[Closed] What's with random yelling at cyclists?

Could it be "Geroff an' milk it"?

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zillion? wow you must ride a lot! 😉

it has happened a couple of times and its just been joining abuse bar the time somebody leaned out the window and physically pushed me off. I was so shocked I didn't even realise what happened before they'd vanished.

Never had anything shouted at me while cycling (mostly cos I don't ride where there's folk in cars or on foot very often) but I've had a few heckles when I've been running. Harmless fun, if a little strange.

doesn't happen to me on my motorcycle but then, there are not many cars that pass me when I'm on it.

There are other issues we have to deal with on motorcycles like, people getting irate as they think you have 'stolen' there little bit of road when you overtake them.

You haven't worn through your lycra have you? Worth checking 😉

Used to get this a lot when out running at night also, that and blasting there horn.
I think they are either on the low end of the intelligence spectrum or they some how think they are being humorous.

Also, I had someone slap my backside whilst they passed me on the pushbike. Reported them to the police for sexual assault. Seems to be the only way to get the police to take any bicycle/car incident seriously!

I've had stuff shouted at me, usually it's light hearted banter though. People shouting 'Go Wiggo!' or 'you've got a flat tyre'. I've even had people stick their arm out for a high five!! which is quite cool.

Sometimes there has been stuff shouted by blokes in vans, which I assume was amusing for them but i had no idea what 'Ehh, yoiyoi phrump yoi yoi' meant!! so no idea if it was an insult.

I find the ones trying to kill you do it silently.........

I've always taken it to be a passenger trying to make his mates in the car laugh. Me and my friend have a whole catolgue of things that have happened to us on 2 wheels. Through from the drunk who sat on my saddle at some lights asking for a backy to the next pub to when my mate was punched on the shoulder by someone passing in the car.

I've only had this once recently, I live in a fairly quiet part of the UK, well, roads are busy but tends to be ok, I was on my Specialized Pitch on a short bit of road between some off road bits they were going the other way, they shouted (I think) 'get that bike off the road' .. I couldn't work out if they were being abusive or encouraging at the time, weird!

Happened a a few times to me on my commute. I don't get it, I can't hear what they say, it doesn't offend me but it must please their simple minds.

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We got egged on the road climb up to Rivi by some scrotes in a Corsa. Driving slowly past us, hanging out of the windows chucking eggs at us.

Very occasionally.. very.

Last one was probs 2012 when Wiggo was all the rage, I got a "oi Wiggo"!!

Strange as normally in the South Downs drivers are very timid, often on their way to Auntie Mildreds for tea and cake....

I have had cans of coke thrown at me but that was a very looooong time ago now (10+ years) and typically done by a Yoof.

I often get change gear shouted at me, they are probably unaware it would be physically impossible for me to do that as there is only one.

I think they are either on the low end of the intelligence spectrum or they some how think they are being humorous.

Not either but both.

had it a few times, most recently last Sunday.
Riding along a fairly empty 2 lane highway, I've taken the left hand lane, guy in an Audi (what else) decides he wanted his car to be exactly where I was and tried edging me over. There's bog all traffic and no turnings coming up so he had no reason to do it. I held my line and glared at him. Next traffic lights he pulls up and starts shouting at me
I just condescendingly laughed at him and he peeled away in a fit of impotent rage with his wife telling him to shut up and grow up

Pillock

and
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^that

's this basically. Bus? Bike? Makes little difference....

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I got more heckling as a runner than I do as a cyclist - the old "Run Forrest Run" thing - only 25 years behind the times!
I got a major screaming tantrum the other week from a 'lady' driver who didn't understand that an off-camber cycle lane down a steep hill which was full of wet leaves wasn't a safe place to ride. I was so astonished at the sheer amount of emotion she was putting out that I just sat and looked at her till she ran out of steam. It reminded me of a tantrum my godson had aged 3... quite funny really, although not terribly becoming for a young woman 😯

If cyclists are getting more abuse at the moment I suspect it's because society as a whole has moved on from abusing women, racial minorities, Jews and homosexuals and those who need to abuse people have very few groups left to take their issues out on...

That said I've just done a 25m loop and got absolutely no abuse at all, which was nice

It's much better than it was in the old days, when cycling was as popular as leprosy and 'Your back wheel's going round' was considered the height of wit, and the Wiggins effect/Tour de Yorkshire has improved things a lot.
I was flogging my way up Langcliffe Scar last year and a couple of yoof in a boy-racer mobile drew up alongside and wound down the passenger window. I was just bracing myself for the abuse and beer can to be thrown when the lad started banging the car door and shouting encouragement in proper continental DS style, just like Marc Madiot except with a broad Yorkie accent 🙂

I once received a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse from a very posh sounding woman in a 4x4. Rather than be offended, I found it rather turned me on somewhat. Which prompted me to respond with 'can I have your 'phone number? because if you're as dirty as your mouth is, I'm sure we can have some fun!' 😀

Strangely, she was suddenly rendered speechless as she drove off.

