I'm glad my neighbor is an officer and I have friends that are officers...

Get plate number, find a way to get plate number's address (it helps to know somebody). Slash all 4 tires of vehicle one night.

I'm not totally serious.

Learn Muay Thai first. Then draw blood.

I say get over it. milk shakes are better than socks full of pennies (it has happened). Take a different route, stop riding your bike... seriously?

Or... keep mace with you and give them a shot of that if you really want to do something.

Don't bother with law enforcement, they don't care... we pay their salaries, but that doesn't give them values or rational priorities.

I had an incident happen earlier this year. Drizzling, wet roads, steep descent, I'll on new carbon wheels fire the first time so I'm being cautious. Still doing at least the 25 speed limit in a residential area. I hear shouting from a trailing car, "Get off the road! Ride on the side walk m f'r !" We reach the bottom of the hill at a stop light. It three young boys and a girl. Obviously it is the driver's parent's car. I haven't even recognized any of this as I'm knocking on the window inviting the driver out of the car. Windows are up, and he's having none of it. Amusement turns to fear as they begin to realize how big I am in comparison to them and how passed I am. I invite the driver out again, and this is where I start to become amused in the story. The driver looks at me and says, "It wasn't me," turns to a back seat passenger, points and says, "it was him!" The passenger's expression has now turned to abject terror and he is shaking his head vigorously in response to my invitation to get out of the car. My buddy has gone to the rear of the car and is pretending to write down the license plate number. I join him and we pretend to write down more notes. The driver seeing this runs the red light and takes off.

While this in retrospect turned out fine, it was stupid. It could have been a group of larger people, they could have been armed... At the end of the day they are in a 2,000 lb weapon. There were many thinga that could have happened and only a slim few that were good outcomes for me. Take down the plate number, report it and move on.

I had a buddy in college that was walking and a car pulled up and asked directions. As he leaned his face to the window, they sprayed him with mace. That messed him up for about an hour. Very effective. Not that I'm advocating that, but it is effective.

Describe your camp's ram muay so we know you're not a troll.

Yup, just memorize the plate number and call it in. If you can, safely, get a description of the driver.

No reason to let it ruin your day if you can help it. Let the coppers do their jobs.

A few years back, John Schnatter from Papa John's was knocked off his bike by a kid throwing a school book at him. The dumb kid forgot he wrote his name in the textbook and was later arrested. John now rides with a police escort. In Louisville, you can hire an off duty cop for $30 per hour, not a bad insurance plan for a group ride.

As a former law enforcement officer, I can tell you that it isn't as much the police as it is the law that regulates what they can and can't do. In many cases the police seem as if they don't care (some really don't), but in all honesty, there really isn't much that they can do in some of these types of incidents. Had the incident caused you to fall and injure yourself to where you required medical attention or hospitalization, that would most likely constitute a road rage case and that would have been taken more seriously. If the object was a solid object that hit you (as in the case of the beer cans) and caused injury, that would fall under the "throwing a missile from a moving vehicle" statute. Depending on the intent and injury, that could be a third degree felony or first degree misdemeanor in Florida, but most likely in your state as well. The fact that you only got ice cream on your jersey doesn't even warrant a report, in most states. All she had to say was I tossed the ice cream out the window and didn't see him there. Pretty much the end of the story. If the police saw her do it and it was on purpose, at most it's criminal mischief, low on the list of misdemeanor offenses.

Had your temper gotten the best of you and there was an altercation to where she was as much as touched by you, your bike would have been impounded and you would have been arrested for battery due to the fact that you intentionally pursued her for a confrontation. The police don't make the laws, they just enforce them. Sometimes it's easier to learn to let it go than get yourself in a bind even though that is easier said than done.

sig-worthy

I had a guy honk at me at a light in our downtown area...laid down on the horn..the light had just turned green and i hadnt clipped in...soooooo I took up the legal amount of room on the narrow road and rode slowly to my car...he revved at me a few times. I pulled up next to him at the light ahead that had been red the whole time...He wouldnt roll the window down so i can tell him how awesome it would have been to see him speed to the next light only to stop and wait again....

Yes, being struck with an object obviously intended at striking you means you were assaulted. This is one of the reasons my first priority is now to whip my phone out and snap a pic of the plate. Confrontation is second and only if I don't think it will lead to more danger.

Not sure about other states, but that would be a $1000 littering fine in CA, which would have made me satisfied with the results.

Still, doesn't the "yeah, and FU" comment show intent and malice?

Here in PA since they just passed the Castle Doctrine law. I would imagine if your life was threatened you could legally shoot them. Shooting them over something being thrown maybe not but swerving a 3000 lb. car at you would be just cause. Bet a driver of a car would be pretty surprised to see a gun pulled on them from a bicyclist.

And another 41 thread turns to guns. Has anyone yet named a theory that every road forum thread eventually turns into a debate on guns, dogs, or Bikes Direct?

I had a description of the driver. I had almost the whole plate. Sorry I was a little preoccupied with trying to not get run over by the crazy woman that was weaving her car at us.

You should be a cop.

If you had left out that comma, this would be an entirely different story.

John V - good post.

Most of the *******s chunk-n debri at cyclist in this area are full blown pieces of white redneck trailer trash. Last fall a POS threw a cantaloupe as he passed myself and my riding partner. The loupe struck the seat strays of my buds bike, could have taken my noggin off easily. The idiot looked backed to assess damage and I recognized him as one on of our ER frequent flyers. Filed the report with the local county fuzz and nuttin. But wouldn't know whose sorry medicaid white trash redneck ass comes to the ER for treatment. As I was preparing to I&D a boil the size of texas on his ass I ask him if he and his buds are still throwing cantaloupes at cyclist in the Southwest Area of Uwharrie? He starts stuttering and stammering,denied it, then took ownership said it was just a harmless joke. Closed him up got him ready to DC and local cops put on a nice set of chrome bracelets for a trip to the magistrate. It cost him. I use to wave and blow the horn at him while he and his new found road crew were picking up litter from the roadside. Lp

Whenever I hear stories of people getting pelted with food (milkshakes, sodas, chicken legs, etc.) I always think to myself, "I would never, ever do that. That's throwing away perfectly good food!"

This is probably a result of all my riding and constantly being starving hungry.

Duh; do you really think I'm going to start carrying a dog while riding? A big enough dog to be useful is at least 50 times the weight of my gun.

Now, a young bobcat would be fun if I could find a way to carry it; imagine pitching that in the window of some JAM's car.

this is why karma was invented. the milkshake girl probably will now fall down a flight of stairs while carrying a new ipad 2 and put a nice crack down the middle of the screen. she might bust a knee cap, but that really depends on if the milkshake was supersized.

small bike cams....we need em.

She probably thought you must be thirsty with the long ride and tried to pass you a milkshake there.

what if it was tainted with God knows what? Would you appreciate it just the same?