[Closed] Altercations with motorists - what's your highest level?

I keep a broken crank arm taped to my handlebars for such occasions.

Had a full on scrap when I got side swiped on my post round had to be pulled apart police called got a 2 year serious warning from work!! never regretted a minute of it 🙂
Took a few wing mirrors off with my metal cage on the front of the bike those were the days!

I keep a browser window open ready to vent my anger on here.

Had a full on scrap when I got side swiped on my post round had to be pulled apart police called got a 2 year serious warning from work!! never regretted a minute of it

😀 that's the spirit!

That probably made the Wezzie Gezzie!

Having been threatened with all sorts of nastiness from some proper psychos for complaining loudly about nearly getting flattened / driven into I tend to go with the wave thanks to the considerate ones (there's few enough my arm doesn't get tired) and call the others everything under the sun inside my head. I used to be a lot more mouthy but never physical.

I was super polite to the 20 something lady who knocked me off two years ago. I STILL can't grasp how I managed that and it wasn't for lecherous reasons either before someone suggests such things.

about 5 years ago in Lichfield! and no headlines in the Mercury I,m afraid!

I was assaulted (facial injuries) and the rear wheel of my bike jumped upon and broken. I had [without real intent] took his wing mirror off as I raised my hand as he drove towards me on 'my side' of the road. It doesn't matter if you are 'right'.

I cringe now when people joke about taking wing-mirrors off, don't do it kids! As they say, there is always someone bigger than you.

Highest level resulted in court case and driver getting a year inside. He was released in three months, but battered someone else seriously and was back in within the week...

Second highest was the motorist who chased down the police van that pulled out and didn't hear me smack into the back doors in Sheffield....

madness; luckily have never had an altercation with anyone remotely resembling a psycho. Yet.

Back handed across the face by big fat red faced angry builder after he cut me up on the approach to a mini-roundabout with parked cars on the LHS.

I had tapped on the side of his van to make him aware of my presence...

Hot pursuit back from Dudley castle on the Birmingham New Road to Wolves with a motorway maintenance Escort van shouting come on then big boy while he wielded a lump hammer at me. He honked my trackstand at some lights so told the c@ant to do one, but instead he tried to do me...

Mouthed off at a geezer in a BMW on way to work in Walsall and he got pretty irate and drove off like a loon, pulled over and went to his boot to get something out. I hopped the central reservation and sprinted. Ended up hiding in a an alley on one way system until I saw him pass before ducking into work.

Got driven at and swerved towards by a posh lady in a Range Rover for once saying politely that a little more room wouldn't hurt. Sill can't believe some folk can lead normal lives but turn into homicidal maniacs when driving a small tank.

Left the Midlands rat race and road rage commutes and now have a quiet ride into work from Lancaster and have not had any incidents for 8 years now.

Favourite road rage incident is cycling with a mate little Phil who after be cut up and forced into the kerb, sprinted and caught the driver up at the next set of lights and ripped his wing mirror off and chucked it onto the chaps lap and said maybe you'll remember what these are for next time.

Quality stories Tomaso; especially the last one!

madness; luckily have never had an altercation with anyone remotely resembling a psycho. Yet.

I'm going to conclude you don't ride through rush hour anywhere in Hampshire.

Mine is listed on here somewhere...
Suffice to say it resulted in a wing mirror being punched off, a screaming blue fit, fist and boot damage to the vehicle and most shaming, a badly scared driver (although not as scared as I was when he nearly hit me from behind at a red light).

I now use a camera to both record any incidents, and to act as a reminder to keep my cool.

I had a woman try and kill me with her car. Heard her come up behind me and 2 friends. We dived onto the pavement. She then reversed and had another go. We dodged behind lamp posts while phoning the police as she kept at it.

She sped off before they arrived but when they went round to her house she pulled a knife on them. Last I heard she was under medical supervision of some sort.

Other than that I've probably had 3 people get out of there cars and threaten me. On person brake check me and loads of people shout and scream at me.

Been commuting for 7 years and do nearly 10000 miles a year to put it in perspective.

My favourite is the guy who went off on one when I overtook him doing 30mph+. I was doing sprint intervals and he was dawdling.

I'm going to conclude you don't ride through rush hour anywhere in Hampshire.

😀

I'm lucky; all of my cycling is pretty rural. Almost all altercations I have are with mums/dads or commuters. No hard looking men or fat builders. Most altercations are on 60mph roads where I've not got much chance of ever seeing them again either. I could easily imagine myself getting into bother if I spent my time commuting by bike along slow roads with traffic lights. I guess that's why you've got to take your approach

I'm not proud to say that once, riding along a straight bit of road, a youth approached from a side road. We made eye contact, he pulled out, then stopped. He should have waited as he had approached the t-junxtion. If he had accelerated I could have steered behind him, but, he pulled out just to block my way. So, I skidded to a halt next to the drivers door. Asked him what the **** he was doing to which he just shrugged. So, I punched him through his open window.
I then rode off as fast as I could through a pedestrian precinct.

