My Close Call 2007 (1) - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

01-02-2007, 08:45 PM

I propose an omnibus thread to gather all the missed-me-by->that<-much
posts and offer the following to start

when/where:
today about 15:35, on Prairie north of Wilson in Batavia (IL) , going
to work.

Me:
ultraflourescent hit-me-orange with retroflective stripes, made for
autobahn workers, high vis vest, blaze-clip-me-orange hunting gloves,
flashy spandex speedo tights. MTB, riding right wheel rut, 18 in a 25.
Sunny.

what:
Giant ,*shiny* jacked-up black 4 door chevy pickup, Daddy driving, wife
and daughter onboard, passes so close that his mirror missed my head by
about 4 inches. speeding. Guy laughs at me when i inform him of his
near whacking experience. Fortunately, wife and little girl look
mortified.

oh well. beats getting stuck in a fenderwell.

..max

01-02-2007, 11:28 PM

what does THIS button do? wrote:
> I propose an omnibus thread to gather all the missed-me-by->that<-much
> posts and offer the following to start
>
> when/where:
> today about 15:35, on Prairie north of Wilson in Batavia (IL) , going
> to work.
>
>
> Me:
> ultraflourescent hit-me-orange with retroflective stripes, made for
> autobahn workers, high vis vest, blaze-clip-me-orange hunting gloves,
> flashy spandex speedo tights. MTB, riding right wheel rut, 18 in a 25.
> Sunny.
>
> what:
> Giant ,*shiny* jacked-up black 4 door chevy pickup, Daddy driving, wife
> and daughter onboard, passes so close that his mirror missed my head by
> about 4 inches. speeding. Guy laughs at me when i inform him of his
> near whacking experience. Fortunately, wife and little girl look
> mortified.
>
> oh well. beats getting stuck in a fenderwell.
>
> .max
>
If you had time to inform him, you didn't have time to drag him out of
the truck and teach him some manners? Face to face is a great equalizer.
Many of the pickup yahoos I have run ins with will just not get out of
their protective box, now thinking they have pissed off a lunatic.
Maybe in my case.
Bill Baka

01-03-2007, 05:10 AM

On Wed, 03 Jan 2007 07:28:52 GMT, Bill Baka <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

>what does THIS button do? wrote:
>> I propose an omnibus thread to gather all the missed-me-by->that<-much
>> posts and offer the following to start
>>
>> when/where:
>> today about 15:35, on Prairie north of Wilson in Batavia (IL) , going
>> to work.
>>
>>
>> Me:
>> ultraflourescent hit-me-orange with retroflective stripes, made for
>> autobahn workers, high vis vest, blaze-clip-me-orange hunting gloves,
>> flashy spandex speedo tights. MTB, riding right wheel rut, 18 in a 25.
>> Sunny.
>>
>> what:
>> Giant ,*shiny* jacked-up black 4 door chevy pickup, Daddy driving, wife
>> and daughter onboard, passes so close that his mirror missed my head by
>> about 4 inches. speeding. Guy laughs at me when i inform him of his
>> near whacking experience. Fortunately, wife and little girl look
>> mortified.
>>
>> oh well. beats getting stuck in a fenderwell.
>>
>> .max
>>
>If you had time to inform him, you didn't have time to drag him out of
>the truck and teach him some manners? Face to face is a great equalizer.
>Many of the pickup yahoos I have run ins with will just not get out of
>their protective box, now thinking they have pissed off a lunatic.
>Maybe in my case.
>Bill Baka

Good way to get shot Bill.

01-03-2007, 07:10 AM

>> what does THIS button do? wrote:
>>> what:
>>> Giant ,*shiny* jacked-up black 4 door chevy pickup, Daddy driving, wife
>>> and daughter onboard, passes so close that his mirror missed my head by
>>> about 4 inches. speeding. Guy laughs at me when i inform him of his
>>> near whacking experience. Fortunately, wife and little girl look
>>> mortified.
>>>
>>> oh well. beats getting stuck in a fenderwell.
>>>
>>> .max

> On Wed, 03 Jan 2007 07:28:52 GMT, Bill Baka <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:
>> If you had time to inform him, you didn't have time to drag him out of
>> the truck and teach him some manners? Face to face is a great equalizer.
>> Many of the pickup yahoos I have run ins with will just not get out of
>> their protective box, now thinking they have pissed off a lunatic.
>> Maybe in my case.
>> Bill Baka

dgk wrote:
> Good way to get shot Bill.

