From MMQB:

imagine my surprise when I picked up The Oregonian Thursday to read this headline atop page one: "Bike-car clash morphs into melee.''

Seems a driver didn't like the way a bicyclist was running red lights and driving recklessly in downtown Portland, and he yelled at the guy to stop being so careless. The cyclist got off his bike and told the driver to get out of his car if he wanted to make such a fuss about how he was operating his bike. The driver of the car got out. And the bicyclist started -- according to police reports -- beating the driver of the car with the bike. Yes, beating the driver of the car with his bike, holding the bike over his head and assaulting the defenseless driver at least five times, leaving the mark of a bike chain on him.

Not sure what the moral of the story is, but it's not good.

Word is, the driver made disparaging remarks about one DA?

Apparently, this set off the biker named Lumfreddy to the point of physical violence.

AP Report: 7/14/08

Additional reports indicate that both parties fouled themselves as they ran away into the dank evergreen forest evening

Whoa. Just had a flashback. A biker cut in front of me on the Plaza in Kansas City. I yelled at him to follow the traffic laws and continued on. I drive around the block looking for a parking spot... and my young daughter looks back to see him following us and yelling like crazy!

My wife insisted that I drive away and lose him because he seemed insane. Without the wife or kid, it doesn't go down that way, though.

Later, after we came back and parked, my daughter is on my shoulders and we're watching a band on a square. The guy locks up his bike and walks right past us.

He indeed looked crazy with hair, beard, and tats all over the place. I decided my wife probably saved my life.

quote:

Originally posted by shepwrite:
Whoa. Just had a flashback. A biker cut in front of me on the Plaza in Kansas City. I yelled at him to follow the traffic laws and continued on. I drive around the block looking for a parking spot... and my young daughter looks back to see him following us and yelling like crazy!

My wife insisted that I drive away and lose him because he seemed insane. Without the wife or kid, it doesn't go down that way, though.

Later, after we came back and parked, my daughter is on my shoulders and we're watching a band on a square. The guy locks up his bike and walks right past us.

He indeed looked crazy with hair, beard, and tats all over the place. I decided my wife probably saved my life.

If that was Lums you wouldn't have been so lucky.

Be thankful Shep, be very thankful.

quote:

Originally posted by shepwrite:
Whoa. Just had a flashback. A biker cut in front of me on the Plaza in Kansas City. I yelled at him to follow the traffic laws and continued on. I drive around the block looking for a parking spot... and my young daughter looks back to see him following us and yelling like crazy!

My wife insisted that I drive away and lose him because he seemed insane. Without the wife or kid, it doesn't go down that way, though.

Later, after we came back and parked, my daughter is on my shoulders and we're watching a band on a square. The guy locks up his bike and walks right past us.

He indeed looked crazy with hair, beard, and tats all over the place. I decided my wife probably saved my life.

Shep, as a long time cyclist, I'll agree- anyone that rides a bike through a downtown metro area that doesn't have a bike lane has a few screws loose. (more on that later) Aggressive riding- as this guy was obviously doing- is an invitation to get yourself killed.

OTOH, I've seen experienced cyclist friends get killed- doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing. And it really pisses me off about the few isolated jackasses who think we don't have an equal right to our 3' strip over on the side of the road. Guys laying on the horn when they're 200' away from you- "yeah pedal pusher- get the f**k off of my road"- seen it all too often.

BTW, I've gotten into a few similar situations where I wanted to do the same. A bunch of teenage punks drove by me and my wife while we were riding and called her a bunch of obscene names. Rode'em down and asked them if they like to repeat their comments. (I had a serious desire to put a major gash in the side door of their car with my cycling cleats, but I restrained myself) Ditto the driveby Jackass Rednecks in a pickup who threw out an M-80 for laughs that exploded about a foot away from my remaining good ear. Couldn't catch those a-holes though.

Fer the record, I've been deliberately ridden of the road a few times, the most memorable being- call me stupid but that was in the Florida Keys and a crowd of expatriate Cubanos were getting their jollies that day riding 15' left of center & again I ran them down and asked if driving rules in Havana were different than in the USA. (Yeah, I thought about it long and hard if they possibly had guns.) I've gotten hit (twice). the first time the lady stopped, and at least rode me to the hospital- bumps and bruises. The second time the guy hit and ran- and I had a ripped off fingernail and a broken finger to show for it. If he had broadsided me, I would have been dead. (Oh, I was in a pedestrian crosswalk at the time, and the guy made a no-stop right turn on red.)

I think bikers are nuts. I don't have any hate for them, but you've GOT to have balls of steel and a SERIOUS love of biking to put your life in your hands the way you do.

This is a phenomenon I've been witnessing first hand since I moved to Arizona. I live "up and over" a mountain from Tucson. So my drive into work is up and over that mountain. The bikers L O V E that mountain. I see them struggling their way up and then flying their way down and for that alone I think they're nuts. On my side of the mountain it's a 7% Grade for 11 MILES! When you factor in the lunatic drivers (speeding is VERY popular here), the drunks (of which there are MANY) and the crosses alongside this mountain pass every 100 yards from previous deaths....well, you're just INSANE to attempt this on a bike.

One of my best friends in the world is a VERY eccentric guy who lives in downtown Columbus on High Street one block south of the OSU campus. If you've ever partied there, I guarantee you've seen him. Anyway, he hasn't had a drivers license since 1985. He goes EVERYWHERE on his bike. From Highbanks to Circleville. He loves riding his bike. However, he's been hit by cars 5 TIMES. 3 were accidents where people were just being unobservant or drunk. The other two times were intentional, both of which were basically muggings. Run off the road intentionally, then steal your stuff. He's nuts.

Me, I love riding bike, but there's NO WAY IN HELL I'm going to do it where 2 tons of steel being driven by an imbecile can get close to me. Give me a nice quiet bike trail and I'm good.

Doug

quote:

Originally posted by Furnier:
Me, I love riding bike, but there's NO WAY IN HELL I'm going to do it where 2 tons of steel being driven by an imbecile can get close to me. Give me a nice quiet bike trail and I'm good.

Doug

Doug, we are nuts, but there are sensible nuts and those that aren't. It's incidents like the ones I just mentioned that keep me on bike trails whenever possible. And SW Ohio is the bike trail capital of the country as far as I'm concerned.

That said, I saw a guy riding through downtown Dayton tonight at 11:30PM (through the bar district no less) with no lights and wearing dark clothing. I thought about rolling down my window and asking him if he had some kind of death wish.