Ive also had 'banter' with a ldv van full of builder types at an m1 junction also.

I wouldn't say I'm an angry type either. Late last summer as I'd ridden down the middle of a 7 mile traffic jam I heard someone shout 'you ****in can't. I chuckled for.the next couple of miles.

Loads. 4 years of commuting daily in London will do that.

Once threw my bike under the wheels of a stationary taxi near Hyde Park Corner as I was extremely keen he didn't drive off before we'd discussed his reasons for attempting to kill me.

Drunkenly hanging onto the door of a taxi (while still riding) after being sideswiped at that horrible 6 into 3 Aldwych junction. On reflection probably as much my fault as his. Didn't stop me telling his somewhat shocked fares they might want to get in with a safer driver

And my favourite - after a bloke in a Red Porsh tried to run me down as I was WALKING ACROSS the ped crossing on the Bayswater road, I chased after him (his desperation to press on left him stuck in traffic 50 yards away), opened his door, ripped the keys out, rode off and dropped them down a handy drain without really pausing for one second to consider my actions. I was quite angry. Told everyone in the office thinking what a hero I was and they all backed away carefully...

Never got in a fight tho. Good job as even fat cabbies would do me over 😉

Only contact I've ever had was when I "hit" (slap only) the wing mirror of a big campervan once - on a really narrow road and I was already right into the gutter on my side. Just held up my hand where my head would've been if I hadn't moved right off the road.

Best one was in Birmingham quite a long time ago - some guy in a sports car with ded long doors opened his up jsut as I was passing. Swerved & missed him but went back to have a rant. He was so reasonable and sorry about it but I really needed to shout for a bit. That was never going to get violent though.

A friend once closed an errant drivers door on his leg as he tried to get out the car repeatedly and with vigour.

Only ever managed to yell the odd "**** OFF YOU ****ING ****" myself, I feel quite inadequate now. Alex, your Porsche keys story alone would merit an OBE if I were king. I'm sure someone will be along to bollock us for being mean to the poor ole hard-done-by drivers shortly, but this thread is cheering me right up, carry on.

Ta. He wouldn't open his window when I politely knocked on it, and I was REALLY KEEN to get my point across. My survival strategy in London was assuming 50% of drivers were trying to kill you, while the other 50% were still going to kill you but it wasn't on purpose.

Level 7

Oh, also had a car undertake me when I was in the third rh lane on the approach to a roundabout.

I held me hands in the air - he shouted out his window before slamming on his brakes. I nearly ended up decorating his boot 😯

I had a gent slam his brakes on just after overtaking me, resulting in me hitting his rear bumper. He then sped off, only to get caught at some lights.
He seemed surprised when I knocked on his window and handed him his rear wiper - honestly, it just fell off in my hand!
The look of pure puzzlement, slow realisation dawning, and then purple rage in his face as I cycled off waving, will cheer me up for the rest of my life.

mintimperial - Member
Only ever managed to yell the odd "* OFF YOU * ****" myself, I feel quite inadequate now. Alex, your Porsche keys story alone would merit an OBE if I were king. I'm sure someone will be along to bollock us for being mean to the poor ole hard-done-by drivers shortly, but this thread is cheering me right up, carry on

Aye!

Never got into a full argument - the beauty of being on a bike is that you can get away from idiots faster than they can run 🙂

Recent ones: full on tantrum whilst sitting at the lights from a lady who didn't like me waving her back whilst she'd tailgated me at 30mph down a steep hill. I just stared at her till she ran out of screaming power and just sulked instead. Quite amusing really...

A guy in a transit tried to run me off the road from behind by Peckham Rye. I had to jump on the pavement to keep him from running over me, and made a comment about his personality as I did so. It seem a perfectly justified comment to me given he came close to killing me. Unfortunately I was right about his character. But he was also stupid so when he stopped to come and give me a beating, he slammed his door shut, which means I heard him and just rode off across Peckham Rye common whilst he carried on shouting abuse. I guess he's still fat and angry even now..

A guy in a Range Rover hurled abuse at me for stopping at an amber light. I think he was unhappy that he'd come very very close to running me over from behind. I'd rather he'd said sorry tbh. Either way I figured he wasn't adult enough for that and just rode off down the pavement in case he had another go at running me over when the lights changed.

Happily I've moved to a town with full cycle lanes and that kind of idiot will be dim and distant memory

Being a grrrl I usually work the 'my you really did scare me when you drove so close just now' when I catch them up at the lights. This is effective about 70% of the time with a further percentage who will stare stonily straight ahead and a small minority will argue that their 3mm of passing space was ample.