Sometimes it's humour/encouragement. Sometimes they're being tits.

Had it a few times, never really understood it. The heckling is fine, the time I got pelted with acorns was a bit uncomfortable, and I totally lost my shit that time I got half a McDonalds milkshake in the face.

Funny really, I live in a supposedly nice part of the country too.

I got a "Come on Wiggo!" this morning from some schoolkid at a bus stop. Ten years ago if a schoolkid shouted something at you it was likely to rhyme with anchor or hunt. Now it tends to be more positive, stuff about training for the tour or come on wiggo or similar.

'can I have your 'phone number? because if you're as dirty as your mouth is, I'm sure we can have some fun!'

Got my arse slapped many years ago, if it ever happens again I'll be reporting it as a grope if I get their reg.

I've had this loads, more in the past though - perhaps because I was not an old fart back then, perhaps because of the increased popularity of cycling. Seems more common in Wales maybe.

Used to live and ride round Birmingham when I was at Uni and got used to the grief, then about ten years ago I moved down to gentile St Albans.

Went to visit a friend up in Brum a year or so back and had obviously forgot what the place was like as I got the bike out the van to ride from his to the cash machine, about a 1.5 miles round trip.

In those 1.5 miles I got yelled at twice and had a high speed punishment pass with a tracksuit clad imbecile hanging out the passenger side gesticulating wildly at me.

Where you are definitely has a baring on how much aggro you get.

In Scotland I've been yelled at a few times, a mixture of random ****wits and drivers who think I'm using up their road.

In the Alps the only things I've heard from drivers have been shouts of encouragement.

Also, I had someone slap my backside whilst they passed me on the pushbike. Reported them to the police for sexual assault. Seems to be the only way to get the police to take any bicycle/car incident seriously!

not your type then..........

I got called a gobby f,,,,,ing cyclist earlier this year for shouting at a driver for a close pass.

What Ron said ^

I've noticed it happens a lot more if I'm on my road bike, than on my mountain bike

Same roads, same time of day

No idea why, maybe me in lycra offends people 😀

The french will shout encouragement I have never had abuse or threatening behaviou here.

I remember a load of shouting once from the car behind me - I was in Spain on an MTB trip and on a quick road hop from trail to trail.
I turned round to find out just why I was being abused and realised they were shouting encouragement 🙂

I think I was invited to come on a yak hunt the other day.

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I too have experienced the involuntary selection as target/amusement by motorists and peds, numerous times, involving numerous remarks and/or missiles. None of which have been "earned".

Here in the UK, I believe people have generally, become more impatient, sooner to lose their temper, selfish and confrontational. While also appearing to me as being ever so slightly cowardly for targeting someone as part of a group in a car.

I couldn't guess as for why this is or is not the case and I have no "data" to support my opinion, it's just my perspective on how the UK appears to me these days. Whether it's queuing driving, cycling, whatever.

Yes, there are still kind, considerate types out there too. But the rise of the impatient, "me first and definitely before YOU" types, seems to have taken place and their number appears to be growing.

There seems to be a lot of anger out there. I guess it's the price society pays for making "progress"......

Solo +1.

Here in the UK, I believe people have generally, become more impatient, sooner to lose their temper, selfish and confrontational. While also appearing to me as being ever so slightly cowardly for targeting someone as part of a group in a car.

I couldn't guess as for why this is or is not the case and I have no "data" to support my opinion, it's just my perspective on how the UK appears to me these days. Whether it's queuing driving, cycling, whatever.

The Mrs and I moved back to the UK a couple of months ago (previously living in northern Italy) and even though we're living in a lovely part of North Yorkshire we have definitely noticed the prevalence of a specific type of uneducated, "me first" individual who resorts to confrontation as the first response to everything.

We used to complain about Italian drivers (hot-headed, always overtaking in stupid places, would never let you out etc) but to be honest I felt much safer on the roads over there, especially on the bike.

I had it a couple of weeks ago, caught up with him at traffic lights, asked him what he said. I kept it polite but he was well up for a barney straight away, he was so annoyed at me for taking up roadspace (narrow uphill lane on blind bend), it was comical how much of a twit he was being at 8am. I felt sorry for him and also wanted to punch him in the face at the same time.

About 10 years ago, a bunch of school kids yelled "come on, Lance!" at me.