Indeed. After catching up to one near misser at a light and quite
calmly explaining my grievances, the driver who was wearing army
fatigues threatened to "shoot my white ass."

While I don't think he actually would (he had a startled passenger with
him), he did have that borderline-crazy look in he eye.
\\paul

01-03-2007, 08:50 AM

Bill Baka wrote:
> what does THIS button do? wrote:
> > I propose an omnibus thread to gather all the missed-me-by->that<-much
> > posts and offer the following to start
> >
> > when/where:
> > today about 15:35, on Prairie north of Wilson in Batavia (IL) , going
> > to work.
> >
> >
> > Me:
> > ultraflourescent hit-me-orange with retroflective stripes, made for
> > autobahn workers, high vis vest, blaze-clip-me-orange hunting gloves,
> > flashy spandex speedo tights. MTB, riding right wheel rut, 18 in a 25.
> > Sunny.
> >
> > what:
> > Giant ,*shiny* jacked-up black 4 door chevy pickup, Daddy driving, wife
> > and daughter onboard, passes so close that his mirror missed my head by
> > about 4 inches. speeding. Guy laughs at me when i inform him of his
> > near whacking experience. Fortunately, wife and little girl look
> > mortified.
> >
> > oh well. beats getting stuck in a fenderwell.
> >
> > .max
> >
> If you had time to inform him, you didn't have time to drag him out of
> the truck and teach him some manners? Face to face is a great equalizer.
> Many of the pickup yahoos I have run ins with will just not get out of
> their protective box, now thinking they have pissed off a lunatic.
> Maybe in my case.
> Bill Baka

Almost got myself shot in Texas one time because I yelled at a dumbass
redneck in an F150. After he almost whacked me into a ditch and I
yelled something about his mother, he gets out and points some sort of
hand cannon at my head. He's says something about 'next time I'll g'it'
you bouiy' ..(it all got too country for me to understand).... and
drives off. I'd just moved to the US from the UK where you can yell at
drivers without fear of getting your head blown off; I learnt I good
lesson that day. Can you guess which one....

1, don't mouth off at drivers in Texas 'cos everyone's armed

2, buy a bigger gun, maybe something that says desert eagle down the
side

3, buy some new cycling gear in HPD colours

4, all of the above

Laters,

Marz

01-03-2007, 10:17 AM

"dgk" wrote: Good way to get shot Bill.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There are no good ways to get shot.

01-04-2007, 10:55 AM

Close call #1, 2003

Where/When: Outskirts of small town, daylight, fair weather.

Me: riding road bike on main road, back from a good ride, 25 km/h ?

What: A guy starts from a roadside business parking lot and accelerates
straight towards me from my side. I escaped by accelerating vigourously
and managed to put 20 cm between his front fender and my rear wheel. Guy
seemed a bit puzzled.

Close call #2, 2004

Where/When: Downtown, winter morning, night.

Me: riding road bike with a small diode headlight, because the commuter
was at the bike shop for a repair. Downhill, 35 km/h ?

What: A guy starts straight in front of me from a private parking lot,
with poor line of sight. I brake like hell, and end up shouting
leaning with my hand against the back of his car. Guy stops, and says he
hasn't seen me. Has been asking the city to put a mirror there for some
time, without success.

Close call #3, 2006

Where/When: Downtown, evening, night. Roadworks reduce street width to one
lane for a short distance (about 20 m). I have the right of way, oncoming
trafic has to yield.

Me: Riding my commuter bike with SON/Lumotec light (= visible), at the
center of the only lane, ~20 km/h.

What: A guy coming the other way, instead of waiting for me to be out of
the way (would have taken 5 seconds ?), accelerates towards me with high
noisy rpms. Out of fear I pull to the right, but out of rage I can't
resist banging my fist against his window. Very stupid idea: he is going
so fast that my banging actually got me a swollen and painful thumb, which
is curing only slowly. The guy didn't stop, didn't even slow down.

More-than-close call #4, 2005

Where/When: Outskirts of small town, morning, mist/light fog against
rising sun. Major road, 2 lanes in each direction, low trafic.

Me: riding loaded touring bike, yellow vest, red panniers, at the far
right edge of the road (too far to the right perhaps ?).