I did nearly get dumped by the bf on the one occasion my gentle nature failed me. We were in a weary queue of slow riders riding the last hill of a 200km audax. Some drivers were being super cautious about overtaking. Completely up to them. But four cars back, some tosser in a massive 4x4 was beeping like crazy to absolutely no effect and the greater harassment of drivers in front and cyclists to side.

Cue me revving up my best sprint up the hill passing tired riders and maintaining a very 'positive' road position. In my mind, cautious drivers weren't overtaking anyway and I would at least get to take the registration and perhaps even exchange pleasantries with Mr Beepy when he caught up with me. Things were indeed yelled but after our initial screaming match through his open and passing window, I failed to catch him at the lights to point out some of the errors in his argument and the veil of red mist somehow obscured his licence plate. When bf caught up with me he asked very pointedly how I was representing cycling and making people think more fondly of us. 🙄

Either grabbing the bus driver by the throat who brushed down my arm as he overtook me .Or threatening the little pratt who overtook a group on a bling bend as we followed a tractor forcing oncoming traffic onto the pavement .Apparently he had had a heart op .I was told this as I lifted him off the floor and pinned him against his van

I made a rather impatient and rotund lady cry after I received a torrent of abuse for daring to be in the same lane as her. The offending epithet that sprang unbounded from my lips?

"Button it, fatty!"

Bus driver decided to overtake me whilst something was coming in the opposite direction on a fairly narrow road, needless to say it was a bit tight for a moment. I caught up with him at the next stop just to ask if he realised what he had done. His answer was "didn't hit you did I", It was here I pointed out he was a dickhead. For a fat old bloke he moved quite quickly and squared up to me. I said I couldn't fight him as he looked older than my dad, got on my bike and went on my merry way. I keep seeing him in his bus so all I do now is wave at him.

Been riding to work 25 year, man and boy, and must have got off lightly - not too many confrontations. Couple with other cyclists, like, and got jumped by a crowd of jakeys once in Edinburgh.

Overtook one cyclist not so long ago in Manchester coming off a roundabout in a way that must have startled him, because he lost it. Raging at me for overtaking him, calling me all sorts, think I'm the big strong man going past him do I? We're riding two abreast on a busy dual carriageway, car horns sounding, arguing about who was the bigger ****. Abar a minute of this and I come to my senses, WTF am I doing arguing with this whopper? so press on. Next set of lights he's not letting it lie, and delivers the memorable line that I shouldn't overtake an international cyclist (seriously) 🙂 I couldn't help laughing and asked him what discipline was that then? BMX. OK Mate, see you around yeah?

Once I was cycling up the road and two teenage lassies were in a car and chucked an empty McDonalds bag at me. Caught them, totally unsuspecting at the lights and spat a massive greener in the driver's face.

Got tailgated and punishment passed by a young guy in a BMW with his mum. Caught him at the lights, opened his door, kicked him in the face a couple of times, grabbed the keys and chucked them off a bridge.
Not cool, but he nearly ****ing killed me.

Must be a down south thing all this agression and need to film your commute thing... 😆
I see the same dozon or so folk in cars on my commute and they usually give me a grin on the wildest days weather when i am still out on the commute what ever the wind or winter conditions...
I recently cancelled my CTC membership as tierd of reading commuting camera reviews and the whole agression thing of comutting cycling.
Then the whole youtube films of angry people cycling to work looking for conflict.

The whole thing is like the old saying if you go out in a pub looking for a fight you will find it, and these cyclists find confrotation...

Every weekend and midweek if i am out on Wednesday evenings i see big groups of road cyclists riding 5 abrest on A and B country roads here in East Lothian and huge tail backs of fustrated drivers who then hate and class all cyclists the same,
If i get stuck behind these groups -who i can bet on having ERC jerseys-even though they always deny its them out there!, i pass them with zero clearance and the windscreen wiper washers on full bore..
Sod them as there doing no cyclists any good with their militant atitude... 😆

Oh well. yourguitarheron and coastkid have spoiled it now, never mind. 🙁

Had a guy come up behind me at a junction, got bored waiting for me, so gave my back wheel a little nudge with his Volvo. I was wearing a bell faction helmet. Took the helmet off and smashed it into his bonnet. As he thought about getting out of his car I loudly and articulately told him I was 18 stone and bike 20 miles a day and that I would love to kill him. He apologised.

Joke's on him, I'm a massive pussy...

That is the only time I've gone full wack job.

Cycling someone tried to left hook me so I banged on their roof. They wound down the window a gave me a vicious tirade of abuse. I went round opened the door grabbed the keys and launched them across the road. That annoyed them.

Motorbike me and mate had a full on brawl with two Asian guys who tried to ram us off the road in a bmw. The two Asians were arrested for driving with no licence insurance and having changed the registration plates!

I once pulled up at the lights alongside a new Jag, and then fell on it.

