Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Let Me Have It. I Am a Bicyclist

Paul,
You asked why so many Americans don't like bikes on the road. Dozens of folks have told you why.

Then you keep trying to tell these people that they haven't experienced the incidents that they have described to you.

I think you got plenty of answers to your question. Why don't you make it your mission to get the thousands of inconsiderate, self-centered bike riders to follow your rules of good riding manners? You obviously have all the answers and you can make the world a better place.

One of the problems many people mentioned was the bike riders' sense of arrogance. You yourself may have the best riding manners in the world, as you keep claiming to us, however you also seem to suffer from that common bike-rider malady: extreme arrogance.

You, yourself admit that riding in traffic is dangerous and an easy way to get killed. So dangerous, in fact, that you have added accidental death coverage to your life insurance and instructed your wife to sue if you are killed by an errant motorist.

Then when many Campfire members tell you that we don't like bikes on the road because we consider it too dangerous for them and us, you try to argue that it isn't.

Common sense says that if bikes on the road were not a problem then there wouldn't be very many complaints. Since there are so many complaints, common sense says that bikes on the roads must be a problem. Denying it doesn't change a thing.

I love to ride a bicycle. Seven years ago I broke my leg and almost got it amputated, had to have emergency surgery. Was on crutches for 11 weeks. Doc told me to get with the physical therapy, most especially riding bicycles.

Well I live way out in the woods in the NC mountains.
I got my mountain bike geared up and went out and rode for 5 minutes the first day. That was painful but got through it.
After a week was riding for a half hour.
Felt better every day.

In two months I was riding for 2 hours a day.
I can tell you the mountain people of North Carolina have no use for a grown man riding a bicycle. They whiz by you, their mirror missing you by 8 inches.
Some yell stuff at you.
I do not wear that gay Tour de France outfit, I wear a white t shirt. No gay French helmet for me, I wear a baseball hat, to which I clip my little rear view mirror. This way I can see which vehicle is coming up upon me from behind.
No fancy bicycle shoes, just wear tennis shoes.

Definitely a hostile reception from the local NC inhabitants.

Now, I am 6-3 and 225, nobody stopped their car and invited me to a fistfight, I would have gladly joined in on that, and probalby won, but they sure enjoy messing with you while they buzz by at 50 mph.

One point that is constantly brought up is a cyclist legal right to the road.

Caitlyn Jenner has a legal right to use whatever pisser he likes, but start waving your pecker around the ladies room and your gonna get chit on.

Go in, be considerate, take care of your business and leave, chances are no one will bother it/him whatever.


Why the simple concept of being considerate when you are obviously somewhere you don't belong, even when you have a legal right to be there, escapes so many is puzzling.

I don't ride where I don't belong.

17 page thread.... I'm curious. Not sure if I'm THAT curious.

Paul, I'm a cyclist too. It has transformed my life in the last several years and pulled my ass out of a very dark place. I'm typing this from a high altitude deer camp and I won't be huffing and puffing tomorrow because cycling (climbing) has me in very good aerobic shape.

Are the clothes goofy as hell? Yep. Can bikes be annoying? Yep. Do I love cycling? Yep.

Climbing is my thing. My ideal ride is around 30 miles with lots of long steep climbs and ripping downhills. Love the aerobic rush of having a maxed out heart rate. Love going 40 mph on a featherweight carbon fiber frame and tires an inch wide.

I can see where people get aggravated by a peloton of 20 bicyclists, hogging the road and running stop lights etc.

But, I was riding by myself on lonely country roads, not impeding any traffic. In fact, if I was coming up on a curve, and saw in my rear view mirror that a car would have to slow down to pass me, I would just pull over on the shoulder and let the car pass. I am a polite bike rider.

Nonetheless the mountain inhabitants disliked me.

One day I saw four people out in the yard. They had a big dog with them.
As I rode by, Fido ran out and ran up towards me. I saw that he was going to bite my ankle!
This goes way back to the wolf days, the wolf bites than ankle of the elk and cuts the achilles tendon, the elk cannot run, and the wolves kill it.
This mutt was trying to cut my achilles tendon. Hell I already had a broken leg I didn't need a severed achilles tendon.
At the last second, I put my foot out and the damn dog bit my tennis shoe. He got a mouth full of rubber, and he backed off, and I rode on down the road.

A few days later I was riding past the same spot and those people were standing near the mailbox. The dog was not there. I stopped and told them that their dog had almost injured me badly.
These people told me that they were upset with me. They saw how their dog had bitten my shoe, and were concerned that my shoe could have injured their dog's teeth!
All the while they looked at me with a look of contempt.

No, the NC hillbillies have no use for a grown man riding a bicycle.

Even where there are NO parked cars?

Then stay off the highway!

Paul, re: the title of your thread -

Does "careful what you ask for - you might get it" come to mind?

I don't need therapy! At least not for this.

Yet here you are.

And it really hasn't changed anything.

If the next cyclist I encounter is as couteous as you all is good.

If the next is an AZZhat, that is what he is.

No different than shooters, hunters, drivers and shoppers!