It's...err...kind of implied in a thread title called "Close passes", and an OP that is all about close passes from cyclists that my reply (quite early in the thread) is also going to be about close passes. Sometimes people are so eager to get all stompy on their self-imagined moral high ground that intelligent reading of a post doesn't happen. This is not uncommon on Internet fora.
I don't know you. In order to understand your POV, all I have to go on is the sum total of what you write in your posts. This, too, is a feature of the internet. It is not uncommon on internet fora for people to jump into a thread with some opinion that is only vaguely related to the original post.
We've already been through this many times with you banging on about me not mentioning this and not mentioning that, and me then pointing out to you that I had.
You hadn't.
When I haven't I have provided you with clarification, but you respond with accusations of 'changing goalposts', or just ignoring the clarification totally. You are doing it here again with a 'but in your first post you said'. It makes me think that you are just here to point score.
I'm genuinely not. Jeez, I have MUCH better things to do with my time. Just when I thought we'd got a common point of understanding, which was you having a very specific issue with some dude in Castelli kit who shaved your elbow at some point while you were out with your mate Steve, you then talked about going out noob-hunting again. You keep contradicting yourself, which is why I mentioned moving goalposts. First it was any cyclist, then it was rude people who are marginally dangerous, and then it was this one specific dude in Castelli, and then we were back to noobs, however the hell you are supposed to tell a person's riding experience from what they are wearing.
We've already done the 'smile luv' and women thing to death. In fact, you and a couple of others have exhausted pretty much every possible scenario possible in an attempt to avoid the one that actually happened. My OP was not about you. You weren't there.
If you can't understand how your expectations of "hello" based on your subjective opinion of what complete strangers owe you socially is thematically related to how men expect women to smile for them, then the problem isn't mine. You keep conflating the general with the specific. Is this a specific instance or not? Was it one instance, or do you go out looking for opportunities to catch people on a hill and extract a resentful hello? Because it sure as hell sounds like the latter.
I wasn't there. You are correct. But as far as I can tell from the sum total of your posts on this, this is an ongoing, habitual response to anyone who meets your definition of kitwanker, which seems to be someone in matching gear who doesn't say hello. If I'm wrong, if it's just this one dude, then I don't get the whole "noob surfing" or whatever you call it.
Yeah, sure, it's great that people are discovering cycling, but no, dickpasses are not cool. You are now suggesting I should ride up and confront their behaviour. I don't want to do that...I prefer to just model good behaviour and encourage cycling etiquette by saying 'hello'. Twice, if needed.
This is not modelling good behaviour. If you wait until they are dying on a hill -- to be, in your own words, petty -- you are absolutely not modelling good behaviour. How about just catching them up almost immediately and offering some friendly advice if you want to model good behaviour? They may not even realise they have done something wrong.
There are two scenarios described here, and I genuinely can't tell which it is.
1. You and your mate Steve tool around the rural highways and byways of the Cotswolds, and when ANY cyclist passes you without saying "hello," you engineer it that you catch them on a hill just when they are suffering the most, and try to get them to say hello. This is more enjoyable if they are wearing matching kit and are riding a road bike built for speed.
2. One time, you and your mate Steve were passed closely by someone on a bike with deep-rim wheels wearing Castelli kit who did not respond to your cheery "Hello!" You then made sure to catch them on a hill when they were suffering and said "Hello!" again.
What I think you might mean is that you chase down people who are on expensive road bikes and wearing team kit, and who have passed closely but not greeted you. You then say "Hello!" again when they are out of breath on a hill, because you think they owe you a greeting. You present this as some sort of "solution" when the actual solution is to speed up a bit, catch them quickly while they know who you are and what you're talking about, and suggest they leave a bit more room next time.
Honestly? I DGAF what you do. I do know I'd rather not ride with someone who thinks this is modelling good behaviour. As that seems highly unlikely ever to happen, I'll leave you to your petty fellow cyclist bothering.
Sam