I have been nudged a couple of times at pinch points in the road - shouted at some old bloke once who squeezed me off the road. I have received aggression on a number of occasions, and the anger was fermenting inside just waiting to be let out..

So there I was cycling through Caerleon which to drive through you have to take a very narrow single car width lane around the castle which takes a lot of cars and there's really not room to pass a cyclist. It's only about 2-300 yards so hardly a big deal. I held my position to discourage anyone from attempting it and as the road widened and I pulled aside a bloke pulled alongside to give me some abuse. Well that pressed the button on my pent up rage so I stopped, tossed my bike aside and squared up. I think he was about to get out of his car but the chap behind him who had the air of someone who knew how to deal with trouble just laid on his horn, so he hurriedly drove off.

Good thing too as I was very much up for it.

Got overtaken by a smallish car just outside town who actually clipped my jacket at 30mph. Scared the crap out of me. Caught up with him at the lights about a mile later. He knew he was too close, looked about 15 years old so I was about to question if he even had a license.I just pointed out that he clipped me coming down the hill.
His response was "calm down, Ive just come back from a funeral" My response of "you nearly got yourself an invite to another funeral, mine" didn't go down too well with his kids in the back who then burst into tears screaming "i don't want to go to another funeral!!!". The gf/wife then got out of the car screaming at me "how dare you make my children cry".. I rode off pretty fast... an angry mother is a scary sight.

I must be the worlds most placid cyclist, because I can't say I ever get that wound up by drivers. Most of the time I'm feeling sorry for them.
I'd never square up to a tonne of steel, life's too short.
Had a go at a few people in the street for speeding.

Skelped on the arse by the yoot and a hit and run by a BMW X5.

bearnecessities - Member
I once pulled up at the lights alongside a new Jag, and then fell on it.

That gave me a good chuckle! !

I'm a total wuss. First and foremost I have to say that. However being fairly tall and having a rather large scar on my noggin makes it easy to fake otherwise if I really have to. Last time I punched someone was at school when I'd had enough of being bullied. Just not the violent type.

That said I seem to attract "yoofs" while biking. Throwing food packaging, shouting stuff at me. Normal stuff really. I get enraged inside but let it go. Unfortunately I think everyone vents in the end.

A few years ago out on a country road I over take some yoof (plural) walking along the edge of the road. No foot path. Sure enough something gets thrown and his my back. Then I hear the running of one of them trying to catch me up, shooting stuff as he ran.

I really lost the plot at that point (for me anyway). I got off the mtb and threw it into the bushes at the side of the road. The lad then stopped and looked at me, his mates still walking along behind him, looking puzzled really.

Putting on my best fake "big mistake" look and voice I gave the lad a sharp lecture on his evident stupidity. He mumbled "sorry" which just got me more wound up to be honest.

Anyway, it ended with me making him kneel on the floor (not by force, I told him he had to, verbally) in front of me, with his mates looking on, and recite verbatim the words I told him he had to say to me to placate me. Which he did.

I then said he could stand up and catch up with his mates that had started walking on by this point.

As I got back on the bike and rode past him I shouted so his mates could hear "Have you got no back bone? I would NEVER let anyone do that to me, your a total gutless piece of ****."

Actually felt pretty bad about that as soon as I'd done it. I'm not violent but I'm a cold, callous SOB on occasion when pushed.

Not a trait I like to nurture as I very strongly believe in karma.

There was the humorous one.
Land Rover Discovery squeezed past me through a pedestrian refuge, extremely unpleasant. I shouted some abuse and the driver stopped so I went to the door, still swearing. The driver was huge, I mean absolutely morbidly obese, spilling out of the seat and over the gear stick. I started laughing and the driver was yelling "don't swear at me" so I replied "what are you gonna do - effing' eat me?"

Glad the vast majority of my riding over the years has been done outside of rush hour TBH!

I've been on the end of it as a driver before. Just remember when your about to take somebody's head off that we all make mistakes sometimes. I'm a cyclist who has made mistakes while driving. Also a driver whos made mistakes while riding. Never have they been deliberate.

I also always remember the story of a mate who was driving in London a few years back. Had a bit of a road rage incident. Bloke in the other car pulled out a gun. He said sorry and drove to the nearest police station. Just have to remember there are some proper nut jobs out there. Is it worth it?!

Last year was the worst one for me, on return to the cafe from a club run and we had been split up at a roundabout so there was a group of 3 of us left behind, traffic was heavy so it was slow going just gently filtering our way through the town, honestly 5-10mph stuff asit was so busy, then I overtook one car and as I got in front of her the traffic started moving a little so I just stayed in front of her and behind the car in front, no drama nice and normal but I became aware of shouting from behind, took a quick look back to see an irate young woman literally bouncing up and down in the drivers seat with rage yelling profanities at me, as the traffic slowed again We came to a stop and I turned round and asked what she was going on about.

