I'm going to jail

Mike read my Interesting ride thread. It will make you feel better.

 

I might be thinking waaay out side the box here...so bear with me.

So you throw the rock, spark plug, battery or whatever at an offending vehicle. You break the window of the car distracting the driver, they crash in to a light pole, tree, or another car and is killed.

In the course of the investigation detectives come across on your computer and discover that you posted in a public forum your "INTENT" to cause damage to someone who either threw some thing at you or yelled at you while riding your bike.

Would this posting be considered premeditation and could posting such intent be used against you in court???

"I'm no lawer but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night!"

 

Daddy's car

Olympic Peninsula: There were about 4 or 5 of us on an early Spring road ride in a paceline rolling along the waterfront when we get buzzed close by a high$ BMW. Tri-guy pulls his bottle (from behind his seat) and chucks it at the car and nails it on the back window. Beautiful shot! It bounces off, and the car hits the brakes, flips a U-turn and gasses it directly at us. At this point we are all stopped with nowhere to go... my testicles begin to ascend and then the guy pitches it sideways and comes to a screeching stop on the wet road about 10 feet from hitting us. As the hair on the back of our necks begin to raise, a 16-17 year old kid gets out and starts screaming, "Who the F through that rock!" Well, Tri-guy in a very stoic manner owns up and states that it was him and clarified that it was a bottle. The kid is all aggro and threatening to call his lawyer! Tri-guy says fine and begins to intelligently berate him: Let's get daddy on the cell phone, or would you prefer to call the police... it was beatiful, up until the point when Tri-guy approaches the kid to get his ID, his cleats slip on the wet pavement and falls on his ass. The kid figures that he ought to bail, and jumps in his daddy's car and takes off running over Tri-guys bottle for good measure.

Thanks for the post... It sucks that we have to deal with this crap on a regular basis, but at least in one instance it turned out to be an oddly entertaining experience.

 

It happens here because they think you are heading to Home Depot for day labor and we associates bikes with undocumented people! It used to happen to me when I arrived to this country a while back and biking was my only source to get to work. We love to stereotype here America and you are just a collateral damage!

 

I was riding in the alley, delivery way behind Ralph's in Foothill Ranch to go on a Whiting ride. This chick in a black Honda Ridgeline comes screaming by me at 30 m.p.h. almost hitting me and almost taking a poor Ralph's guy out who just opened the door to throw some trash out. She was going to the little coffee shop there by the Whiting entrance. I confronted her after she parked. I told her you almost hit me. She said I was taking up the whole road and then flicked her cigarette at me. Craziest thing. I'm not known for a great temper but I was proud of myself for not going off. If it was a guy, it would've been on.

 

Long time ago I had a guy try to hit and run over a friend and I while going to work. The driver even tossed his drink at us. Long story short we later caught the guy and had him arrested, but in court he pleaded guilty to the charges and only got community service. The guy could have killed one of us, but only got a slap on the wrist.

 

This thread just illustrates an amazing number of near misses and purposeful hatred towards cyclists. I just wonder how many of the drivers here were ticketed or in any way penalized for their acts.

On the other hand, last Sunday I woke up really early to go to Bonelli Park and set up (reserve) a picnic table for the extended family picnic. I got to the park at 6:15AM with a plan to find a good table, set-up the plastic table cloths and other picnic stuff and then go mountain biking for the 3-4 hours until the family came later in the day. After I payed the entrance fee (which was increased from $8 per car to $10 per car), i'm driving down the park road (Via Verde) in my Jeep to the picnic areas on the far end of the park. Flashing lights and sirens behind me - I get stopped by a cop. He ends up giving me a speeding ticket for going 35 mph in the park's 25 mph zone!

Its 6:35 AM, and there is absolutely nobody else in that part of the park. I was neither a danger to myself or anyone else (there was nobody else around anyway), nether did I really go that far over the speed limit.

While I admit I did violate the speed limit, I'm pissed because all these a-holes that almost kill us on the road with these near misses get away without any penalty and I get penalized for basically nothing.

