SlimAgainSoon

... hassle a potential customer on his commute ... while driving your big-hog of a pickup truck ... emblazoned with the name of your family's home-construction business.

sm1960

now you have a phone number to hassle back, or to report.

annc

Don't harass the the business; simply call and speak to the owner. Calmly but firmly tell him/her what happened. The business is liable for the actions of its employees. Regardless of the owner's opinion of cyclists, the owner will not like that the employees are risking a lawsuit.

Lot's Knife

Sounds like the driver might be the business owner. Posting the business's name here might be a good start.

rumrunn6

walk right in and punch the first guy you meet in the head

mikewille

walk right in and punch the first guy you meet in the genital

Amani576

Walk right in and hand the guy papers formally filing a lawsuit...










Then KICK him in the genitals.
-Gene-

TeamRoundBoys

Make chili out of their family members that you kill and serve it to them at a chili cookoff. Make sure their favorite performing artist shows after you tell them what they ate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnO5CkYyAU8

*disclaimer, murder may result in incarceration, death or hell. Individual results may vary.

Amani576

Guh... That is my least favorite episode of South Park. I saw that episode years ago and it bothered me for a LONG time.
-Gene-

electrik

Find out what employee it was, pay the company to send him out and then make his job a living hell...

ItsJustMe

Next major project you have done, send them photographs of the completed project and a note telling them that you did not consider their company for bids due to the behavior of their employees to you on the road. Bonus points if you also have photographs from a helmet cam or something of their truck cutting you off or something.

rumrunn6

report it to he cops - most towns publish their police logs in the local paper

file a small claims suit with the better business bureau, its free

call the local paper and let them know what happened

JanMM

Lawsuit? For what? Got witnesses? "Hassling" covers a lot or territory. What happened? Don't overreact.

rumrunn6

hassle for hassle ... basic message - don't mess with me unless you want me as a new friend ... :-)

Rhodabike

I like this reply the best. Some idiots still think that the only reason anyone would ride a bike to work is because they're too poor to afford a car. You could emphasize that the reason you can afford a renovation is precisely BECAUSE you aren't pouring money into loan payments and gasoline for a honkin' big pickup truck or suv.

dynodonn 

The town I live in is just small enough that I see a lot of the same motorists on a weekly or bimonthly basis. If it's a no harm no foul situation on the first go around, I'll let it slide, keep a mental note, and chalking it up to them having a bad day. If the same scenario happens again with the same motorist the next time we meet, then I'll take it a step further up the legal system regardless if it's a business vehicle or not.

I-Like-To-Bike

Just for argument's sake, are you that sure the OP afford a car, or renovations, or is riding to work anywhere? I have my doubts about the stability of those other posters who jabber on about lawsuits, police reports, and or get their bowels in an uproar about a momentary, transient "hassle."

Not that the OP's or any other cyclist's financial status is a legitimate catylst for an idiot to verbally "hassle", but it appears the BF Drama Queens are again making mountains out of molehills.

waynesworld

This is my favorite, and I may steal it for my sig line - with credit, of course.

seenoweevil

Send him flowers, with a "Sorry for your Loss" card, explaining how his completely unwarranted tirade will cost him business in the long run from your requesting all your friends never to do business with such a person.

RogerB

So what? You only represent 1% of the total US population, many of whom are not potential or prospective customers. Even if you tell 19 people (the average number of people we tattle to) about your experience, the odds are that none of them will take you seriously unless they also ride a bike, which on average would mean that the truck driver's actions had a negative impact on exactly 1.19 people.

Seriously, though, if the driver/owner is a habitual jerk to cyclists, odds are he's an aggressive jerk on the road most of the time. On the other hand, none of us here on the web really know what happened. Even if you tell us, we'll only have one side of the story.

Itsjustb

I can tell you what I did because this happened to me:

4 guys in a pickup getting smokes at a gas station. As I pulled into the station on my bike (meeting my wife who was fueling up our car), one of the guys yelled, "Suicide is not a hobby." I looked over at him and said, "Are you talking to me?" No answer. I started moving again and he yelled it again. I rode over to him and got into it with him, then my wife joined the conversation (she's scarier than I am, especially if you hassle me). As the idiots pulled away in the pickup my wife realized they'd been cutting down trees in our neighbor's yard. When I got home I called the company and asked for the owner. I got him on the phone, told him exactly what had happened, and that when we needed trees cut down I would call anyone BUT him, and would tell everyone in the neighborhood to do the same.

I then told him that if I ran a tree-cutting company, the LAST guy I would want handling a chain saw would be some idiot stupid enough to harass people while driving the company truck. I said, "I hope you've got really good insurance!" and hung up on him.

Itsjustb

Oh, and I did realize (after the fact) I should have said to the original idiot, "Someone saying 'Suicide is not a hobby' while holding a carton of cigarettes in his hand may be the most ironic thing I've ever heard." But then again, I don't think he'd understand irony.

neil

Ah, but how much money do they represent? I saw a statistic recently that the average cycle commuter in my area has a well-above-average income (over $90k), suggesting that it's a group that might be more likely than average to spend money on major projects. They probably also have friends with above average incomes, and some friends, certainly your 19 closest friends that you might tell, will probably take your thoughts on the matter seriously enough to affect their purchasing decisions.

I don't know how well this translates in other localities.

RogerB

It's not a hobby, but it brings on many changes, and you can take or leave it if you please.

cellery

A similar thing happened happened to me a few weeks ago: A lady in a blue minivan honked at me from behind, where I was taking the right lane on a four lane arterial with no bike lane. After honking, she pulled up beside me in the left lane to say "you're not a car!"... Well, I thought that would be fairly obvious to most people on the road including myself. Apparently she also didn't figure out the obvious part about just passing me on the left like the 50 or so other vehicles that passed me by moving into the left lane without needing to honk or inform me that I am not, in fact, a Transformer.

As she passed me I got a nice big glimpse of the company logo of the van, for a professional photography house in town. It appeared to be the business' owner who had yelled at me. Good, well that makes it much easier for me to know which photographer not to call if I get married or need a photo shoot for my band.