She started yelling "get back on The side if the f'in road where you f'in belong you f'in piece of shit" and a few other variants of the same, I was actually a bit stunned ecause I've not come across someone quite that upset about a cyclist before.

As the car in front moved off again she revved really hard and tried to go around me, but there was a car coming the othe way which beeped at her so she swerved towards me, I was still standing still at this point but in a spur of the moment 'you're driving a car at me reaction' I slapped her wing mirror, I still to this day don't know if it broke or not as I didn't see but she slammed on the brakes, stopped blocking both lanes to much hooting, jumped out of her car and came running over to me arms flailing and I'm not sure whether I'm proud or ashamed to say I just stood there getting punched in the face and slapped round the head by an angry woman, a few bystanders came over at this point and in between fits of yelling she pointed at me and uttered the immortal words " I don't know who you are but I'll find you you f'in ****" the jumped I. He car and wheel spin away to join the traffic. It was only as she sped off that I noticed she also had her screaming daughter in the car, she behaved like that in front of her kids!

Suffice it to say next hour or so was spent in the police station giving statement, they did eventually track her down from reg. number provided by witness, she made up some story about me riding erratically and then punching her wing mirror unprovoked and asked for them to charge me with criminal damage!

Fortunately several witnesses had also reported seeing the event and supported my side of the story so that went nowhere but she got away with an official caution in the end.

Took 3 weeks before my neck and jaw were right again after being punched by a woman, not my finest hour but shudder to think how her kids are going to grow up if that's normal for her.

On the humorous front, my drunken rides back to the station when I worked for one of the big 4 consulting firms (bit of a drinking culture to put it mildly) passed into legend. Once I ducked under a transit wing mirror and ran a red light. I never do it when sober but needed a wee 😉 Transit was mostly white with some blue bits and full of policemen.

After pulling me over, I was told 'you do know sir, it's an offence to be drunk in charge of a bicycle' to which i responded 'I'm not really in control of it'. Moment of silence followed by chucking in the van. They let me off but insisted I used the cycle path through the park.

Other time - Jag story reminded me - I was weaving between two lines of traffic on the mall outside buck palace and got caught on someone's wing mirror. Was high summer and he had his window open. I leant in - all beery fumes and bonhomie - and apologised profusely. He seemed very keen to be somewhere else 😉

I sort of miss commuting in London. Only not really.

Oh and not a motorist. but this altercation was brilliant: http://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=53 - funny how it went a bit viral and the lady in question was a very serious runner for the county. Made me feel a bit better about getting my arse handed to me 😉

Short version - threw my bike down in the middle of the road in front of a Golf and was screaming at the driver to "get out your car and fight me!". He declined.

I had a full on stand up fistfight with a bolshy builder type who was shit at driving. He looked surprised when the smartly dressed bloke stuck him on his backside.
It wasn't funny, in fact it was very, very stupid. It's highly likely that I had a lot more to lose than he did and it'll never happen again.
In fact, some bell-end went mental at me for no reason on the M5 yesterday. Laughing at the idiots makes them more angry so it seems.

Tried to talk to a Merc driver who had passed very close and fast on a country road just before a T junction onto a dual carriageway which he had to stop at.

He was very heated and as a result I didn't pay attention to my road positioning and nearly got killed on the dual carriageway. To give him his due it was he who shouted at me 'watch out!'.

I avoid anything other than B road riding like the plague now.

i have been told by to crazy women (in an audi) that they will kill me if they see me again, for being in what they think is their lane which took 4 sec out of the quality time they usually have at the red light, which is where i ended up next to them and the threats were made.
A few days later i found out they work for the company next to mine but guess they have not seen me since.

Left my bike blocking a womans car on a singletrack country road while I screamed at her through her passenger window. All the while her husband stared straight a head not saying a word.

The road was too narrow to overtake so she held the horn on for the best part of 200 meters. When questioned "WHAT THE **** DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING??" She replied "I wanted you to get out of the way". That's when the rest mist really descended. Not even sure what I was saying after that.

Some absolute pearlers here! Cheered me up this morning.

Just remember when your about to take somebody's head off that we all make mistakes sometimes

I think this is a good point. But, most of the aggression I face is from people who have not patience and don't like having to wait behind for a couple of seconds whilst I cycle in the middle of the road to prevent them passing.

I get exasperated with mistakes, but I understand that having done it myself.

It's the people who deliberately dish out aggro just because they think you are somehow less than they are, because you are on a bike. They piss me off.

I can't understand how they think that way. After all there's every chance I am also a motorist as well as a cyclist.

In fact, some bell-end went mental at me for no reason on the M5 yesterday

In fairness, you probably shouldn't have been cycling there.

I've used the 'F' word quite often, but mostly in a passive-aggressive sort of way.

