Fun things that only happen if you cycle

1) Cycling back home on Kentish Town Road, a car pulls out of its parking
space right in front of me, with no warning and its lights still off. I
shout a number of observations on the driver and his/her ancestry - in
Italian, language I tend to revert to when I'm really angry. The driver's
window comes down, a VERY small female voice replies, in Italian: "Oh God
I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

2) After a week of annoying small problems with the gears and an extensive
maintenance session, I have a short test ride around home, shifting gears
and getting off the bike every time to check the tension of the cable, and
have to wave away a total of 6-7 cyclists stopping to ask me if it's all
right

3) Motorists who automatically assume that if you cycle you must know
every little road and alley around - they ignore the policeman and ask
*you* for directions at the traffic light

4) The admiring look in the waitress' eyes at Caffe' Nero in Camden Town
(it's a guys' thing, ok?)

5) Cycling to the hosting centre in New Oxford Street at 3 am because a
server had gone down. Not too much fun in itself, but the customer's face
was, when I told him the following morning

6) The pigeons who think they're Tornado bombers in Hampstead Heath

Eugenio

--
If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.

On Mon, 08 Mar 2004 10:59:06 +0000, in
, Eugenio Mastroviti
wrote:

3) Motorists who automatically assume that if you cycle you must know
every little road and alley around - they ignore the policeman and ask
*you* for directions at the traffic light

I am truly awful at giving directions to motorists in Birmingham,
since as I rarely drive in the city centre I am always unsure which
routes are closed to motor vehicles.
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Eugenio Mastroviti wrote:

6) The pigeons who think they're Tornado bombers in Hampstead Heath

Presumably the Trafalgar Square models are more thinking in terms of
B52s... ;-/

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
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net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Eugenio Mastroviti wrote:

3) Motorists who automatically assume that if you cycle you must know
every little road and alley around - they ignore the policeman and ask
*you* for directions at the traffic light


"Take the cycle path on the left in 100m......" ;-)

Tony

In article ,
Eugenio Mastroviti wrote:
[...]

7) The grin on _everyone's_ face as you ride past with a cute five year
old on a tag-along.

ian

"Eugenio Mastroviti" wrote in message
news
2) After a week of annoying small problems with the gears and an extensive
maintenance session, I have a short test ride around home, shifting gears
and getting off the bike every time to check the tension of the cable, and
have to wave away a total of 6-7 cyclists stopping to ask me if it's all
right

On a ride on Saturday night I came across a woman in a line of traffic
whose car had broken down and who was trying to push it left down a side
street out of the way. Guess who was the only one who offered to help? None
of her fellow motorists that's for sure - but to be fair it *was* drizzling.

--
Simon Mason
Anlaby
East Yorkshire.
53°44'N 0°26'W
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net

On Mon, 8 Mar 2004 11:15:30 -0000, Tony Raven
wrote:

Eugenio Mastroviti wrote:

3) Motorists who automatically assume that if you cycle you must know
every little road and alley around - they ignore the policeman and ask
*you* for directions at the traffic light

I have found this more frequently with vans and I've decided it is
something to do with eyelevels. On an upright you're above most car
drivers and below most lorry drivers but just right for Transit-sized vans.

"Take the cycle path on the left in 100m......" ;-)

Never a truer word. It's the same when I'm on foot, if a driver asks me
how to get to somewhere local I could easily tell them the way by going
down pedestrian alleys and the wrong way along one-way streets but I
sometimes just can't fathom out how to get there if I were in a car.
Different mind maps for different modes.

Colin
--

"Ben" wrote in message
...

...
It's a funny one that. I'd stop (and have done) if I'm on the bike or
the motorbike, but I won't if I'm in the car.

Reason? I'm a pretty big bloke and can be intimidating. For some
reason on either of the bikes I'm perceived as a lot more approachable
and am unlikely to scare a lone woman with a broken down car.
Stopping a car and getting out seems to have a different affect.

How can you be so sure you invoke such fear? Have you done a survey of lone
women in broken down cars?

I remember speaking to a jogger who once said he will actually avoid running up
behind a lone woman (eg along a deserted canal towpath after dark) as he's afraid
of scaring her!

On Mon, 08 Mar 2004 12:22:00 -0000 someone who may be "Colin
Blackburn" wrote this:-

It's the same when I'm on foot, if a driver asks me
how to get to somewhere local I could easily tell them the way by going
down pedestrian alleys and the wrong way along one-way streets but I
sometimes just can't fathom out how to get there if I were in a car.

I have apologised to motorists for being unable to tell them how to
drive to somewhere nearby. My usual advice is along the lines of, "I
would park here and walk over there." Usually the place is a few
minutes walk away, but far more than that by car.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me using the RIP Act 2000.

"David Hansen" wrote in message
...

...
I have apologised to motorists for being unable to tell them how to
drive to somewhere nearby. My usual advice is along the lines of, "I
would park here and walk over there.....

I expect "walk" is a "four letter word" to many unfit motorists!