welcome to the forums. Nice introduction. your experience here should be an interesting one. Hope you have a thick skin and a good sense of humor.

well, this is going to be interesting as I suspected when I read your intro.
The rules do apply to all...and insults will not be tolerated by anyone no matter the post count.
I do expect that if folks read what you said about yourself in your intro that you will receive a lot of justified criticism. How you respond to that will be interesting. When your behavior is juvenile and irresponsible and people call you out on it, that is not an insult, it is a statement based on what you had to say about yourself...you did say that you do not obey traffic laws, that you consider them an unofficial suggestion...you did say you ride on the wrong side the road and weave in and out of traffic (around cars) and justified it by saying "when you have to", which is of course your opinion. If you draw fire for that, and they do so in a "respectful" manner, so be it. Whether it is a thick skin or sense of humor, your preference for use and terminology is acceptable, you will need to use one or the other and respond in like manner (respectful). Your post suggest that you ride in such a manner as to reflect poorly on the cycling community among the non-cyclists and then you criticize them for talking bad about you...a bit of hypocrisy IMO. Have fun and try not to be high maintenance.

I do not believe that bad or reckless behavior on the part of one, justifies it on the part of the other...I think the "he hit me back first" mind set should have gone away with training pants. I agree that many drivers today do not drive a car, they aim the thing.
One thing we do have in common, though we may phrase it differently, is that when push comes to shove, I put my safety above traffic laws, be that on my bike, my motorcycle or in my truck.
High maintenance is a phrase that the moderators use to describe a forum member whose posts, or style of posting, or personality causes him to post in such a fashion that moderating his posts takes up a much higher percentage of time than a poster should. It seems that there are a few folks in the world whose method of doing things seems to constantly stir up problems on the internet forums...for some reason their threads create more insults, more off topic wonderings, in general more forum rule violations than others. Either they are buttheads or they are butthead magnets....either way, they become a maintenance problem, high maintenance. We try to look at as much of the forum daily as we can, and between all of the mods, most of the forum is checked everyday... we do occasionally miss something...and over time almost all posters will have a thread or two go sideways...most of the time, one edit, or deletion and a PM telling them what was done and why solves the problem...not high maintenance... but when that becomes a habit.. I have a feeling that your views are going to stir up some emotional responses...spark some heated conversation...and have a potential for becoming high maintenance...you may occasionally feel ganged up on...oh, and do not be too shocked if you have a couple supporters too... but they have likely been down that road and may not want to approach the issue again... we will just see how it goes...have a good time on here, and try to help others have a good time too...I personally support your right to your opinion on these issue, but in all honesty, if I lived where you live, I likely would not ride with you.

robbie_d, re-read my post. I did not call you a butthead. I said buttheads and butthead magnets exist... and both are high maintenance issues. If one causes trouble or attracts trouble... they are both extra work for me. If one is a trouble maker we do deal with them directly and immediately... if one constantly attracts trouble..well that takes a little longer to figure out...but it does eventually get done and they are encouraged not to do so in the future...then we see where that goes... I also did not say you were high maintenance, I said i saw the potential for it and alerted you to that potential so you could avoid it.
Man, you sure like to type long posts.

robbie_d, I am from Montreal and I respect you - sometimes, respecting laws that are made for motorists is not becoming of a cyclist.

For example, why would I kill my single speed momentum for a red light at 2 am when there is not a soul in sight?

In such a case, it is justifiable for me to burn that light. It is not justifiable for a car to do that, because he might kill another cyclist, or some pedestrian who isn't very visible.

Now, before I get criticized for being a hypocrite, let me make it clear that on a bicycle, one is much more aware of his surroundings, and can much more accurately gauge whether there is the presence of a motorized vehicle in his close surroundings. Something a person inside of a motor vehicle does not have the luxury of doing.

So, in many regards, I can relate to the way you cycle. We can consider ourselves lucky to live in a city like Montreal where such an important biking community exists (last I read, it is something like 50 000 everyday cyclists).

However, as far as pleasure to read, I agree with the mod that you type too much. I stopped reading after your first post.