Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire ANOTHER reason i don't like cyclists

A mass dumping?

"Alright, listen up everybody! Were here, dismount and chit in this guys field. Remember to leave it conspicuously with lots of paper. We don't want any doubt about our intentions! "

MM, likely they used the area as a rest stop and abused the privilege.I gathered that between that and the trash, the owner has declared all of them "persona non grata"

I hear ya. Just paints a funny mental image.

If it was held on private land and not a public road, I'd guess it was a mountain bike race or cyclocross. The event organizers are to blame for not having adequate facilities and not cleaning up.

A couple years ago after finishing a muzzleloader hunt in the mtns, I was heading home in my truck. I passed a group of "upper crusty" looking guys on bikes doing some sort of tour. They were on the side of the road filtering water from a little muddy creek. I had a full 5-gallon jug of water left over, so I stopped and asked them if they needed water. Kind of felt sorry for 'em. The first guy was appreciative and thankful, and he told his other 6 or 7 buddies I had water.

The others lined up to fill their water containers, and nary a one said thank you--they were actually kind of stand-offish. Apparently they thought I was part of their support crew or something.

Then the last guy (also unappreciative) told me he was having trouble keeping up, and asked me if I'd put his bike in my truck and give him a ride to their destination. I asked how far it was and he said about 20 miles on the dirt road out of my way. I told him I was headed in the other direction and needed to get home, and declined. He got whiny and told me he'd give me $100. When I still said no, he was incredulous, I guess I must have looked needy or something. Whiny little SOB was maybe half my age.

Thing is, if they'd been even halfway thankful for a total stranger stopping to help them out, I'd have done it for free.

I knew there was a reason I carried that heavy pistol on my lightweight bicycle.

I ain't about to give passing marks to motorists either. Behind a carload of scumbags who poked a broomhandle out of the window and tried to knock a bicyclist off of his bike. Cell phones are nice and I greatly enjoyed watching the NYSP pulling over the car and then taking my witness statement.

ET, thats a sucky thing too, those folks need jail time!

Now that an evening has gone by, I remembered my last driving encounter with bikes.

Around mid March here. I'm driving up to a highway intersection here in town. 2 state highways at a red light. I left about 3 blocks prior.

Bikes would not move out of the intersection to give me complete clearance to make a left turn.

So I hollered out the window some foul words and they just stared at me.

I did have my blinker on also.

I"m not sure what they didnt' get or care about the large long red truck I was in with lights and siren blaring for 3 city blocks prior to the intersection, going to a house fire with possible victim inside.....

Here's my only issue with bicyclists: I live in a rural area with a lot of busy 2 lane blacktop roads with no shoulders. There are plenty of bike trails all over Lincoln (20 min drive away), and a lot of really nice two lane and divided highways with nice wide paved concrete shoulders. Seems like all of the bicyclists insist on riding the no shoulder stuff and impeding traffic.

My wife and I ride quite a bit and usually our rides are about 1/2 gravel and 1/2 on 2 lane paved roads.
The roads out here get a lot of bike traffic on the weekends since there is a nice 50 mile or so loop. Some are A-holes some are friendly. Higher priced the bike the higher chance of being an A-hole IME. People on mid priced bikes seem to be the friendliest.

THIS kind of attitude/behavior is what irks me...........along with thinking SxS riding is their right. I've got a couple mountain bikes and have been riding bicycles since I was 5-6yrs old. This thread got a little derailed, and I'm to blame I guess. As others have said, it's the dumbasses that are to blame, and I'll admit to lumping everyone into the same group. I get a disproportionate number of cyclists in my otherwise very rural county (they're also invited to come take up our town every summer), so I'm fed up with most of 'em. But I'm probably seeing only the "upper crusters" as you're calling them. The ones who wear neon shrink-wrap and think the world (and pavement) belongs to them. "Normal" folks who just want to ride for exercise I'm fine with, and am one myself.

I'll bow out now and hope this thread dies a quiet death..........

I'd be okay if bicyclists were like the dispatch riders I used to see in San Fransicko. At least that talented, and that aware....
I gave up road bikes for MTBs years ago because of the lack of places to safely ride, the gutters, the potholes the gravel the wood rocks glass cactus -- the last straw was getting conked by some bark hanging from a log truck on a wide shoulder. Just a swat, but that was enough. Coulda been a jill-poke.
But I am annoyed beyond belief at the numbskulls who insist on riding the secondary yet busy roads with no shoulder and then riding side by side, regardless of blind curves and other scary stuff.
Then there are the towns that put bike lanes on the main arteries rather than a block over. WTF are these idiots thinking?

So do I, mainly because they remind me of what a disgusting fat body I am.

I'm INORDINATELY courteous, and helpful with our local herd of folks, driving in exactly the same sorta' roads here that SmokePole just described to a T.

Ironic that it's all of the little hybrids and roller skate sized "Environmentally Friendly" cars that do not give them room.
I set whichever one of my old 5.9 Cummins Dodge I happen to be driving's tires on the centerline if there's oncoming,....if there's not oncoming I go over and hug the ditch in that lane, and will sit over on that side for a LONG run ahead of the bicycle column. I'm getting LOTS of friendly waves from the regular local enthusiasts, I wave back.

This arrogant road hogging Two abreast chit,.......Hey I slow right down and wait, and I'll wait as long as it takes to make a safe and sane pass.....again, being honked off and passed by idiots in brand new vehicles, that are late for their Walmart coffee or something equally important.

Once I can pass ?

......How far I stick my foot into one of these black smoke spouting, low RHS exhausting old beasts is entirely determined by the level of reciprocal courtesy in play. All of my "Kickdowns" are disabled, and I can shift into a very HIGH gear at 20 MPH, and unleash an awful concentrated cloud of fermented dinosaur concentrates, without any deleterious effects to MY driveline.

Do as you would be done by,....

SHARE the road.

GTC

It bothers me to see bicyclists blamed for congestion. There are many different sets of manners among drivers and riders in this country. It's said a rolling stop at a stop sign is properly called a California stop because California drivers will give another driver a second but don't allow any hesitation to merge. When cultures conflict so do people. Coming to a full dead stop at the start of a climb is a real pain on a bicycle especially combined with a major shift in gearing to start up the hill from a dead stop.

For my money there are roads such as going up Deer Creek Canyon from west of Denver towards Conifer that bicyclists can be expected and should be given every consideration. Long time ago when I was young I would regularly commute from Conifer CO to Evergreen and back on a bicycle - then they brought 285 up to interstate standards and folks moved in to the community everybody in a hurry nobody willing to wait a second even in a supermarket parking lot.

I learned I had to avoid traffic by cutting west through Clear Creek County, Black Creek or Blue Creek. As I heard folks complain about bicyclists holding up the commuters from Denver who jammed the road I was often tempted to find out when somebody commuted so I could be out there with a 20 foot trailer instead of a bicycle.

One of the many reasons I don't live in Colorado or Boise for that matter - nobody around here can afford a carbon fiber frame and Spandex so maybe that's a plus too.

Greg - wish you had made Q, would have liked to see you.

Had a fairly $$$ intensive go-round with my water well, last month, Mark.
A failed coupling dropped that small bore solar powered sucker rod pump and it's 135 feet of lift pipe down a 200' hole.
Had to pull the centrifugal TWICE, and did some heart in the mouth "fishing",....
All's back up, and running again, but the funds I had (and some I didn't) set aside for dangling over in that direction
vanished,...Muy Pronto like.

So it goes,....

GTC