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Ever have anyone throw something at you while you were riding?
The only thing I have had thrown at me was a half full Gatorade bottle, luckily they missed by a mile, otherwise they would have sent me crashing to the pavement. My husband has had sandwiches thrown at him, water bottles and all kinds of stuff. Most of the time it's just young kids out thinking it's funny.:eek:
I've had [empty] beer bottle thrown at me a couple of times
I had a truck go by me and someone spat on me- TWICE! How revolting. What makes somebody do something so stupid?
My answer doesn't quite fit the category of your question, but it is an interesting story anyway.
A few weeks ago I was out on my daily ride. My routes are on rural farm roads, and almost every day something happens. My rides are never boring.
On this day, it was raining and windy and I was on a descent. I had my brakes on to slow my speed because of the weather conditions and because the road was narrow with a sharp curve at the bottom of the hill. In the opposite lane coming towards me was a large farm pickup truck filled with huge metal objects in the bed of the truck. Following the pickup was a small compact car. Because I was descending, those two vehicles were ascending. The vehicles passed me and a few seconds later I heard the horrifying sounds of large metal objects bouncing out of the pickup, crashing into the small car, and hitting the road. One thing about being a cyclist is I really use my ears every day with respect to traffic noise, and so my hearing is quite good. The noises from behind me I quickly translated into large unknown metal objects bouncing down the hill behind me and gaining speed. I assumed the pickup and car were crashed on the side of the road and would not be a concern. However, I had to analyze the situation quickly and figure out what to do. I decided against slowing down or stopping because the unknown metal objects might hit me and kill me. When I say large unknown metal objects, I mean things that are roughly the size and weight of a washing machine. So I took my hands off the brakes, started pedaling down the hill like a crazy woman and I went around the sharp curve at the bottom of the hill around 30 mph. I didn't know I had that kind of riding skill in me because I am a fitness/fun cyclist, not a racer. I kept on riding. I didn't go back. I was in a bit of shock and my muscles were trembling. About a mile later I pulled off to the side of the road, got off my saddle, swigged some fitness water, ate some fitness bar, and just stood straddled over my bike for about 10 minutes. Then another 25 miles back to my car.
Darcy
Darcy, I just read that with my mouth WIDE OPEN. Way to think in your clips! I hope the person in the car was okay, and that the trucking company got sued something awful!
Darcy, didn't you want to go back to see if anyone was hurt or needing help?? :(
No. What could I do? Other vehicles had driven by before I came to a halt, so there were other motorists to give assistance if they were able to get pass all of the stuff in the road.
I am very cautious when I cycle. I have an invalid husband at home who is dependant upon me for his care. I cannot risk putting myself into situations that disables my bike when I am so far from my car, and a scattered crash scene is one possible way to shred the tires. I was not describing a casual fender bender but something that put shattered objects along a road for some distance.
Darcy
I used to live in the mountains in Southern California. The roads there are narrow but not that heavily traveled. There wasn't much of a shoulder sometimes but we stayed in it when it was there. We were on a training ride and some kids drove by and threw a fast food cup at us! It came complete with coke and ice.
We got the license plate number and debated on calling the police. We ended up calling and there was a police report taken! This is kind of a small town which is maybe why. The police officer ran the plates and went to the persons house. The kids driving were in their parents car and while they had permission to drive it, the parents had no idea of what they did. The police got back to us to say the kids had car priviledges taken away AND they were grounded :D
Sometimes there is justice. Unfortunately, it's rare and I was glad to be able to be a part of it.
I have had kids throw broken glass at me, rocks, and finally...I rode next to a bus to have some kid wait for me to pull up...and then spit on me. I got his name and called his school, and they were the most uncooperative bunch of jerks.