Attacked

One time late at night a car full of yoofs passed me and a friend on the New North Road, shouting abuse at us because they apparently considered it wrong for cyclists to be inconveniencing them in any way by daring to use the road. I gestured at them and told them to fuck off, or something along those lines. They then went mental, shouting abuse at us and slowing down to come alongside me and attempt to attack me with something which I didn't realise at the time but my friend later informed me was a baseball bat. At one stage I was cycling along as fast as I could just in front of them, a situation that I realised couldn't last, so as they came alongside I slammed my brakes on letting them go past me and then turned off down a side street that was blocked to cars but had a cycle lane for bikes to pass through. At this point they stopped the car and the bloke with the baseball bat came running out after me and my friend cycled off in completely the opposite direction to get away from the danger. As you can imagine it's a piece of piss to get away from someone on foot down some residential side streets when you're on a bike, so after being sure I was safe I phoned my friend and we met back up again and carried on.

It was very scary though, and I was pretty shocked that people could get so worked up over something so minor that they'd decide they wanted to physically attack me. It certainly made me a lot more careful about dealings with drivers late at night.

Ah the old, "Hit the brakes and they'll fly right by!" move, eh? Good choice. Someone else has clearly watched Top Gun as much as me.