I'd like to imagine it was due to my metronomic-like cadence, rather than him being possibly the only pro-cyclist that the general public had heard of at that time.

i once had a milkshake thrown from a distinctive white ford orion ghia 1.6i with bodykit.
the guy shat himself when i turned up at his house 20 mins later, i went past the car every single day . . .
i ended up phoning the police because he threatened me, and (genuinely) by an amazing coincidence the copper who turned up was a regular in the shop where i worked.
saw the orion driver loads of times after that, never had any trouble though.

There seems to be a lot of anger out there. I guess it's the price society pays for making "progress"......

Sorry for the thread hijack...
I don't think it's 'progress' I think it's realising that our future will be less secure and less wealthy than before and than we expected. Our current lifestyles and 'wealth' are based on an unsustainable mountain of debt - at government level, at corporate level and personal level. 2008 was not the start of this, but the problem making itself known. As we continue to fail to produce any real growth or jobs its's becoming clearer and clearer that our reality is a whole lot less pleasant than we expected it to be and our future is likely to continue down this trajectory. Fundamentally I think people are just scared about the future...

I don't think it's 'progress' I think it's realising that our future will be less secure and less wealthy than before and than we expected. Our current lifestyles and 'wealth' are based on an unsustainable mountain of debt - at government level, at corporate level and personal level. 2008 was not the start of this, but the problem making itself known. As we continue to fail to produce any real growth or jobs its's becoming clearer and clearer that our reality is a whole lot less pleasant than we expected it to be and our future is likely to continue down this trajectory. Fundamentally I think people are just scared about the future...

Or some people are just dicks

Not had one for ages, but had one tonight, while coming back through town after my nightride.

"Your chain's gone flat!" Was a new one on me...

Earlier this year while riding at a speed of Mach-1, a taxi came buzzing past with a fellow leaning out the passenger side (of his best friend's ride?), yelling "JABAJABAJABAJABAJABA..."

Next day I was riding the same road and I saw the same fellow at a bus stop. He had a bleached white hair mini Mohawk thing so quite distinctive. Anyway, in the short period of time I had to formulate my options, these were:

1. In a show of willingness to make a new friend, do I shout "JABAJABAJABAJABA..." at him while I ride by; or,
2. Do I ride by without shouting anything; or,
3. Do I stop next to him and ask wtf was he jabbering about and did he realise that it's liable to cause a cyclist to get a bit of a shock and how would he like it and what lower class attitude did he have that gave him the right to be so inconsiderate...

I opted for '2' as I had important cycling to do. But in my mind he was suitably reprimanded

If cyclists are getting more abuse at the moment I suspect it's because society as a whole has moved on from abusing women, racial minorities, Jews and homosexuals and those who need to abuse people have very few groups left to take their issues out on...

Yes we definitely have it tougher than them 🙂

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^. Agreed. .

Let's break it down -

There are three types of people. (Sciencey eh?)

Sit them in a test environment and show them the same clip pictured above. Three types = three different reactions. The reactions of the three types will differ as follows:

Type 1 - Laugh at the (ironic, harmless) youthful folly on display. Understand the concept of satire (Viz)
Type 2 - Think the boys are being cool and that bus users really are sad ****ers. Do not really understand satire (Nuts/Zoo/Hatchback Monthly etc)
Type 3 - Don't really get any of it so react with a blank expression or else tut-tut and shake their heads. Do not understand satire. (The Daily Express/People's Friend etc)

Type two will usually be the ones most likely lob the remains of their Happy Meal at your be-helmeted bonce as you cycle harmlessly along.

Passive aggressive, surprise them, they really need it!

doordonot I favour option one. Made me laugh.

I also need some sleep as just realised that the format of my prior comment almost identically matches yours, and I swear I only just now read yours, or so I thought. Latent subliminal weirdness, night all.

I avoid road riding as much as possible, but even so I've had someone hiff a near empty Jim Beam bottle out of a sunroof at me. There was the fickwut that threw a beer bottle at a German cycle tourer on the open road (100kmph) - smashed on her bike frame and opened her leg up, she nearly died of blood loss on the side of the road.
On the not nearly so serious side - some dorks in a 4WD (seems to be a common theme around here) slowed down and smacked a mate's arse on a long rural road climb - unfortunately for them he's a copper so he just rang the nearest plod station who sent out a car to stop the ship of fools and presented them with a hefty fine.

Used to happen quite a lot, not much recently, maybe I look angrier these days.

Some reference to Chris Hoy was quite common (I'll take the compliment...), random abuse, random noises ("waaaaaaaagh") and the strangest "your back wheel's following your front wheel".

I don't think it's a new thing since there have been dickheads in society throughout history.