 

Yesterday a 'kid' in his early 20's said "bikes are for pussies," as he rolled by with ten of his compatriots on skateboards. I just kept riding. WTF happened to self sovereignty? To each their own? Granted, threatening you w/ a vehicle or throwing shit at you is different than words, but they are both signs of intolerance to freedom (of choice). They want you belong to their group or band of clones, and don't like anyone different than them (or those that fall out of the boundary of what they think is right). Kinda like the roadie vs. mtb hate exchange I see. Stupid. It reminds me of cliques in high school. Of course there is the chance that they are just asses, period (maybe nihlistic (at the moment anyway)). Anyway, I didn't bother to stop, and reply to the dude, but did a lot of thinking. Does he know I skate and surf. No. Play in two punk bands (he was covered w/ punk patches). No. That on occasion I ride mountain bikes w/ an 80's skate legend that still shreds. No. That I felt sorry for another human that has not come to realize how cool it is to do your own thing and not be screwed with. No. This world is filled w/ asses that just don't get "it." I don't know that a minute or two chat w/ him would have changed his mind...and do I really want to do that? Do what you want, you should be able to do that, but be careful and don't get hurt when you cross the line (even when they cross yours).

btw, I was an ass at one time, and did some really stupid shit I regret, but now I'm "grown up" (in my eyes) and value self sovereignty...but I still may take to breaking things. Chances are you can easily get away on your bike if you really see the need to.

 

Why not just get some sweet justice and take down the license plate? Bring a cell phone, call it in and you'll change the mind of the guy that gets a visit from the police very quickly - especially if they throw something at you. BTW if they just buzz you it might be a good idea to "crash" becuase of the incident.

 

there is always a br song to quote

"...And when everyone else in the world follows your lead
(Although a cold day in hell it will surely be)
That's when the entire world shall live in harmony."

The Henchman, from No Control

"that'll" learn em'...

 

Watch your corn hole.

 

haha. thats funny!:beer:

 

You were endangering the officers life. LOL

 

We were road riding acorss freemont in Yucaipa heading south, just past Yucaipa Bvld almost to Ave A, when some yuoung asshole decided to drive by nice and slow, and deliver some choice derogatory words towards us. Not sure what it was about it, but it set me off, so I went to chasing.Well the guy takes off, best part is, he cant outrun me with the corners that are ahead, so Passenger douche throws his beer out the window, Misses. Well I slapp the car hard enough to ding the fender. Driver throws his beer out the window...Misses, I break the antenna off. We hit Ave E, Dude slamms on the brakes at the stop sign, I stop, drop the bike, Dude gets out.......Starts off with a WTF face, that quickly changes to a Oh shit, this dude is ALOT bigger than I thought look, says to his Buddy, get back in, get back in.......Was a real good idea on his part, specially seeing how my brothers were not far behind me.


That was when I decided I probably should nt be riding road anymore.

 

I say bring on the trouble.....I, like some others get worked up just reading this...makes me want to go out today and set up one of those stake outs someone else mentioned.....it is a sunny warm day up here in Seattle, probably the last nice weekend of the year, a perfect day to give a beating to some hillbillie arseholes!

Oh yeah, I can't, I have to go to grandma's 80th birthday celebration.....I am calm again now

 

europe, Canada and places in between

Agree that Europe is likely far more civilized when it comes to treatment and respect for cyclists. While not Europe exactly, I did a solo road cycling trip in Ireland and pretty much every second vehicle gave me a friendly beep and a wave (most cars had an oval 'F' sticker: French! Say what you want about the French but they love cyclists).

As for Canada, pretty variable, reasonably good for cyclists in Vancouver. The city just closed one lane on a major north-south link to downtown to make it 'bikes only'. Then again, in Toronto, last month, a previously high ranking politician (the provincial Attorney General, top lawyer in the province!) killed a cyclist in a road rage incident after an altercation at a stoplight. The cyclist grabbed onto the side mirror, so the driver swerved all over a busy downtown street trying to knock the cyclist off, which he did when he slammed into a mailbox and then drove away. The cyclist died shortly after in hospital. The cyclist had been stopped earlier the same night for public drunkenness, but let go by Toronto police.

Both drivers and cyclists can be threatening, but the drivers will always win the 'man/woman against machine' battle. Be careful out there.

 

Its good to know u have backup, so try not to ride alone.

 

You know what I don't get is why cops don't enforce the law. I can't stand when cars pop out into the bike lane and then stop or just sit in the bike lane at red lights when they are 5 cars back. Isn't that illegal?

 

Classic.

 

Since noone else has said it, I might as well....

Rather than flowing with the rage, if you must react, how about trying to catch up with the car, flaggin gthem down, and then calmly asking "I'm not sure if you saw me back there, but could you be more careful , you almost hit me?"

Yes i know its not as satisfying, nor as dramatic, but next week when it is me on the road and this guy comes rolling along , maybe he won't try to swerve to hit me because someone threw shit at his car once.