Otherwise, I do shout at people for speeding when they are going in the other direction, in the hope that they will read my lips but not have any possibility of turning around and catching me. 😳

The road was too narrow to overtake so she held the horn on for the best part of 200 meters. When questioned "WHAT THE **** DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING??" She replied "I wanted you to get out of the way". That's when the rest mist really descended. Not even sure what I was saying after that.

I totally sympathise with you there. That kind of intellectual vacancy would probably push me over the edge.

@davidtaylforth, that's true. But I also think a lot of it is down to drivers not understanding what the cyclist is doing. Your example of ridding in the middle of the road is a classic. Used to wind my Mrs up until I explained to her why they do it. Now she's fine with it. Unfortunately do many drivers are not interested in listening to our point of view.

My scariest driving incident involved a road ridding group one Sunday morning. A nice long straight so decided to overtake. At which point they must have hit their strava markers do sped right up to a sprint. Also filling the nice gap half way down the line of them. Resulted in me having to break suddenly as I would not get past before the corner up in the distance...and yes there was a car coming round the corner. Got all sorts of things shouted at me. So like I said, there are idiots on both sides. Oh, and don't get me started on students ridding at night with no lights!

I've been keistering cassette rings to use as shuriken since I was a young 'un.

i got rammed a few years ago here in Munich.... pootling to the ice cream parlour, a lady was hugging the GF's tyre. i turned around, glared and shooed her away. on e the next bend she over took leaving not much more than a gnat's cock between her wing mirror and my handlebar.
this pissed me off.
caught her as she was turning onto the main road, i got in front and skidded to a stop about 5m in front of her(bear in mind, this was rush hour and lots of people around). i wanted to point out to her how close she has passed me. however, she thought that revving the engine, letting in the clutch and driving at me. fortunately i managaed to dive at just the right time.... the bike went flying across the road. i started smashing on her window until the GF told me to step away.
ended up taking her to a cash point and getting her to pay out or else i'd have her before the courts.... read all the details [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/i-got-attacked-with-a-car-yesterday-evening ]HERE[/url] if you want.....

have hit a few cars before in town, but always turned off before they could turn ther car around....

when guiding on Gran Can, we had one Austrian guide who was known to us as "Addi", as in Adolf. he was known as having a bit of a temper, but on the whole was a good guy.

one day he came back from a tour absolutely fuming.... turned out that his group had nearly been wiped out by some guy at a roundabout. he followed this guy (with his group in-tow) to a car park. he begun shouting at the guy in Spanish. when the guy stood there stuttering, obviously not understanding anything, Addi asked "Bist du Deutsch?", "Ja" came the reply. So Addi smacked him square in the face and floored the guy.
viewing his headcam footage was fun until we thought it better he get rid of the evidence...

I'm really not proud of altercations on the road. I tend to find being disinterested and shrugging at the angries on the road is the best response, although I've not always been like this.

Again, something I'm not proud of.

I had a guy wind down his window screaming at me for being held up in traffic. Proper foaming at the mouth type. I started edging ever closer to his car (we were both moving at a reasonable pace) as he was looking at me leaning out of his window yelling. He was too busy yelling at me to look where he was going, I almost edged him into the coming traffic island in a head on.

Full emergency stop. A split second later he would have hit it hard.

I'm not the malicious type and I felt super guilty about it afterwards.

I'm crap at this game..

Other than a raised hand and a dismayed look, with maybe an occasional ****er hand signal if someone passes tooo close, I tend to just get on with my day

she held the horn on for the best part of 200 meters. When questioned "WHAT THE * DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING??" She replied "I wanted you to get out of the way".

I was riding to work one morning when a bloke came up behind me on the approach to humpback bridge and beeped his horn. I ignored it. He overtook, saw the car coming the other way and side-swiped me into the gutter. He stopped while making unimpressed gestures/grunts, I rode round him. He sped up again so I hopped onto the pavement out of his way. He stopped his car and came running out, knocked me to the floor and punched in the head a load of times for 'kicking his car'.

I reported it to the police. He did too, went to a police station, said "there was a cyclist in the road. I beeped my horn but he didn't get out the way so I punched him". Police decided that with two witnesses and helmet cam (I was obviously asking for it!) footage that it wasn't serious so made him write me a letter saying "I'm sorry that we bumped into each other". That showed him.

Also got accused of slander by a lorry driver. 😆 I reported him to his company for a terrible overtake in the face of oncoming traffic. I only avoided being dragged under the back wheels of the trailer because I was paying attention. I was waving an arm and shouting "NOOOO" when I heard and saw the overtake start because I could see the oncoming car. I dived left as soon as the cab passed me. The company replied with something along the lines of "a difficult situation developed and Geoff dealt with it well by avoiding the oncoming car". This was a car doing less than 40mph, on a flat, straight road, in broad daylight. There was only a "situation" because the lorry driver overtook at a stupid time. I ended up stationary with my wheels against the kerb and the wheels of the lorry passing 6 inches to my right at 30+ mph.