In the mid 1970s I was riding along the old A590 when I heard an approaching car behind me (lots less traffic back then) but then there was no noise but it hadn't passed me. I carried on pedalling, the car then drew up beside me out of gear, coasting along. A kid in the passenger seat leant out of the window and screamed in my ear, at this point the driver (presumably the kid's dad) hit the power and the car sped off. I did jump quite a bit 😳

There's a BMW driver (always has to be one doesn't it?) that I see fairly regularly on my commute who shouts abuse at cyclists, usually when he's being a traffic jam.

I'm not so sure about the "insecurity" theory posited above. It seems more like an attitude of "[i]I'm paying lots of money for this car and I'm stuck in traffic unable to fill the car's potential on my way to work a mile away from home while some hippy layabout who doesn't pay road tax goes sailing through. I'll have a word[/i]".

The copper story reminds me of a tale from a work colleague who used to ride semi-professionally for the armed forces. They were out for a training ride with another team when a car crashed in to them. The driver got all antsy and demanded that the police be called. "Not a problem, we are already here" - the other team was the police's own cycling team.

I get this alot.
There is a bridge approx 400m long with a shared use footpath alongside.
If I ride primary, every time there will be hooting or verbals or a punishment pass. Its a 40mph limit and not overly wide. With a tail wind I can sit at around 24ish so the delay is minimal, just 20 secs or so.

I have had apples hit me before, a woman in a yellow Boxster jesturing at the kerb. Last week a blue Vito DGX plate pulled up next to me incessant with rage and spent 10 secs maybe hurling abuse, before pulling just past and aiming at the kerb.

Going north I usually nearly catch up with the perps at the lights , coming south not so often.

The shared use path is sometimes occupied by fisherman ( estuary ) and alot of joggers and puschairs . I do use it in cross wind as the road become very dangerous. Its badly designed with dodgy entrance ( on 23c tyres ) and then you have to come to a complete standstill to re- join.

Its rubbish , and you become the target of peoples fustration . They may have spent 10mins getting through a traffic jam cauused by 100 cars, But if 1 cyclist hold them up for an extra 20 seconds they loose the plot and boil over.

The best part is 1 mile from the bridge the roa goes from 40mph to 30 mph , for 3miles. which will always hold them up for longer than the 20 seconds it delays them . But they dont seek out the highways planners and local coucil who instiagated the speed limit change and yell at them in an apoplectic rage do they?

[url= https://twitter.com/beztweets/status/662650509086576640 ]You need one of these ;)[/url]

I was once offered a drink of McDonald's coke. At the next red light I thanked the driver and passenger for their offer profusely.

Four of us in Kent.

Car comes past, passenger shouts 'C', 'Ah', 'W**'.

Gets to me but he has run out of vocabulary so all he can do is make a 'grrnwarrg' noise and appears to convulse in fury.

Still makes me chuckle...

That said I've just done a 25m loop and got absolutely no abuse at all, which was nice

I've been shouted at a few times, as has our club on group rides. Occasionally we get someone leaning on their car horn, which I really hate. The last time it happened to me, I was riding alone and as a carful of blokes in a boy racer-type car went past, 2 stuck their heads out of the window and yelled "raaahh!" at me. I almost fell off my bike, then tried to catch up with them as they approached a junction but they got away. Probably just as well, as I probably would have kicked a dent in their car.

Wry smile at whitestone - I was riding along a road close to the A590 earlier this year when a kid screamed in my ear - his dad thought this was very amusing as he sped off. Maybe the dad was that kid who yelled at you at all those years ago and he is passing his skills on like an ancient hunter-gatherer 🙂 Or maybe some people are just arses....

Glad this has been brought up, I'm not alone. I've never had motorists shout abuse, but there is one old pit village I ride though from time to time that I can almost guarantee I'll get some incoherent ramble shouted at me by chav youths or half cut gap toothed grannies. I've never understood what they said, maybe nextime I'll stop and ask. Must be a lot of ****wits out there

It's much more civilised off road. Only shouting you get is "Straaaaavaaaa!"

This happens to me or us when group riding occasionally. I think the sight of men in Lycra must just really wind some idiots up! Just the sight of us!
Plus there's the whole underlying attitude of cars being the only acceptable form of transport on roads, bikes just being for recreation and in some way not valid.
I always respond/react which will get me in trouble some day!

Had a clown in a builders truck scream at me very close up,nearly hit the kerb.Scared the bejesus out of me at the time.The ubiquitous "Mr, your back wheel is going round" and my personal fave of the summer was a young boy ,maybe 10/11y/o ,who angrily screamed "you're not brilliant you know"!
I'm not proud of this ,but I told him "correct , but I'm not as fat as your dad" as I rode away from them in traffic.

[quote=toby1 ]What Ron said ^

Who?