What Abuse Have You Had Shouted At You Recently?

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Chaps,

Just a quick question for you. My route to work takes me up Brunswick Street each morning and out onto Church Street upper and then left onto North Kings Street. Brunswick street has two lanes of traffic, one goes left up Church Street Upper and the other right heading down it.

As I was coming up Brunswick Street I made my way onto the outside of the right lane so I could line up with the bicycle lane coming down Church Street Upper. As I was doing this a chap in a car behind beeped me. At the lights just before heading onto North Kings Street he took his seatbelt off, leaned his head out the window and shouted at me 'Do You Know the Law'. Blah blah blah between us but he wasn't happy I was 'in the middle of the road'.

I didn't think I was I wrong in the position I took? There's no cycle lane there and I can't see how I'm supposed to turn right without being in the outside of the lane.

IamtheWalrus

Not a cyclist but am a runner. Last year I had a glass bottle thrown at me from a car. It smashed just in front of me.

Karma

my favourite is "real men ride women"

wayne0308

I wouldn't class it as abuse but I was cycling past a group of young lads and one of the fools shouted "Hey mister your chains flat!". Had to restrain myself from looking down to check

I was overtaken at a set of traffic lights (I was going right) and the driver (who was going straight on) threw a milkshake at me, missed by quite a bit but it was at least half full so I consider myself lucky.

Lumen

Faggot!

...when dressed like this.

Kintarō Hattori

Lumen wrote: »

Faggot!

...when dressed like this.

Well.................. (I jest I jest).

Harrybelafonte

It's usually.... Mah, Wah, Boike, HAH ...

FatSh!te

Karma wrote: »

my favourite is "real men ride women"

the response to this should usually be: "yeah!....women like your ma!" but that might upset them.

RobFowl

Get off the road

Not too bad I know but amusingly it was a client who had an appointment with me 15 mins later and she hadn't recognised me.

Cue grovelling apologies

fat bloke

I never ever ceases to amaze me the reaction which can be elicited from irish people at the sight of:

A man..... riding..... a bicycle!


You would think in 2011 that the novelty might have worn out by now, but.... <sigh>

seamus

fat bloke wrote: »

I never ever ceases to amaze me the reaction which can be elicited from irish people at the sight of:

A man..... riding..... a bicycle!


You would think in 2011 that the novelty might have worn out by now, but.... <sigh>

I have a dog with 3 legs.

Men in their 30s and forties are still heard to remark (to themselves), "Jaysus that dog only has 3 legs", when we walk by. I dunno about anyone else, but the mystique of a 3-legged dog wore off when I was ten.

Talk radio in your earphones when cycling tends to muffle any specific words when cycling. I've heard vague shouting a number of times, I usually assume that it's not directed towards me. Recently enough I passed a group of kids and one shouted, "Get off the bike". The only time I'd actually been able to make out what someone had said.

Caroline_ie

a couple of years ago, I was on my road bike with my TMobile kit on the streets of Bordeaux ( my home town ) about 8am. Some old guy looked at me at said ... 'MehMehMeh, Tour de France MehMehMeh' lol ... I really couldn't make out anything else he said.

Raam

On the ROK a few years ago, some granny in a dressing gown told us that we should all be locked up.

briano

A mate of mine got abuse shouted at her for using a toothbrush to clean her chain...

...admittedly, the guy who was abusing her was also the owner of the toothbrush.

07Lapierre

After a row with a bus driver a few years ago, he shouted at me " who do you think you are?..Sean Roche?"

daragh_

'Yer not to wear that anywhere near the house where people might see you'

my wife

Raam

07Lapierre wrote: »

After a row with a bus driver a few years ago, he shouted at me " who do you think you are?..Sean Roche?"

I've a mate called Stephen Kelly.

doozerie

One of the less offensive things I've had shouted at me was "Go on Sean Kelly. Hur hur hur!" spoken in a voice that was trying hard to be derisory. He had clearly been waiting a long time to utter that phrase, as it was about 15 years too late to be relevant. Plus I'll actually take any comparison with Sean Kelly, even a long retired Sean Kelly, as a compliment. So as insults go it failed on all counts.

More recently I was told "you should watch where you are cycling" by someone driving a big Merc that had pulled out of a car park directly onto the main road in front of me. Given that my evasive actions meant that I had avoided either landing face first on his bonnet or ending up under his wheels, despite his best efforts, I thought it was quite clear that of the two of us I was the only one who was demonstrably watching where I was going. So another very poor example of an attempted insult there.

I seem to be encountering a very poor quality of idiot recently.