He saw me on the same road a few weeks later and he wanted to sue me for slandering him to his company. I refused to give him my details but gave him my british cycling membership number and told him to speak to 'my' legal team if he had a problem. 😆

The ones that make me really angry are the ones that just show complete indifference. Bloke in a Range Rover barged past me with <1ft of space while cutting across to the left a couple of weeks ago. Then immediately hit the brakes for a red traffic light. I was next to him at the lights and tapped on the window to say "that was a bit close mate". He glanced at me and then went back to the middle distance stare dead ahead. I was next to him for 30 seconds or longer and he was just trying to pretend I wasn't there. If you've made a mistake then put your hands up and say "sorry". If you're a psycho then I can kind of understand the "get out the way maggot, I'll f*** kill you!" reaction. But the "I've just nearly killed someone. Meh. I didn't [i]actually[/i] kill him, what's he moaning about " response is just infuriating.

I must be the worlds most placid cyclist,

Fight you for it!

I'd never square up to a tonne of steel, life's too short.

When you're vulnerable it's just not worth it.

Driver of an Audi A3 and I exchanged words, I chased him through the village, then I turned off into the pub.

He'd stopped, and was chatting to my mates by the pub entrance. When I walked around, he got out the car and things escalated quite quickly.

He got a Police caution for assaulting me by pushing me through a hedge.

I've only ever lost it once since, when a car squeezed past me driving along a bus and cycle lane - the A52 for those that know Nottingham. He got some abuse and hand gestures. He then pulled into a side road, waited till I'd gone past and then repeated the manoeuvre.

I pulled over, sat down on the pavement and had a quiet 5 minutes wishing I'd got his number plate.

And there was also the time a passenger in a car on the A6 threw cans of Carling at me as well as a volley of homophobic abuse. I was more hurt by the grief I got on here afterwards for suggesting that I had brought it on myself by riding a road bike and wearing lycra! 😐

in scenarios like that the likelihood of an escalation that could work out very badly for me is infinitely higher than that of an apology, or some realisation or acknowledgement of crap driving or general bell-endery.

Edit: Second closest to physical contact was a van driver who overtook me through a small roundabout and swiped me off it (we were both going straight, he used the right turn only lane to get next to me, then carried me off the RAB and tried to fight me for hitting his van).

And third closest was a guy who was perfectly civil out of his car, but didn't like me filtering. I stopped in front of him in a queue at a roundabout. He then drove about a foot behind me. My right heel was hitting his front passsenger side bumper as I pedalled. He didn't back off until i booted the front of his car. There was no room for me to pull over and let him through, and if I'd braked he would have hit me.

I pulled into a layby 100m up the road to let him through. He pulled over too. He was annoyed because he'd left the gap in front of his car for the learner driver that he was following, not for me. So I shouldn't have taken the space. So he tried to physically push me off the road 😕

Just a note - for all you heros that give someone a kicking, it does work both ways.

I was driving to a race and was royally cut up by someone in an X5. Got to a set of lights, jumped out my car with track pump in hand (god knows what I thought I was going to do with it) only to be faced by a veritable man mountain getting out the X5. He looked at me, I looked at him - he gave me the universal sign for 'come on then' and I responded with the universal sign for 'clearly there has been some mistake here sir, I'm going to return to my vehicle and hide behind the steering wheel until you go on your merry way'. He smiled and replied 'yeah, thought so'. I felt a bit silly.

The times where I have lost it, I've always deeply regretted it afterwards. Especially when the bloke I was about to get stuck into apologised over and over again until I just felt like a knob for shouting.

These days I just shout to let someone know I'm there and if they get wound up then its their problem. I'd rather get home in one piece than get 'shanked' because I was in the right.

brooess - Member

Never got into a full argument - the beauty of being on a bike is that you can get away from idiots faster than they can run

At traffic lights, I once banged the side of a car - can't remember why now - and the driver shouted at me not to because his kids were in the car. So far, so normal, but he got out of the car to have a fight, I edged forward down the queue of traffic. He followed, still ranting. I edge forward again, he followed and then realised I could play a game. How far could I lure the driver away from his car before the lights changed. All the way down into the middle of the junction, it turned out. About 10 cars, from memory. Great dad, leaving his car and kids abandoned so he could fight. 😆

Those of you that resort to violence does it only happen on a bike or are you up for fisticuffs in non cycling situations?
Been knocked off a few times and always too shook up to do anything about it. Close calls I just call them rude names and cycle off.

Which reminds me - I had a bloke yell 'what sort of f'kin example is that to set you ****t' after I'd jumped up onto the pavement to get out the way of some traffic (I was completely in the wrong to be fair). Which would have been a fair point had he not had his kids in the back. Obviously poor riding should be dealt with but colourful language is fine

Just a note - for all you heros that give someone a kicking, it does work both ways.

