I was biking around not to long ago in the West Island of montreal (near 40/St-Maire, south side). I was biking along on ste-Marie. A car pulled up on a side street with a stop sign. My street did not have a stop sign so I kept on going. Just as I was infront of the car (about 2 meters), the driver (a guy) honked and started giggling with a girl (his wife?) they were about 30. There was no reason at all. They were already stationary for about 2 or 3 seconds when they did it. AND THEY GIGGLED ABOUT IT. I don't know what they were planning to accomplish. Scare me into falling off the bike?

Anyone had experiences like this?

Yeah, they do that. I've given up asking why.

This is a classic case of:

a) 11 year old guy taking pleasure in other people's distress

b) 30 year old guy trying to impress his first date ever

(Hi kids. I'm new to the list. I've been riding about 8 monthes now, and really getting into it... I've got a Giant OCR2, and i'm building a single speed and a mountain. The original bike that I got 8 monthes ago split in half a week before I purchased the ocr2....)
anyway
HI!
I've had people try to scare me as well here in the city. I've had people honk and swerve. Once on the way to work I had someone throw a rock at me and hit my helmet...
The worst case was when a couple of blokes pulled up next to me and said "Hey man are you okay?" I was confused "Yeah, I'm fine" I replied. "Are you sure??" I replied again that i was fine. Then the guy replied "Good! Cause we're gonna F--- you up!" and they took off. I was wondering what I was in for but I changed directions and never saw them again.
I'm sure I'll continue to have the occasional run in with people like this as long as I live in a big city.
Ride,
brent

I have some of the local "rocket scientists" pass me as close as they "safely" can and honk the horn when they are right beside me.
I'm not sure what they are thinking when they do this. Er, ah, bad choice of words. They can't be thinking.
Are they trying to scare me into riding on the sidewalk (illegal around here)? Or riding only on my neighborhood streets? Not a chance.


One moron did this to me last Saturday and I got his tag number and the color and make of the pickup truck. He had to stop at the next light. I almost caught up with him but he turned right just before I got there. I turned and saw him turn onto a deadend street. I turned onto the street and spotted the truck. He must have seen me following him and quickly ran into his house. I hung around riding back and forth in front of his house waiting for him to come out but he didn't.
Now I ride by his house whenever I go out. It's less than 1/2 mile from my house. He hasn't shown his face yet but I'll be waiting.

I wonder if he does this to all cyclists. His house is about a 1/2 block from a road that several cyclists (10-15 per day) use to get to a local riding/training area.

Yeah, even on the back roads in the country this sort of stuff happens. The group I'm with usually stays pretty calm. We just wave, or say Hi!. If it's around a holiday, we wish the driver a happy holiday, for instance, "Happy Easter!", "Merry Christmas!". It usually works out pretty well.

Spire, the middle finger works pretty good.....try it next time

Spire, I have had this happen a few times, it is usually some Jabroni in a SUV, I usually give him the finger in return.

That really is the best response, though not always the natural one!

I've had some annoying people do various things that have been previously mentioned. I always think about catching up with them at some upcomming stop light and then calmly get off my bike and kick their door as hard as I can. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but I would love to see the look on their face as they saw me looking through their window.

Dave

Oh heck dwagenheim, with your butt glued to that bicycle seat all those hours and eating the freaky foods we riders love to devour on tour, just stand up, part your cheeks and let it RIP! Relief at last, and for a good cause.

roughstuff

Honking is very common here in NYC. I get honked at least once EVERYTIME I go out riding...I guess they're just warning honks.

As a driver, I do honk at some cyclists (the ones who look like it's their first time riding....wheeving in and out).....but it's just a real quick, soft and short warning honk that says "just to let you know, I'm getting closer"

First Date????---probably more like his sister------you should see some of the inbreds around here---lol

My favorites are the guys who speed up to get in front of you 50 feet from an intersection, then get caught up trying to make a right turn. I'm tempted to just run the bike into them, and roll across the trunk.

......oh my back.... Geez, maybe if you gave me $200 the pain will go away.....

j/k

= G

Oh, yeah.

The kid who tried to fake me out--screaming and acting like he was about to throw a bottle at my head. He got so close I finally flinched, then hit the brakes and watched him run into his house....his mommy answered the door...

The children who tried to startle me (and succeeded! --I say "children" because they were under 20) by screaming at me out the window as I was cranking up a long hill in slow traffic.
What a waste of time.