Jawgap

Recent abuse shouted at me.....

"Get that bloody bike out of the kitchen - and while you're at it get the one from the front room too - I'm fed up tripping over it / them and there's oil all over the floor in the hall from them!!!" - usually as

"Do they have to be washed in the sink?"

Haleakala

Had a bizarre exchange with a taxi driver that !brushed! past me at high speed on way into town. Caught up with him at Connolly where he let out his passenger.

I explained that he had been very close and really it was very dangerous especially as it was unnecessary.

At first he apologised, then remembering stereotype, got defensive and proceeded to abuse me, because some other cyclist (we are all the same!) rode out in front of him the night previous.

By that logic...

buffalo

Christmas Eve a lad yelled at me, "I'm gay".

Not that I, on the bike, was gay, but that he was. I think it was more likely that he had come from the pub and was confused by alcohol than had just come out after being confused by his sexuality.

DirkVoodoo

My mother said I am a "continuing source of disappointment to her".

Caroline_ie

Jawgap wrote: »

Recent abuse shouted at me.....

"Get that bloody bike out of the kitchen - and while you're at it get the one from the front room too - I'm fed up tripping over it.

I used to hear that from my old housemate. As if the bikes were invisible ... Just proves to you that people don't see bikes, only cyclists do Hense the amount of accident involvong people not seeing bikes and walking, driving into them.

Raam

Jawgap wrote: »

Recent abuse shouted at me.....

"Get that bloody bike out of the kitchen - and while you're at it get the one from the front room too - I'm fed up tripping over it / them and there's oil all over the floor in the hall from them!!!" - usually as

"Do they have to be washed in the sink?"

They should get that bloody kitchen out of your bike workshop.

amacachi

Myself and a couple of other people I didn't know got flipped off by a cyclist when his wallet fell and all his cards etc. scattered all over Pearse St. a while back when we tried to get his attention.

tomasrojo

"Christ on a bike!"

During my beard and long hair years. Not really abuse. Jesus isn't a bad chap.

Most other things shouted at me are impossible to make out.

"You've something hanging off your bike" when I use the trailer. Not very cutting really.

Captain Havoc

07Lapierre wrote: »

After a row with a bus driver a few years ago, he shouted at me " who do you think you are?..Sean Roche?"

That reminds me of watching the Tour de France and (I think it was) David Harmon said that Nicolas Roche was the son of Seán Kelly. At this I don't hear the abuse or the silly comments at least I have the body to kinda pull the lycra thing off (well, in the summer, maybe not so much now ).

tomasrojo

Captain Havoc wrote: »

That reminds me of watching the Tour de France and (I think it was) David Harmon said that Nicolas Roche was the son of Seán Kelly.

And so a painful family secret is out in the open. Loose lips sink ships.

Captain Havoc

Raam wrote: »

I've a mate called Stephen Kelly.

There's an Irish soccer player called Stephen Kelly also. In our club we've got a member called Seán Kelly.

tomasrojo

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Hey Chaps,

Just a quick question for you. My route to work takes me up Brunswick Street each morning and out onto Church Street upper and then left onto North Kings Street. Brunswick street has two lanes of traffic, one goes left up Church Street Upper and the other right heading down it.

As I was coming up Brunswick Street I made my way onto the outside of the right lane so I could line up with the bicycle lane coming down Church Street Upper. As I was doing this a chap in a car behind beeped me. At the lights just before heading onto North Kings Street he took his seatbelt off, leaned his head out the window and shouted at me 'Do You Know the Law'. Blah blah blah between us but he wasn't happy I was 'in the middle of the road'.

I didn't think I was I wrong in the position I took? There's no cycle lane there and I can't see how I'm supposed to turn right without being in the outside of the lane.

I don't think anyone has answered your other question. I go that way all the time, and I know what you mean. I take the middle of the right lane, if there isn't a huge queue of cars. It allows you to comfortably get into the middle of the left lane on the next street as you turn, though you have to watch for people illegally turning right from the left lane of Brunswick St. I ignore the cycle lane on Church Street and take the middle of the lane until I'm round the corner. Primary position (close to centre of the lane) is best when you're at a junction or corner, and the cycle lane places you to the left, in secondary position.

The only arguably illegal thing in what I do is not using the cycle lane until I'm around the corner on Dorset Street. That's not what your interlocutor was griping about.

tomasrojo

If you're not turning left onto Dorset Street, it makes taking the middle of the lane even more important, as you don't want to get side-swiped by cars going to Dorset Street. Which is why primary position at junctions is important.