What: Guy hits me from behind and sends me flying into the grass. Broken
rib, bike damaged. The guy says he hasn't seen me - well, I expect he
didn't hit me on purpuse...

Plus a few others... all this, lined in row, might seem scary, but
actually these events are rather rare. No close call yet in 2007, but it's
been only 4 days...

01-04-2007, 12:44 PM

what does THIS button do? wrote:
> I propose an omnibus thread to gather all the missed-me-by->that<-much
> posts and offer the following to start
>
> when/where:
> today about 15:35, on Prairie north of Wilson in Batavia (IL) , going
> to work.
>
>
> Me:
> ultraflourescent hit-me-orange with retroflective stripes, made for
> autobahn workers, high vis vest, blaze-clip-me-orange hunting gloves,
> flashy spandex speedo tights. MTB, riding right wheel rut, 18 in a 25.
> Sunny.
>

This made you an excellent target.

> what:
> Giant ,*shiny* jacked-up black 4 door chevy pickup, Daddy driving, wife
> and daughter onboard, passes so close that his mirror missed my head by
> about 4 inches. speeding. Guy laughs at me when i inform him of his
> near whacking experience.

See.

Fortunately, wife and little girl look
> mortified.
>
> oh well. beats getting stuck in a fenderwell.
>
> .max
>

01-05-2007, 09:23 AM

dgk wrote:
> On Wed, 03 Jan 2007 07:28:52 GMT, Bill Baka <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:
>
>> If you had time to inform him, you didn't have time to drag him out of
>> the truck and teach him some manners? Face to face is a great equalizer.
>> Many of the pickup yahoos I have run ins with will just not get out of
>> their protective box, now thinking they have pissed off a lunatic.
>> Maybe in my case.
>> Bill Baka
>
> Good way to get shot Bill.

Nobody lives forever and I am approaching forever quickly.
Besides, I just can't stand to let these *******s drive off with a smile
like they just scared the **** out of me.
My personality flaw.
I've been stabbed before, but not seriously, nor shot, yet.
Bill Baka

01-05-2007, 12:36 PM

On 2 Jan 2007 20:45:33 -0800, "what does THIS button do?"
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

>I propose an omnibus thread to gather all the missed-me-by->that<-much
>posts and offer the following to start
>
>when/where:
>today about 15:35, on Prairie north of Wilson in Batavia (IL) , going
>to work.
>
>
>Me:
>ultraflourescent hit-me-orange with retroflective stripes, made for
>autobahn workers, high vis vest, blaze-clip-me-orange hunting gloves,
>flashy spandex speedo tights. MTB, riding right wheel rut, 18 in a 25.
>Sunny.
>
>what:
>Giant ,*shiny* jacked-up black 4 door chevy pickup, Daddy driving, wife
>and daughter onboard, passes so close that his mirror missed my head by
>about 4 inches. speeding. Guy laughs at me when i inform him of his
>near whacking experience. Fortunately, wife and little girl look
>mortified.
>
>oh well. beats getting stuck in a fenderwell.
>
>.max
This happened this past summer.

I was in the country and came upon a sweeping, gentle right curve as
the oncoming car approached, to is, a gentle, sweeping left curve.

At the moment we were able to see each other the car made such a
purposeful move right at me that I figured it was a stupid kid trying
to scare the guy on the bike.

I pulled all the way to the berm and stopped, determined to make eye
contact with the driver -- you know, sort of like that poster "The
Last Great Act of Defiance" (a mouse giving a hawk the finger as the
hawk scoops down to make a meal of it.)

I'm assuming the car was doing better than 50 mph.

Anyway, as I stood in the berm the car kept coming right at me, well
past what I would have considered needed for let's-scare-the-biker
fun. And this is where it got scary.

When the car got close enough to make eye contact I noticed it was a
little old lady looking up over the steering wheel. She wasn't trying
to scare me ... she just hadn't seen me.

She cranked the wheel hard to the right when she saw me. I kept an eye
on her as she bobbed down the road to make sure she didn't end up in
the soy beans.

I'm pretty sure this is the same little old lady I saw blow through a
stop sign, without slowing, a couple of weeks before. I'm sure she
looked as she approaced the Y in the road, noticed there was nothing
as big as a tractor or car coming, and then didn't bother to stop. Had
I been a little quicker that day she might have hit me broadside.