Oiks shouting stuff at cyclists

[tonycollinet]

Wednesday commute home.

A highish pitched "wooo" combined with the waving of a teddy bear at me. (Note: not a teddy bear waving).

I think an interesting documentary could be made.

[D.A.L.E.]

'You're not going fast enough'

'Your mum said that too' 

 

[Feanor]

Non-oiks yesterday.

I was doing a local perm 300k, which went over the Lecht ( a big local hill ).
Just at the start of the long fast descent, there was a set of temporary traffic lights for road works , and I had to stop at the red light.
I heard a car pull up behind me, but didn't look back at it.
The lights changed, and I set off down the open side of the road, at high speed.
I was doing about 70kph, and the following car stayed well back.
It's a long descent, and after clearing the roadworks, the car finally passed carefully.

It was French-registered, and passed with a toot-toot, and a thumbs-up out of the driver's side ( nearest me ).

I was wearing my Audax Ecosse top at the time.
I wonder if the driver noticed the French reference there?

[Mr Larrington]

Riding along the road that parallels the northern side,of the Ardèche Gorge I was encouraged to ride at R17 by a car full of enthusiastic Dutch types.  When you are worried that your front panniers are about to scrape the road, you are probably cornering too quickly for a fully-laden tourer.

[Katie]

"The Tour de France is over luv!"

Given it was about 11pm and I'd just ticked over from 149km to 150km, I was quite proud of my response:

"I'm on the Vuelta mate, which way is Spain from here?"

Drunk people left speechless. Score.

[matthew]

    

Brilliant answer.

[Katie]

   

Brilliant answer.

I'm not very witty very often, and never spontaneously, so yeah, very chuffed with myself for that one.

[nikki]

Doubly brilliant! Well done! 

[Wascally Weasel]

This morning I got "You've got some legs on you girl" from a WVM at the lights on Chelsea Bridge.*

I turned my (bearded) face towards him and said "Thanks mate".

He looked confused.

ETA It does go to show that some men will shout stuff at anyone who they consider even vaguely resembles a woman (I don't think I particularly do but whevs)




*Technically a BVM as it was a blue van.

[hellymedic]

This morning I got "You've got some legs on you girl" from a WVM at the lights on Chelsea Bridge.*

I turned my (bearded) face towards him and said "Thanks mate".

He looked confused.

ETA It does go to show that some men will shout stuff at anyone who they consider even vaguely resembles a woman (I don't think I particularly do but whevs)

*Technically a BVM as it was a blue van.

Typical!
Gets very wearing after a while.
Wascally presumably appears to be MALE many observers.
This 'attention' is a PITA to those who can't help looking female.

[Kim]

This morning I got "You've got some legs on you girl" from a WVM at the lights on Chelsea Bridge.*

I got exactly that from a passing cyclist on the Grand Onion towpath somewhere in the vicinity of Digbeth last week.  Leg comments of that nature aren't remarkable, though given that at the time said legs were mostly concealed beneath a layer of mud there may have been a hint of irony involved.

Gendering cyclists from behind isn't an exact science, and the unreliability of cues such as long hair or the presence of PINK may be overlooked by a shouty person distracted by a particularly good arse.

[Wascally Weasel]

This morning I got "You've got some legs on you girl" from a WVM at the lights on Chelsea Bridge.*

I turned my (bearded) face towards him and said "Thanks mate".

He looked confused.

ETA It does go to show that some men will shout stuff at anyone who they consider even vaguely resembles a woman (I don't think I particularly do but whevs)

*Technically a BVM as it was a blue van.

Typical!
Gets very wearing after a while.
Wascally presumably appears to be MALE many observers.
This 'attention' is a PITA to those who can't help looking female.

Oh sure, and I wasn't intending to be at all dismissive of that issue (my "Thanks mate" was very much said as sarcasm at the time).  I've got long hair and occasionally get various comments on and off the bike but I suspect at a much lower frequency to that which female cyclists get on or off the bike.  I further suspect I get a very different reaction if I ignore them.

I was thinking of starting a thread on it a while ago but didn't really know how to begin it.  I was thinking about it a lot when the Former Ms Weasel and I were out tandem training for Ride London earlier this year - people do speak to you much more when you're on a tandem (which is nice) and generally the response is friendly and positive but from time to time it's been quite patronising - in a way that I very rarely experience riding solo.

I got advised by some guy to slow down one year on the first climb of the Marmotte and the bloke apologised when he realised I was a bloke.  Pretty rubbish, especially in that he was dead wrong in that if I was overtaking him on that ride (at least that year) then he was going to be outside the finishing time.  I wasn't quite the Lanterne Rouge the times I did it but I wasn't far off it.

