-
Sorry to hear about that. It is to be expected; people who don't know anything about cycling are genuinely frightened by such things, as part of the general canon of bogeymen/-women/-things certain sections of the press frighten them with. I don't know if they'd been frightened if these things had been reported correctly, but the popular narrative now is: Cyclist didn't have a brake on his bike and killed someone because of that.
This is as condensed and false as it can be, but it will remain a problem for years to come, and we will all have to correct it for the actual facts where we can. (I should add that there is, of course, the background of a partial guilty verdict in the case, so that has to be respected in any untruth-correcting, but I suspect the above would have become the resulting urban myth even if he had been acquitted of both charges.)
I assume that your brake is mounted on the straight of the bars and not as visible as, say, brake levers with drop bar hoods. You can see how little this guy must have known about bikes that he couldn't even spot yours. Add to this that he thought it was OK to handle your bike without your knowledge or consent (even though you had locked it?); I have usually heard of cases like that following collisions or altercations, as in some cases drivers picked up bikes and threw them in anger/whatever emotion they were experiencing. It's certainly to be hoped that people won't become subject to spontaneous inspections like that.
Hope you manage to overcome the negative feelings from this.
Oliver Schick-
Hi Oliver, thanks for your reply.
Bike was not locked, I was in and out within 2 minutes, and the petrol station is set back from the main road and seems quite safe to leave it for a couple of minutes. The bike has 'bullhorn' bars and the brake lever is at the end of the bar, like on some time trail bikes. I have not heard of bikes being picked up and thrown but will be mindful of this, and will now always lock my bike, and probably avoid places where angry mini-cab drivers park en-masse.
rc73
I don't normally post on here, but I had a very bad experience yesterday evening. I cycle home past Heathrow Airport and ride fixed with a front brake and have foot retention, SPD pedals. Yesterday I stopped at the petrol station opposite Hatton Cross station to buy some food, the petrol station is used by mini-cab drivers as a waiting area as it is close to the airport. I presume this is so that they don't have to pay to park at the airport and can just use the pick-up area when they get a fare. I don't know the legalities of this as there is signage indicating that it is not a car park. When I came out one of the mini-cab drivers was holding my bike and spinning the pedals backwards and forwards. I asked him politely to let go of my bike, I could not understand his reply due to his strong accent and tone of anger in his voice. Eventually, after repeating himself several times, I could make out 'fixie' 'no brake' 'did you see the news' 'how do you stop?' so I presume that he thought my bike was illegal. I pointed to the front brake and told him that I use this to stop, please could I have my bike back. I could not understand his reply, again there was a tone of anger in his voice, so I grabbed my bike, and got out of there. I was very shaken.
I am just wondering if us cyclists will receive some sort of backlash / aggressive behavior from the general public due to the Charlie Alliston case?
This is not to belittle the tragedy of a wife and mother being killed.