What a strange piece of advice.
Logically it should be the other way around - all budding cyclists should be given a large, powerful air horn, and told to honk loudly when approaching cars, to let them know that we (superior beings and all) would soon be coasting by with a big fat grin on our face.
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Thread: Hmm. What's With the Honking???
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05-07-2007, 08:41 AM #1
Grizzled
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Winter riding is much less about badassery and much more about bundle-uppery. - malkin
1995 Kona Cinder Cone commuterFrankenbike/Selle Italia SLR Lady Gel Flow
2008 white Nakamura Summit Custom mtb/Terry Falcon X
2000 Schwinn Fastback Comp road bike/Specialized Jett
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05-07-2007, 09:39 AM #2
LeMond Etape WSD
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LOL! Best thing I've read in a long time!!! Truly!!!
Originally Posted by lph
What a strange piece of advice.
Logically it should be the other way around - all budding cyclists should be given a large, powerful air horn, and told to honk loudly when approaching cars ...
Louise
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You don't really ever have to fall. But kissing the ground is good because you learn you're not going to die if it happens."
-- Jacquie "Alice B. Toeclips" Phelan, former U.S. national champion cyclist
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05-07-2007, 11:28 AM #3
Queen of All I Survey
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I may have to get an air horn. Just so I can honk back.
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05-07-2007, 12:30 PM #4
Registered User
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Uhh... I wanna get honked at!
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05-07-2007, 06:10 PM #5
Not as fast as I feel
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Originally Posted by lph
What a strange piece of advice.
Logically it should be the other way around - all budding cyclists should be given a large, powerful air horn, and told to honk loudly when approaching cars, to let them know that we (superior beings and all) would soon be coasting by with a big fat grin on our face.
Hahah this really makes me giggle, because I KNOW that grin!
It is usually accompanied by outright, joyful laughter, and a loud, 'Haha, Suckers!!' as I zoom past the standstill traffic.
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05-08-2007, 01:22 PM #6
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Well - for me at least...
It's generally pretty friendly honking (or I'm just totally oblivious!). I ride acess roads running along the (rural area) interstate, and mainly the honkers are either locals who recognize me, truckers, and ocassionally the TRAIN. (I really like when the train honks and waves - just seems kinda cool
) I think in my area, it is the complete novelty of seeing a cyclist (I've never seen another one except dh) and a comrade-ship of the road. I don't think it's complaining because I'm not on their road, and for some reason it never strikes me as sexual (as in construction worker hooting) - maybe because there is a fair amount of distance between us)
I figure somewhere along the line, someone will be rude to me, but so far I've been pleasantly surprised. (though I've only got a couple hundred miles under my belt, errr wheels so far.)
Someone honking directly behind me would scare me to death!
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05-08-2007, 02:09 PM #7
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For me, my reaction depends on the honk. Laying on the horn is just rude. A light tap is either trying to be nice or warn me of something (like the time a very wide load was coming up behind me) or it could be somebody who knows me.
"Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There's something wrong with a society that drives a car to workout in a gym." -- Bill Nye
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05-08-2007, 02:27 PM #8
Slow and Steady
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If it is a short honk, I always interpret it a "I'm here" and appreciate it. Sometimes the wind can be blowing so hard I cannot hear myself think let alone the car crusing up behind me (especially if it is a hybrid).
In some countries it is a given. On Mallorca, the cars always give little honks when they're passing you. Initially I found it disconcerting, but I guess I adapted because now I actually appreciate the short honk-ers.
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05-08-2007, 03:38 PM #9
Sue
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I've gotten so I swear I can discern a "Get out of My All-Powerful Way!" honk from a "tweetoot... I'm here..." honk from a "Hey! Is that Sue?!?!" from a "You've got something dangling...." honk. I think it is the harmony of the honk with the engine sounds (how fast, slow... the 'wanna accelerate but can't sound) that tells me. I was in church and heard sirens and thought, "Hmmm... they sound like they matter!" ... and thirty seconds later the emergency guys were helping somebody out of a back pew. Maybe just coincidence...
At any rate, I don't let 'em faze me
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05-09-2007, 08:15 AM #10
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I've been getting honked at alot lately too. Much more than last year. And it always seems to be when I'm riding with DD. I always ride in the bike lane or on roads with wide shoulders. I don't understand why they need to blast their horns to scare the bajeebers out of me and DD.
Yesterday I was rollerblading with DD in the jogger down a neighborhood road right by the elementary school. Speed limit is 25 mph and there is a generous shoulder. A car came behind me and blared the horn before speeding around us (again, we were well to the right of the white line--he had to swerve off the road to get behind us). What was that about? I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with my behind either.
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