk down to your audience.

hyegeek

That's got to be one of the best lines I've read in a while.

cranky velocist

If I recognize a driver/car as a neighbor, or they actually give me my due right of way, I try to wave sometimes.

But wave at everyone, and nobody will believe you actually have places to be and/or a pulse to keep high.

Regarding the OP: one of the nearest-misses my wife had was with an oblivious old lady who cut into her left-turn lane and then screamed "my husband is a cyclist you have to watch out!" at her. And this was 2 blocks up from a college campus in a college town with two bike shops & a clinic within one mile's distance.


Owning a bike in a garage doesn't mean you actually ride it enough to care for people who do any more than owning a lawnmower means you respect the landscapers or owning tennis shoes means you keep fit.

dougmc

And here I thought a ******bag was about how you were rude or uncaring of others, but instead it's more about what you call things and talk about?

Also note that as I understand it, roadies typically shave their legs not for any tiny aero effect but instead for the ease of healing in the inevitable crash with road rash -- hairy legs and road rash don't mix.

Seattle Forrest

Why is it that so many A&S holes have an inferiority complex toward roadies?

( PS - racers shave their legs to avoid getting hair in their road rash, not for whatever aerodynamic benefits may or may not exist. It's easy to condemn things you don't understand. )

SBRDude

Neither do hairy arms and road rash, but I don't see many cyclists shaving their arms.

genec

Good post... couple of "counter thoughts" to this:

"...you are wearing skin tight clothes, shoes that you can't walk in and a plastic hat. You gave up on cool when you left the house." <--- Well maybe... some of us still think this is a cool image:



I know that if I am NOT commuting with 50MPH traffic, but am just scooting down to the pub, or the local store or even on a local ride, I try as much as possible to get the Einstein look, vice the Lance look.


Second....
"I have 5 bikes and 2 cars, and I would give up all 5 bikes before I would consider giving up either car."

Sorry bud, not me... I have given up all the cars before, and I did just fine. Since I don't have to "feed" the bikes the same way I have to "feed" a car, I still consider a bike more reliable transportation. Now that said, sure I own a car, but I try to use whatever mode of transit best suits my immediate need... which means for instance, all last week, I rode the trolley downtown; the other day I walked to the store (as I have done many times before). I think transportation diversity is one of the keys to keep this country out of trouble... sadly, far too many transportation planners and much of the population tend to think they cannot live without cars.

Ultimately however, a smile and a wave WILL get you a lot farther than a bird and a scowl... on that we do agree.

Digital_Cowboy

+100

If a motorist waits for me to cross an intersection I'll give them a wave, smile and a thank you. On the other hand if a motorist, like a cab driver that I saw the other day with the nose of his cab sticking out into the intersection is starting out even though they should have seen me and "have" to stop short they don't get a wave or a smile.

I agree, and sadly there are those here who think that our only reason for taking the lane is to piss off or inconvenience drivers. Do some do that? Sure, but anywhere one goes one is going to run into arseholes.

Again, I agree or if we're the only traffic on the road does it really matter where we position ourselves?

mnemia

I agree that waving and being friendly helps to humanize cyclists and maybe reduce aggression by motorists. So that part of your post, I completely agree with. It can be hard to suppress the urge to respond angrily to some of the things I see motorists pull, but I do think it's best not to most of the time.

I don't, however, share the weird fixation with cyclist's clothing. It doesn't make someone a "dork" if they wear a different kind of clothing than you while cycling...it just means they've made a different choice of clothing, for some reason or another. Their reasons may be rational/functional, or they may be irrational and fashion-based. It doesn't really matter to me, at all, and it shouldn't matter to anyone else how some stranger chooses to dress. I wear MTB shorts and cotton T-shirts a lot while doing utility cycling, although I sometimes wear cycling jerseys and Lycra shorts when I go on long rides (mainly for the breathability and pockets). I'm always puzzled by cyclists who "look down" on other groups of cyclists who dress differently from them, especially since I change what I wear in response to functional needs and at times can fall into various different "groups". And I've gotten it in both directions, mainly from non-cyclists who say that things like Lycra are "gay" or use other homophobic slurs, and from roadies who seem to have an elitist attitudes towards people who wear T-shirts and have mirrors on their bikes. I would suggest just wearing what you want and riding your bike without worrying about what people wear.

Digital_Cowboy

Actually, from talking with a nurse a while back. That is just a myth, the hair on one's legs (male) will keep bacteria, etc. out. And make for longer healing times. Don't believe me call or drop into your neighborhood clinic and ask them.

chipcom 

But what if I'm wearing normal-looking clothes, I can walk in my shoes and I'm wearing a baseball cap - does that mean I don't have to be a surrender-monkey and give up the cool that I inherited from my hero, Snoopy?

chipcom 

BTW, kudos for starting a waving thread that isn't the same old "the mean roadie didn't wave back to me" thread!

chasm54

"noodly appendage" is the appropriate strap line, sure enough...

Digital_Cowboy

I think that your last two lines sum things up best. As I've said in another thread. The next time that you're out on the road try to count in say just five minutes how many SOV's (single occupant vehicles) that you see. Why can't more people car pool, or at least take public transportation? Instead of getting behind the wheel of their car when they're going to be the only occupant? Or why do they get in their car, and go to one store buy something bring it home drop it off and go back out again? When there was still plenty of room for the stuff that they were going to buy at the next store?

Why can't they ask their neighbor(s) (which would also help bring connectivity back to neighborhoods), "Hey I'm going to ________ do you want to come along? The two upsides to this is that one gets to know their neighbor(s) again, and we have people who are not driving SOV's.

The hardest thing to get people to do so would be getting them out of their "what's best for me?" When the irony is that sharing rides IS "what's best for me."

SBRDude

Lots of assumptions here. People don't know their neighbors very well. People are going to the same place. People have the same schedules. People don't already try to be neighborly and helpful, carpool, etc. Public transportation is available. People don't already plan trips to do errands all in one shot instead of running in and out all day long from their house.

chipcom 

Fade in to another endless Dude vs DC debate...this thread is now officially doomed, DOOMED I TELL YA!

SBRDude

Nah, I'm going out of town for a few days so ya'll are safe. At least until I get back.