nobrainer440

Yesterday, while cresting the top of a brutal hill huffing and puffing, a car passes me and I hear a friendly "beep beep" and see the driver through his back window doing an enthusiastic fist pump, cheering me on. It made my day.

What is your favorite motorist moment?

spdrcr5

We get cheers, horn honks and people waving to us on almost every TNT Training ride. It puts a smile on our faces and makes us feel good. It's much better then when they try running you down.

littledjahn

I was nearing the top of a local hill on my fixed gear (standing in the drops at, say, 40-50rpm) a while back when a woman leaned out the passenger window and said "You're doing a great job!". I felt bad that I had nowhere near the breath necessary to shout back my thanks.

jmoody15

Reading this made me realize that the honk that I got from a motorcycle last weekend may have been friendly. I'm still new enough to get freaked out by any honk, especially when it's right over your shoulder. This one threw me off the road, and I was irritated by it. Maybe just an overreaction.

I'd think a good general rule would be for motorists to avoid honking until they've passed a cyclist. A little honk could make the inexperienced cyclist swerve, possibly right in front of you.

TheKillerPenguin

A truck driver was kind enough to give me a draft for a few miles, at 40-45ish mph. Picture "Breaking Away", except it wasn't a Cinzano truck and I was in my big ring. After I pulled off from the truck draft, a passenger in the car behind me gave me a huge grin and a thumbs up as they passed by.

rlodewell

I list my hometown as Athens, GA, but actually, I live 15 miles outside Athens in Oglethorpe County. The population of the whole county is roughly 12,000. Because it's a small county and because I ride the same roads all the time I tend to wave at people as they pass me. Not so much when they're coming toward me, but fairly often as they pass me, especially if they swing wide around me, or slow down and drive patiently behind me until it's perfectly safe to pass.

I know some would say I have every bit as much right to the road as a car or truck does, and waving to say thanks for not running me over is unnecessary, but I go a bit out of my way to wave and I hope create something of a bond between the drivers and me. My hope is they'll get used to seeing me, realize that I'm not attempting to screw up their day by being in their way and so be more careful when they do see me. It's far easier to run a stranger off the road than to run the guy you see all the time off the road.

Has it worked? I dunno, but I do get a lot of waves from people and with the exception of dogs in the back of pickups who bark when their heads are 4 feet away from me, no one has tried to bother me yet.

This is a very rural county; more than half the vehicles passing me are pickups, and I've never had a problem. On the other hand, probably 25% of the drivers wave at me.

mcoomer

I had a girl lean out the passenger window and flash me once. Much more inspiring than a thumbs up or beep beep!

OCRider2000

Hmmmm my favorite? At some point during pretty much every ride I go on I get at least one person screaming at me to either: a) get the F@#* off the road. b) crash. c) Often they just scream at me for no particular reason.

eandmwilson

Got a "Nice @ss!" once, from a girl, no less. I'd like to believe she meant it

Cromulent

A "Wow, you were really hauling back there" from a woman on a motorcycle.

jmoody15

Interesting....

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...=293644&page=3

See post # 57.

DiabloScott

I've always thought cars should have two horns; one would be a friendly non-aggressive "toot", the other would be a regular horn. So many times I'd like to just say "excuse me, light's green now" without being a dïckhead about it. Honking "hi" to a bike rider should be clearly non-threatening.

CastIron

Once in a while.
Today I was doing hill repeats and at the steepest part (~12%) I was passed by a car and the woman in the passenger seat remarked to the driver "Wow! did you see his legs?". I promptly did another run on that hill.

I've also had one seriously creepy older guy stop me at a traffic light for same. <shudder>

FreddytheFish

Yesterday I passed a woman in a minivan while I was in the bike lane. She pulled up beside me for a bit then accelerated past. I met up with her about thirty seconds later at a red light.

"Excuse me!" she attempted to get my attention.

Oh boy, I thought, another lecture from a cager.

"My kids were amazed at how fast you were going back there!" she exclaimed. "In fact, so was I. You were doing 50 kph. How do you go that fast?"

"Uhh...work hard and keep going faster," was my slightly surprised and inadequate reply.

"You hear that kids?" she lectured her children in the back seat.

The light turned green and she was off. I caught up to here again at the next light and waved to the kids in the back seat who gave me a big smile.

It made my day.

Mo'Phat

I was at the top of a hill about to go down it, with a car coming up behind me. At the 1st turn, I took off, getting to 45 on the twists and turns. After three turns, the car wasn't close. At the bottom of the hill, there's a light. I stop, and a few minutes later, the car pulls up.

Guy says, "My wife was worried she was going to have to pass you back there...after the first turn, I said to her, "Don't worry, he's gone." You were flying, man."

That made me feel pretty good.

uspspro

Nice!

operator

Who was that guy who had some guy in a Lexus drive up to him and tell him that "if you worked a little harder you might be able to afford this (the lexus)", then having our hero flash out his Mercedes benz keys and retort, "if you worked a little harder you might be able to afford this!".

Owneeeeeed.

operator

Had that been a lecture, I would've smiled anyways. Usually they aren't so polite, profanities usually come out first thing

caloso

I had a UPS driver pull up next to me at a light and say "Wow! You were going thirty!" I said (kinda sarcastically I'm afraid to admit) "Yeah, look for me in France next summer."

The guy gave me a big thumbs up and says "Cool! I'll be watching! Good luck!"

That made me feel good, and bad that I'd been a smart-ass.

JOEPIPPAS

Once got my A$$ spanked by some teenage girls in their Cotholic school girl uniforms.... cresting a narrow hill out of the saddle. when smack (not hard) I got spanked then a few giggles from a nice B.M.W. . It looked like an old Britney Spears video..... Ya' gotta love em'.

ridethecliche

That's hilarious! I hate cocky 'look at my priviledge' rich upper/upper middle class people.

-=(8)=-

Some French cars (Renault-Citroen) ahd this up until the early 70's
It was 'city' and 'country' though......

urbanknight

4 college girls driving to the beach in their convertible Mustang flashed me as they passed by.

Still waiting for that to happen in real life. But really, my happiest moment was when a car past me and this adorable little girl and little boy (about 7 and 5) were waving at me, and I was keeping up with them for a while because of the traffic.

xrazer

+1. Although I live in a much bigger place with no hope of having drivers to know me, I know that on the roads I ride, there are usually many cyclists. I ride there frequently at the same time of the day so many drivers probably get to see me around frequently. I acknowledge friendly polite motorist behavior when it happens. I believe that helps all of us in the long term.

ridethecliche

I was stopped at a light going to the bike shop in town when this little boy, he was maybe 5, stuck his head out the window and started laughing and waving to me. I said something like "bicycles are awesome, but always wear a helmet (or I should have said it anyway can't remember)".
Regardless, I waved, he laughed, and then we went on our merry way.
That is all.