I'm sorry, but I know I look a bit different when I'm out on my R20 and I've got used to the snide comments from racing mates....I let the legs answer the critics. However, early yesterday morning while out on a spinning /recovery ride after Saturdays 134km charity race....oops I mean ride, I passed a group of young ferals getting ready to go motorXing. One of them yelled at me something like "Blah blah blah...pinhead", and I lost it a bit a yelled back "Get a life ya, ******". Luckily, they didn't chase me because I had to stop at a red light
But it worries me that I respond like that every now and again, I'm 73 kg of pure T.N.T. with a very short fuse, maybe I need some more Valium??, please help me get my head around this

How old are you?

Well the other day some roadies were having a race or one of those group commutes and were trying to pass me on both sides of the bike lane. They literally encircled me and were giving me their angry looks so I pulled my 9mm Glock out of my waist bag and fired it in the air a few times. They all stopped, some of them fell off their bikes.

I really hope you're joking.

Old enough to know better and to be very ashamed of myself.....welcome to the scary world of my mind.

I do this all the time and I'm 56!

I've always been like this, especially when I'm exercising. Some part of my inner mind seems to think I am a Neanderthal on an Oryx hunt or a crazy primitive on a raiding party.

I've even been known to stop the bike, go back and say, 'What was that sonny?'..... Depends how big and how ferral and how many.

Ain't good though - I have to admit it. Same used to happen when I was a runner. I'd be on a ten miler and I got all fired up and ran through traffic and junctions full of hell.

Some of us are just mad.

There's something about a good aggressive ride that makes one... well, you know: aggressive. It goes with the territory. I've been trying, lately, to ride slowly enough to not break a sweat; I'd like to wear more 'adult' clothes to work, and maintain an appearance that conveys a little bit of my phd-level respectability. But I just can't handle it when another bicyclist passes me. Without any conscious effort on my part, my speed goes from 14 mph to 18 mph and.... dang, where's the smiley for "hot and sweaty"?

Next time you PASS a group of young ferals, try saying something like 'Morning, gents!', and flash a big smile. The PINHEAD who made the comment was probably irked by your passing. He probably gets passed a lot, and making derogatory remarks is his puerile way of feeling better.

I get passed all the time, and I'm old enough not to worry about it. But I have to say that when someone nods at me, or says "good morning" or "beautiful day, isn't it?" as they are passing, it feels good. Especially when it's a grandmother on a 3-speed doing the passing.

Take pity on them that they're grown up enough to ride a real bike on a real road

I used to get some grief from the local ferral kids if I didn't pop a wheelie on my sports m/bike when they wanted one. A slow turn of the head towards them and a lingering stare in a helmet with a black visor normally worked the trick.

Not so simple on p/bike. I now try grinning like an idiot as it's not what they're expecting. And if it's when they're pedaling by I let them give me a race, knowing that they'll soon run out of puff, the lardy ar*es.

When all that fails, I call in an Airstrike.

Nice being 11 again

Wow.

I always get positive comments.

Nice bike!

What is that?

Haha, yes, I was kidding.

That's how you get your ass kicked.

My experience has been that when you treat someone reasonably and respectfully, and when you do it FIRST, it's rare for the response to be negative. Of course this depends on the situation, location, etc. There are times when it's better to simply 'zip it' and move on. Responding to a remark 'in kind' is much more of an invitation for trouble.

Ive heard conflict management described as this:
You choose treat the other party as if they were 1-a parent, 2-a child, 3-an adult.
The best choice is both people treating others as an adult, with respect
and not like you need to teach some kind of lesson in some form.

That is taught in the Texas concealed handgun class. I think it probably
works too.

Problem is that I have a history of retaliating to loud mouthed brain-dead fools and have been chased on foot, bicycle or car because of what I've replied to their dumb comments. I simply can't help it, even if it's a group of them, I say something, I've been like this since I was a kid.
Once when I was a young fella, I was doing a paper run on my 3 spd dragstar bike and a group of older smart a**e teenage boys surrounded me and were picking on me. I played the "please don't hurt me" role and when they lost interest and let me go, I just had to shout "See you later GIRLS" and then got chased by a very angry mob for a few blocks. It was the fastest that little bike had ever ridden and I was so scared I nearly wet myself, but they didn't catch me
It still happens now....and I'm all growed up

I get comments too, considering the source I interprit them as compliments.

Obviously there is something about your style that annoys people. Why is it that this kind of crap always happens to you since you were a kid? Nobody talks crap to me never.

The mad look in my eye has saved me all my life...
They take one look and decide it's not worth it
Is only luck that I look mad... [you sure of that Leigh?]
as I couldn't fight my way out of a wet paper bag.

Mate,
I have no style.....it's just that I've always been a "doer" when most of these idiots are nothing but lazy slugs who never do much by the way of exercise, so when they see someone who does they can't take it and have to mouth off. Maybe they hate the fact that I ride fairly briskly?

That's the style I'm talking about.

Note to oneself: Slow down and you won't get teased

Did you cop any flak powering your way to Mt Whatever on Saturday? How did the whole thing go? RR needed.

I ended up not doing anything Saturday. Except work in the garden, that is, building yet more retaining walls...

Jur,

No flak whatsoever from the public.
Lots 'n lots of lycra clad riders of all shapes and sizes and ability, celebrities like Danny Frawley, Michael Klim and former Olympic gold medal cyclist Scott McGrory, also the Suntour team riders came as well. We all left Bendigo under police escort, all 200+?? of us, what a sight!! I stayed close to the front of the peleton as it was quite windy and I could see that breaks would happen when the weaker riders suddenly went out the back as the course became undulating. After about 40kms the short course riders, which were the bulk of the group turned off, and the rest of us long course mugs continued. I stayed with the leading bunch, working at the front through some pretty testing hills up until the 100km mark at the base of Mt Alexander. Then their YOUNG legs took over, even though I had been training on both sides of this climb for months, they ate me for breakfast....I was very disappointed with my climb, my worst effort for a long time, plus, cramps were making the climb even worse, I normally don't cramp up and I hate getting dropped The descent was down the steep side, very fast, lots of fun, put it this way...cars can't keep up
I came home with a few guys doing track turns at a fast pace with a strong tail wind, cramping up again 10 km from the finish, limping in in about 10 -15 th place, not a race, but somewhat competitive.
I had hoped that some of the celebs might have done the long course, I was itching to stick it to some of the ex AFL footballers, but alas, I got lumbered with young guns.....and some older guns too....all in all a great day, wish you could have made it.
BTW, I'm thinking of doing a 100km Audax ride at Avoca next month...see you there?

I understand the urge. But really ... it just isn't worth it sometimes.

Short fuse or not, 73 kg isn't much TNT. Maybe you better carry some pepper spray.

Note to self: invention - pepper spray bar ends!