It's further reinforced my policy of not really making any comments at all other than a "Morning", "Hello", or "Do you need anything" to cyclists stopped by the roadside (I ask men and women).  I rarely comment on the riding behaviour of others, one of the few I offer is when people overtake me scarily close either on bikes or in cars and I shout "Too close!" by reflex now.

[Kim]

I was thinking of starting a thread on it a while ago but didn't really know how to begin it.  I was thinking about it a lot when the Former Ms Weasel and I were out tandem training for Ride London earlier this year - people do speak to you much more when you're on a tandem (which is nice) and generally the response is friendly and positive but from time to time it's been quite patronising - in a way that I very rarely experience riding solo.

Darksiders get it too, of course.  Probably more so.  Most of the time it's curiosity, either from a non-cyclist "what's with the funny bike?" or a more informed "how do you find it on climbs?" perspective.  But every now and then you get someone patronising you about visibility or whatever.

It's further reinforced my policy of not really making any comments at all other than a "Morning", "Hello", or "Do you need anything" to cyclists stopped by the roadside (I ask men and women).  I rarely comment on the riding behaviour of others, one of the few I offer is when people overtake me scarily close either on bikes or in cars and I shout "Too close!" by reflex now.

+1 to all of this.  I'll start that sort of conversation with fellow unusual-bike-riders iff I'm actually on an unusual bike, maybe a word of encouragement to small children if it seems appropriate, but that's about it.

[Katie]

Most conversation I utter on the bike usually is a nod to passing cyclists, a "you alright?"/"do you need anything?" to standing cyclists at the side of the road/path, or brief conversation with someone if they start it first (usually at traffic lights - tonight there was a brief few lines exchanged about the nose-to-tail traffic heading into Manchester at rush hour for no apparent reason.)

In other news, yelled at me when on the bike having cleared traffic: a yoof who smiled at me just before I passed before yelling "SHIT!" in my face. 

[hellymedic]

Overtaking an oik is great fun, especially if you're riding an omafiets, riding uphill and wearing a floral skirt. 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Do I have to wear the floral skirt?

[Basil]

Whereas you all seem to ask "do you need anything?", my call is " got everything you need?"

Erm, that's it.  No point being made.  In fact, I'm not sure why I bothered posting that.

[ian]

No really shouting, but I cycled past a group of kids by the Thames, one of whom had a large catapult (in my misplaced youth they were called black widows and nothing good ever came of them). I give him the stare of the death which turned out not to be as good as I thought as thirty seconds later a stone predictably sails by my head.

So I turn around and we do the usual where teenage miscreant denies that it was him while his mates snigger. Seriously, it wasn't a fucking meteorite. So I grabbed the catapult out of his hand and flung it into the arms of Olde Father Thames.

Apparently I can't do that. I think he's always going to be playing mental catchup.

[hellymedic]

Do I have to wear the floral skirt?

That would be fun! Ask HK to make you one; she might have some spare Liberty Tana Lawn I rehomed with her.
Otherwise, leave the job to her; she has a pink Brompton, n'est-ce pas?

The more POWER a feminine woman can plough past an oik, the better!

[Mr Larrington]

Do I have to wear the floral skirt?

Yes.  Yes, you do.  And post pictures on the Internets.

Have you actually read your contract

[tiermat]

I had a similar experience to WW, whilst approaching Matorell a couple of years ago. Riding along, sound of truck beeping behind me followed by a stream of loud Catalan. I waited until they were alongside to turn to face them and smile. For some reason the truck sped off!

I don't understand it, no way can anyone accuse me of having any shape other than bloke*.

*Barring the normal, that being arms, legs and head.

[Kim]

And today, by way of symmetry:

In the football voice: "HAHAHA! G'WAAAN GEEZA!"
*awkward pause as I get a bit closer*
Sheepish, to nobody in particular: "Oh, it's a woman."

[ian]

Yesterday was special. Firstly passenger in a transit van, hanging his head out the window like a dog: 'urrr, you're riding a bike.' Next, freewheeling towards Victoria station, car driver to left as I filter to the right: 'you're going too fast.'

I'm grateful to London drivers for their continuing advice and wit.

[paul851]

Not to bad tonight , one "GO ON LAD" from on oncoming car and a "ooooh Bradley Wiggins" followed by an "Aye oop" from a teenager as I went round for another lap whilst out on the fixed trying to get some fitness back after 5 months of the bike .


Paul

[Kim]

I had a Mexican^[1] forced-laughter from an elongated group of teenagers earlier.  I'm probably the most exciting thing that's happened to them this weekend.


_{[1] As in wave.}