I had a car honking and carrying on behind me tonight on my way to work. The car passed closely but quickly took off. I did my damndest to catch up but the lights didn't work in my favour. It made for a hell of a warm up though. I thought they wanted to play with me in their tough Hyundai Pony race car but they just sped off around a corner. I was sad. At least it made for a quicker than usual ride to work.

I once got a guy good who honked at me and pulled up beside me. I pressed my freshly pressurized air horn in his face. It was priceless. He too raced off and blew a red light to make a left turn ahead. What a hero he was. I'm sure the trashy girlfriend in the shotgun seat was impressed by his manhood.

It's stuff like that that makes me wish I could afford a helmet cam and microphone. I'm certain shows like "Reel TV" would eat it up for a pretty penny. Of course if enough cyclists got together with cams, we could make our own show. It'd be sweet.

On the contrary, I've been taught by an Ozzie cyclist to give a friendly wave.
It DOES happen that some people honk in a friendly way. Actually I'm about 95% certain that all honks I received in Newfoundland, Canada were the friendly type: short double honk from afar.
Then you certainly wave. This also happened in France when I was climbing a particular difficult mountain in sweltering heat with a fully loaded bike.

The trick is that if you wave to unfriendly honkers it will drive them crazy! In case you do catch up with them or when they start abusing you say "oh, I love you' and blow kisses at them...
Will often drive them crazy as well I guess..

Ivana

Ron, I am not passing judgement on you for hanging around outside his house and riding past his house or anything like that so please do not take this the wrong way. But what is your intentions if you do see him again? Do you want to fight it out with him phisically? Confront him with words? Or simply and as pleasently as possible educate him as to the fact that cyclists have the same rights to the road as motorists but they also have to follow the same laws?

It is possible he does not know anything about that. Like I said don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to tell you how to handle it, I'm just curious how you are going to handle the situation if he sees you again.

I live in DC and around here motorists aren't exactly friendly. There's definitely an us vs. them mentality around here.

Anyway, I've learned to develop a thick skin. Id seems insane to me to actually stalk someone (as one of you has written about above) because they pissed you off on the road. What if that guy comes out of his house with a baseball bat and you're stuck in the dead end? You really think you're riding out?

They drive CARS! Cars can kill you. Easily.

I absolutely hate when people do stuff like honk or yell, it makes me want to go out and get a gun permit and carry a gun on my ride so i can shoot at people... hey its Texas, i could get away with it. I thought about getting air zound so i could honk back, but i dont really want to carry that big ol horn on my bike.

Its not really the honking that I have a problem with it was the fact that they did it for no other reason than to piss me off. Frequently people honk to say "I'm Here" or "You just moved in Front of me" or some other legitimate or semi-legitimate reason.

Sometimes I notice that people honk just to let you know they're there so you can move over. But this thread reminded me of an incident that happened years ago. I wasn't on my bike, but crossing at a busy street- I had to cross twice, once west then south. As I was crossing west, I knew the red light was about to change to yellow, but I didn't speed up. It was at night and there wasn't much traffic, only one car was stopped at the red light. Then, as the light changed to yellow, the car suddenly lurched forward as if it were about to take off, and so I began to run so I'd make it (it was a wide street). But they were just faking. When I looked into the car, the two guys were laughing- they thought it was really funny that they'd scared me. I was so furious that I stood in front of their car, banged my fist on the hood, gave them the finger and yelled "F*** YOU!" Their laughter just choked off, and when the light changed, they sped around the corder and screeched to a halt in front of me, blocking my way as tried to cross. I thought they would get out of the car, but I didn't stop. I just walked around the back as if nothing happened. They didn't do anything. I wasn't afraid of them, I think they just wanted to be macho men.

Sorry to be naive, but did you say that the red light turns yellow? What does that mean? Here, Green turns to yellow then to red then back to green. I always thought it was universal

It depends on where you are. Funny I have been in the USA, Canada and Mexico for so long and I can't remember.
I do know that we in the Nls have the green-yellow-red-green system while Germany has the green-yellow-red-yellow-green system..
I much prefer the one which warns that the light turns green by having a yellow light.. With the other system you always seem to think as if there's a race in which you're 'shot' out of the start position.

Ivana

I was out riding in the country once when a couple of high schoolers in thier POS, raised pickup truck came flying by me. Right when they were beside me, they released the gas and caused a nice loud backfire.

I've had people honk at me. Most of the time, I don't get a chance to see the driver so I imagine that it is a really good looking girl driving. :-)