Overt Commuter Harrassment
 

I’ve read a lot of posts about people getting things thrown at them and generally harassed. My experience is different. First, let me say that I live in a hive of rednecks. Mullets, manufactured housing, loud diesel pickups modified to smoke like a tramp steamer. I am surrounded by dentally challenged inbreeds that NEVER give me a hard time, if fact they allow me a wide berth and give a finger wave (the good one).
My issue is with………Shriners. Whoa you say, those guys are awesome in parades and my kids love them. Well, that’s fine but when they go home or to the store in their giant boat like Cadillacs, they are a menace to cyclists. Picture your basic Shriner, fez in the backseat, leaning into the steering wheel, mouth slightly agape, squinting and going 45. They creep up behind me and blow the horn repeatedly (to let me know they are there). Then ease by nicking my panniers with their door handles not even giving an inch. Take down their license number … not an option, because affixed to that plate is a nice Fraternal Order of Police badge. All I’d probably get out of the deal is a cavity search. Hell, he’s probably the former chief.
So I’ll take rednecks any day. You can have the Shriners maybe Mason’s too but they’re too secret.

Pardon my ignorance but I am going to assume from your post that Shriners are senior citizens?

I'll trade you tuner kids for Shriners.

The one's I'm dealing with are.

Shriners

Never seen these guys before?

http://www.neepawa.ca/lily/images/lily2001/shriners.jpg

If only they drove those mustangs every day.....I can dream.

Damn, that's funny. Brake fluid will melt paint off BTW. I presume we're talking about Land Between the Lakes area? Good times. I grew up not to far away. I don't miss it.

I ride into Nisku which is an oilfield industrial park, this is Redneck central for these parts. I've never had a single issue in Nisku or with Rednecks. It's always with more or less affluent drivers with a sense of entitlement in the city.

It's my understanding the Shriners ARE Masons. Could be wrong.

No no, you're correct. The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine are an appendant of the Freemasons.

And they're not all geriatrics, either. A friend of mine from college is a Shriner in Cincinnati, and he's only 30.

Or you could be right. Which you are.

No those are different groups. Masons used to be a very secret society, but that hasn't been the case for at least a hundred years. Shriners have temples, Masons meet at the mason Lodge. From the Shriner site: Shriners of North America is an international fraternity based on fun, fellowship and the Masonic principles of brotherly love, relief and truth. So I can see where people get confused.

I am glad to hear the "red necks" in your area behave in a more enlightend way. As far as being bothered by the Shriners... don't worry they are a dying breed :rolleyes:.
I personally have nothing against any of these groups (Shriners, Masons, Elk Lodge, etc), but from what I've see all of these groups are suffering greatly due to mortality. These groups are finding it next to impossible to get young people to join a mens club. I just don't think that the average generation X and Y adults "get it." I have seen this attributed (in various articles) largely to the fact that today's families are doing more things together and the parents are busy taking their kids from activity to activity. I appreciate that these groups raise money for good causes, but so do some of the rides and runs that are put on by many orginizations throughout the country . One event I've participated in "The Ride for Roswell" collected 1.8 Million dollars for cancer research this year. That is pretty amazing for a one day event for a city/region the size of Buffalo NY.

Happy riding,
André

There are many groups and organizations associated with Masonry. Shriners is one of them. Eastern Star, DeMolay, etc.

Most Masonic Lodges host open houses. You should check it out. The one I went to handed out a family tree of the organizations and Shriners was in there.

You're riding too far right.

If someone blows the horn at me, I glance back and if they're still behind me I move left. I'm certainly not going to reward some a-hole by letting them squeeze me off the road.

I'll trade BOTH you guys for construction & contractors driving company diesel trucks.

Shriner's Convention. :roflmao2:

+1

Unless there is a dedicated bike lane or the lane is extremely wide, get out there in the center. Safer for all concerned.

Wow!… you certainly do have a strange way to show your appreciation for their courtesies. I bet they really wouldn’t like your description of them, if they ever heard it. I even bet the way they treat you would change quite a bit... you think?:rolleyes:

We used to end up by the Shriners during parades when I was in high school, and they were usually drunk and/or obnoxious then. George Carlin did a piece on them that ends up with the saying "drink up Shriners" that was pretty funny, but I can't find it online.

Amen!! I love doing this. You can hear them in there trying to figure it out, "this guy is an idiot, he thinks I honked at him to give him room." .... and there's nothing they can do about it.

Maybe he's got other reasons for disliking them.

Freud would probably say self loathing.:eek:

I think the OP has problems with only one Shriner. Shriners raise a lot of money to have fun, and very little goes to good causes

Granted, things may be different for you since you are from Central Kentucky, but here in Western Kentucky, we have an over abundance of #$@ holes and rednecks...not shriners. Take tonight for example, I am in a left turning lane with a green light (just a green light, no arrow), yielding for all 6 cars to go through the green light so I may take my turn, and the last car had its window down and the guy starts cussing at me for no reason. I just turn my mp3 player up a bit louder and continue on. Next, I approach the crest of a steep hill (cannot even see if anybody is coming in the oppossite lane, and someone buzzes me. No big deal if I wasn't taking the whole lane, but yes, for safety, I positioned myself where it was safest in that situation, in the middle (Owensboro Kentucky doesn't seem to believe bike lanes are important). The guy passes me, crossing the center line with a car coming straight at him. By the time he realizes this, he swerves over towards me. I of course react and manage to catch him flipping me the bird as he guns his truck and speed off.

What is wrong with people?