I think you're probably right. Although it's possible to have a good idea who's gonna give you a hiding by the car they're driving I think.

THe last chap I had a proper word with the other week was in a new ford fiesta - definitely not a hard mans car. Passed way too close and then had to stop for a bus so I caught him.

Tapped on his window (which he wound down) and I told him he shouldva given me more room:

"well, you shouldn't be cycling in the middle of the road then"

"I'm David Taylforth; I cycle where I want"

See ya, bye.

I suspect the internet means the stories are embellished

Worst one i had a truck fail to give way at one of those traffic calming measures and as there was no escape route i had to cut across him and they were forced to slam on.

They then got out and shouted at me. I pointed to the sign saying they had to give way they called me nasty names and said they would kill me. I suggested we run around his truck till you have a heart attack you fat bastard. this did not calm the situation, I then cycled off

I've had my usual share of incidents on the bike and in the car, and i've never hit anyone or been hit - yet! But it has got very very close at times, and i'm not proud of it. On the bike I have made a conscious effort to try (emphasis on 'try' - it doesn't always work) not to overreact to smaller stuff like close passes. I give a shake of the head or opened palmed 'what was that?' gesture, which being less offensive I think helps to stop it escalating. As the vulnerable party on a bike, i'm (to a point) happy to let stuff go so I don't get involved in something where I can easily get hurt, like being rammed by a car. If I do shout I try not to swear, again thinking it helps not to escalate, and tend to do it if I have an escape route!

I recently had a car road rage incident where the guy pulled in and confronted me face to face calling me a c**t many times and threatening to hit me many times. I didn't swear at him or threaten him in return, but was ready to defend myself if necessary, and I didn't back down on him being totally in the wrong. The point was that as much as I wanted to hit him and as close to rage as I was, I knew it would be a brief satisfaction with long term consequences. And it's worth remembering that. Having a record/caution for assault would not be good for my employment prospects, nor probably for my relationship either.

I think that in incidents which have caused injury or very near misses, shock is the prevailing emotion and sheer self-preservation is what matters. In this way road rage is a kind of luxury, because nobody is injured and people have the space to vent their anger. All easier said than done though!

It amuses me how laughing at irate motorists often makes them explode with rage, so I do, every time the opportunity presents itself! Also sticking your tongue out at them has a similar effect, or blowing a kiss to a WVM or some tracksuited yob.

I've claimed a number of wing-mirrors on the roadie by way of retribution, but these were deliberate retributive acts, not emotional reactions. The one time the red mist came down was the kicking I dished out to the driver who knocked me off my old Vespa. He'd cartwheeled me over the bonnet but I wasn't hurt much, and before he'd even so much as opened his drivers door I'd done it for him, and then dished it out to him while he sat in his car whimpering. I'm not in the least bit sorry.

One of the other lads here got knocked off once - picked up his bike, wheeled it to the side of the road, went to talk to the driver who was still sat in his car but had wound his window down, and knocked him spark out. Then got back on his bike and rode off!

If all drivers knew that this is what potentially awaits them if they knock someone off then cars might be driven more considerately! Not everyone's in a position to dish it out though. Sadly.

If all drivers knew that this is what potentially awaits them if they knock someone off then cars might be driven more considerately! Not everyone's in a position to dish it out though. Sadly.

😀

I don't think I'd be comfortable "dishing it out" to someone who'd knocked me off my bike though. The last time I got knocked off my bike was by a youngish woman who I think saw me but decided she had time to make the turn.

Genuine error; she was clearly upset. She also hung around for the police to turn up, whilst a nice shop keeper came out and mopped up my blood for me. It was all very civilized.

Yes, it depends upon the circumstances of course - and the contrition shown by the offender. In both of the examples I gave above myself and my colleague kicked off out of sheer indignation, because while we'd been bowled over the road, managed to get to our feet and approach the vehicles, the drivers hadn't deigned to so much as open their bloody doors!

a long long long time ago i had a swearing/cutting up battle with a Post Office van driver around the one-way system in Norwich, can't remember how it started but it went on for quite a while, aided by the fact it was a van with a sliding driver's door left open so insults were free and easy to exchange

the driver took the opportunity of me slowing down a bit to turn right to where i needed to get to by jumping out of his van (again, sliding door helping matters here) haul me off my bike and before i know it have me by the neck up against the wall, feet off the ground

i remembering thinking that things hadn't gone well

there was more shouting but luckily the rapidly forming crowd saw him cease his actions and get back into his van, whilst i got the names of willing crowd members as witnesses

a strongly worded letter to the Post Office followed and then a knock on the door some weeks later by the van driver asking for me to tell his employees that he didn't need to lose his job over his actions, i declined his request being young and full of hate and somehow my house wasn't fire-bombed or have any dog turds posted through the letterbox

i've had plenty others, but that's prob the best