If you've been riding for a while, you'll be used to the occasional idiot shouting at you from car or pavement.
Most of it doesn't rise above the level of "Hey mate, your wheels are going round..." or "Get off and milk it.."
If anything, the increased numbers of bikes on the road has been matched by a fall in the number of cretinous comments -- there are so many of us out there wearing silly clothes and riding daft-looking bikes that the village idiots have got bored; although I understand from female roadie friends that they're still the object of quite a bit of abuse.
But sometimes someone shouts something truly dumbfounding. Yesterday I was winding my way back from a ride, on my regular shortcut which takes me through a "challenging" housing estate. I've never had any trouble there, but it does have a higher than usual number of aggressive-looking canines and burned-out cars.
Walking towards me were three teenagers of the sort that the tabloids would label hoodies, with one of the aforementioned pit-bull type dogs, and it was clear that I wasn't going to pass them without comment.
The middle one, a good foot taller than the others, looked at me with what appeared to be genuine fury, screwed up his face and bellowed:
"You! You think you're hard just 'cos you can ride no hands!"
Bizarrely unexpected, and I was half a mile away before I thought up a reply.
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