Brian

Stop the profanity. He deleted his own post.

el twe

OK, my mistake. I'm just a little worked up about some other things. Although you did delete my other post...Whatever. It's done.

humancongereel

there is one. the only thing i took offense to is your description of fixed gear riding as "cheap thrills". traffic dodging is, in my book, about safety every bit as much as speed, not a way to be more dangerous and "cool".

as far as calmly telling a motorist "hey, you could kill me with that thing, and people just might miss me", i'm all for that, but after that sort of situation is hardly the time. they're likely angry for whatever reason (i think they're jealous because we have fun when we go places) and won't listen. just telling the people i know who drive about the dangers i face (voluntarily, yes) daily seems to have an effect on them...i just hope it has a ripple effect..."hey, be careful, you could hit someone on a bike (like my friend, who i'd miss)"...something to that effect.

mattface 

In spite of your intentions it came across that way, but since this is the safety forum I felt it more important to adress the safety aspect of your suggestion.

Being the rational father I am I wouldn't recommend people stop to talk to motorists who nearly clobbbered them, especially if they feel it may be difficult to keep their temper in check. Road rage is real, and violence against cyclists happens all the time. It is important to show motorists we are people too, but the scene of an accident or a near miss is not always the best time for a "teachable moment". Sometimes tempers, and adrenaline may get in the way of having a rational discussion. Even if the cyclist can keep his cool, it's hard to know if the driver will.

humancongereel

exactly.

Matthew A Brown

...

Brian

I did not describe FG as "Cheap thrills". I posted the following comment "He may think you're one of those ss/fixie guys getting cheap thrills dodging cars." If you interpret that as being offensive, I don't know what to tell you. BMX, roadies, and MTB riders are not the ones known for dodging in and out of traffic. They swerve to avoid traffic. But the messenger crowd, who seem to all be on fixed bikes, they are the ones that seem to take pride in flouting the traffic laws. The point of my comment was to make the distinction between a commuter that tries to follow the rules (VC, as baiskeli mentioned) and someone that purposely breaks them.

And I understand the comments about not confronting the motorist. But many years ago, I had someone take a shot at me from a moving car. I've got nothing to lose now, as what are the odds of a 2nd person brandishing a weapon?

jock

Have to disagree. I have a quiet chat to all my road sharing buddies.

They're always stopped, they're always agitated coz they're driving on overly congested roads and don't know how to be patient, but they always leave with something to think about for the next time they meet a cyclist on the road. Even if they don't agree, they'll be thinking about it.

As for road rage, ignoring them is the worst thing you can do to a rager. When you confront them at the earliest safe opportunity (eg. red light) about half of them will have the door locked and the window only partly down.

mattface 

Sorry about the confusion. I felt it was more appropriate to the other forum, so I deleted it here. It was onl here for like 10 seconds. Sheesh.

humancongereel

okay, so you see a lot of people flagrantly breaking the laws on fxies...still, many of us don't do that, few of us do it for thrills, few of us do it just to break the law. i do anything a car can do on the road...switch lanes, pass other cars, whatever. whatever it takes to get where i'm going and get there safely, which sometimes precludes following the law. some of the things i do that really look dangerous are the best way i know of to combine speed and safety. things that are really dangerous, few of us do.

the reason your statement sounded like a stereotype may be that you were speaking from someone else's point of view. still, it sounded like a stereotype.

skelly

[one of] -> [those FGSS guys who gets cheap thrills]

vs.

[one of those FGSS guys] -> [who gets cheap thrills]


What I gather is that he was referring to a percentage of the FGSS population that gets cheap thrills dodging traffic. Not referring to the FGSS group in its entirety saying they all do that.

Like we don't generalize about the roadies, haha.

visitordesign

either way, it's an uninformed statement. as someone mentioned recently, look at the number of geared road bikes in lucas' videos. better yet, if you're in NYC, ride a few blocks and tell me how many folks on geared bikes are riding in a similar fashion to these hypothetical FG/SS riders who expatriate claims taint motorists' perceptions of cyclists.

skelly

tis true.

Brian

He assumed that I deleted it. That's all.

jyossarian

Drivers are people. As such, some people will automatically lump others into one stereotypical category such as, all cyclists are road hazards and belong on the sidewalk or all Chinese people are good at math or all Republicans own guns. Some other people are smarter than that and realize that w/in any community of people, there's mostly good people and a segment of bad people. Such as, most cyclists are sane, safe and responsible riders and some are irresponsible menaces or most drivers are safe, responsible motorists and some are road raging cagers. We're not a self-policing community, although some of us try to self-police, instead we just let Darwinism run its course and complain or compliment to each other about dumb, cool, stupid, safe, responsible, irresponsible things we see or do.

Brian

I'd like to think that my point was that he should avoid being stereotyped.

jock

Expat, stop fanning the flames. You're gonna get me sacked for laffin so much.

dustinlikewhat

this seems like an appropriate time for a tub girl picture........

skelly

It's NEVER an appropriate time for tub girl...

dustinlikewhat

i dunno if any thread deserves it, this one ranks up there..

Matthew A Brown

Seriously, we are nowhere near tubgirl level.

jock

I can recommend this tubgirl, and she's even safe for workplace consumption. And this thread.

https://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=12562

teiaperigosa

nah...seems like even the expatriate shut you up...

my comments were more along the lines of chimbly's...aka...fixed gear riders are logical, responsible riders too...why should our value be any less

with that said...that is EXACTLY why I speed up when I see pedestrians try to bombard the crosswalk when I have the right of way (to alert them of my arrival)...and that is EXACTLY why I don't drink and ride, because it is irresponsible

you feel pretty stupid....good job on looking up my posts

jmgorman

What does pistaboy think?

Brian

You'll need to show us where I stated otherwise.