This seems to be the season for threads listing weird stuff that's happened, broken bits, road kill and wot-not, so here's one. I came back from work and there was something different in the air.. it was still daylight, the roads were not icy, and a general sense that spring was around the corner. I decide it's time to try my SPD clipless outside for the first time, and not on the rollers. I do a quick run up the road, and notice that my bike, new shoes and clothes are getting really nasty crap splatterd on them, (water mixed with road salt, tar and sand, you should have heard the grinding sounds from the brakes) so I decide to head home.
I'm going along this road when I see two little boys in the side of the road and I don't pay them any notice untill I'm going past them at about 30 kmh and something really hard, cold and wet hits my cheek/neck !! The little buggers lobbed a snowball made from that old melting dirty snow of old (I thought it was all gone), and I think they were as surprized that they actually hit me from that angle at that speed, as I was.. Boy was I mad and after I managed to stop, with my crapped up brakes and trying to remember it was my first outing on clipless, yell at them was all I could do..
Anyone have similar a experience or are kids here worse?

Konyak

i got hit by a snowball early this week. never did find out who threw it, they must have been hiding behind a parked car. i also got snaps thrown at me once by some kids. it never really makes me all that mad for some reason. which is strange because lots of other things do (pedestrians not looking, cars cutting me off, honking, etc...)

What are snaps?

Sounds kind of funny. If the kid was around 10 or under I'd just laugh because I would have done something like that as a kid. Snowball fights can be good fun. Launch some back next time.

they aren't firecrackers, but you throw them and upon impact they "snap". i don't know what they are made of, but you can buy them in bulk at 99 cent stores or candy stores, fairs, etc.

Yeah, IIRC they're like little twisted up pieces of paper with a couple little rocks in them and some gunpowdery stuff. You throw them and when the land, it makes a little poppy snapping noise.

Last Halloween, my roommate and I were crusing along a trail at night. Two kids jump from behind a bridge and yelled "boo!"

I quickly got my adrenalin under control and started laughing. My roommate -- who's so uptight that carbon anal beads would come out as diamonds -- started yelling at them.

I still giggle remembering that whole thing.

Kids will be kids

OOOOH.. those. Thanks

Isn't it funny that we're grown adults riding bikes but for some odd reason we don't know how to relax?

This is why you should always leave little extra in the water bottle.

Konyak...You live in Iceland?....& you were snowballed?..... ...rolling like a snowball....

Anyone see the movie "Clerks"?

That's the first thing I thought of when I read the title.

I'm going to hell.

We call those 'poppers'

I haven't had a snowball thown at me since I was a kid. Of course, living in Pasadena and Miami may have something to do with it.............

Sounds like the two of you are a sit-com waiting to happen. Or was that already covered with "The Odd Couple"? Either way, this must be the tip of the iceberg of interesting stories...

Had lots of insults thrown my way lately by kids, last week some kids, 12 or so, rode up beside me and said " you sure look like a ***** in those shorts, sir!" I was rendered speechless, could only muster a grin and tipped my helmet, it was a good one! Looked in the mirror for a long time when I got home, crushed!

sounds like wussy

Co-worker (commuter) got hit in the A** with a BB gun. Stopped immediately but did not see anyone. He called local cops when he got to work who retuened to scene & made a report. We made up a purple heart and gave it to him. It didn't break skin but had a bruise (at least so he said).

"Try not to ____ ___ ____ on your way through the parking lot!"

Haa haa... I was just rattling off all different worrds that would fit when my eyes scanned over this... funny.

It's obvious people are getting the impression this was a traditional snowball and it was an innocent game of kids having fun, like I and everyone else did as kids. One even suggested I lob one back, and others that I should have yelled some encouraging words like "Good one boys " and kept riding.
If this had been a snowball made of fresh snow and there was snow all over, it would have been differen't, but this was a snowball made of bits of ICE and sand, the kind that would have dented a car door, and probably scratched the paint In other words, it was something I did not want another rider to have to experience, in the event it hit them in the eye or something.
This was not a day for snowball fights, cause there was no snow anywhere only the occasional dirty pile of long melted snow that has frozen again and again. One of the things I yelled at them was that they might as well stand there with a shotgun, as it felt like that and nobody could expect a snowball on a day like that

Now, what's this about Clerks then?

Konyak