You are reading a single comment by @punkture and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@punkture
a week or so ago I was riding between Camden and Euston. At the lights I was a bit retarded at clipping in quickly so the drivers behind had to wait a few seconds (literally about 5) more than they might have had to. This was fine with most drivers but one dickhead in a merc obviously had places to be, people to see, so he blasted through, almost taking me out and hammered it down to the next set of (red) traffic lights at silly speed. I rode up at a leisurely pace, a bit annoyed but not combative or looking for a fight or anything. As I rode to the green bike box at the lights I motioned to him to slow down a bit. He stuck his middle finger up, tapped his watch, spread his hands in a 'whaddya gonna do' gesture and then grinned.
'hmmm' I thought. 'A man who has something so important to get to that he is quite as nonchalant about possibly killing someone in the act of getting there is surely a massive crunt.'
Responding to this thought, I placed my bike very purposely in front of his car looked at him spread my hands in a 'whaddya gonna do' gesture and grinned back. This was probably a silly thing to do but i am a silly person.
Lights go green, he revs the engine, rams my back wheel so i am unseated, reverses and speeds off round me.
All the way to the next set of (red) traffic lights.
I catch him, hopping fucking mad and this time very ready to fight. I grab his wing mirror and start screaming at him and he winds down the window, trying to make out that he did nothing wrong, hes just in a hurry.
Then the rozzers, who just happen to be passing by pull up next to him, order us on to the kerb side and each of us are questioned. They were ace. The guy who was hearing my story was very sympathetic and supportive and after chatting to the driver the female constable comes up and says, 'hes all bullshit. full of excuses, you can smell that one a mile off.' Ha.
As I wasnt injured or my bike broken (somehow) I told them that I just wanted the guy to understand that it wasnt ok to do that to cyclists. I wasnt too bothered about hanging around for 30 mins to provide a statement etc when nothing would really come of it. The police were understanding and then said, 'dont worry we will scare him a bit and keep him here for a good while, at least hes not gonna be on time for his appointment'.
Top stuff from the police. From the word go they were on my side, not the drivers, which is unusual in my experience. and that guy was such a crunt