Assault by motoring psychopath on cyclist filmed

On 3/22/2016 9:14 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 6:15:09 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Pureheart in Aptos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Boone

I used to ride to Aptos all the time when I was in college and shortly thereafter -- around Lexington, up Old Santa Cruz Highway, Summitt and over San Jose Soquel Road. Great ride in Jobstlandia. I had a friend who lived in a cabin with a view of Monterey Bay. Life was good.

Sun, fun, stay, play.


-- Jay Beattie.

Yeah, that was one of my favorite day trips, from Campbell to Aptos and
back. But I don't know if I could still do that trip in one day.

On 03-22-2016 09:05, jbeattie wrote:
If you spend enough time on a bike in a large metropolitan area, someone will assault you. A sad fact of urban life. It has happened to me more than once in Portland and San Jose.

How much time is "enough"? Apparently my five hundred hours isn't.

(Plus forty or fifty more in small villages and rural trails.)

--
Wes Groleau

On 3/23/2016 2:55 PM, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
On 03-22-2016 09:05, jbeattie wrote:
If you spend enough time on a bike in a large metropolitan area,
someone will assault you. A sad fact of urban life. It has happened to
me more than once in Portland and San Jose.

How much time is "enough"? Apparently my five hundred hours isn't.

(Plus forty or fifty more in small villages and rural trails.)

Interesting point, although I can't begin to estimate my hours of riding
time.

I've had two different motorists pass me and fling a beer can. I
suppose they were trying to hit me, but if so, they were so far off that
it was hard to tell.

I had one guy get out of his car and pretend he was going to attack me.
He had passed me very closely on an empty residential collector, then
got stopped at a traffic light. I pulled up along side and said "That
was rude." He yelled stuff back, pulled his car forward, then jumped
out of the car and feinted as if he was going to run at me. I stood
there calmly with my hand on my can of Halt and stared him down.

All in all, anything more annoying than a horn honk is rare.

I did get my first stupid yell of (almost) spring last week. Gas line
replacement had lanes closed on Main Street, so it was down to one
narrow lane each way, lined with hundreds of traffic cones. I was on my
three speed utility bike, slightly downhill, about 20 mph, keeping up
quite close to the car in front of me. When I turned right at an
intersection, I became aware that the dope in the car behind me was
yelling loud and long. I guess he really wanted to be 20 feet closer to
the car in front of me!

--
- Frank Krygowski

On Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 9:14:58 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 6:15:09 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Pureheart in Aptos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Boone

I used to ride to Aptos all the time when I was in college and shortly thereafter -- around Lexington, up Old Santa Cruz Highway, Summitt and over San Jose Soquel Road. Great ride in Jobstlandia. I had a friend who lived in a cabin with a view of Monterey Bay. Life was good.

Sun, fun, stay, play.


-- Jay Beattie.

I think the Daniel Boone link is from some sort of weird bot...

Wow, I don't think I've ever gone up Soquel-San jose Road. Don't trust the drivers enough these days.

I did recognize Jobst Brandt one day up on Hwy 9 in Boulder Creek, simply from having read his posts and about him etc. from these newsgroups. I pulled over and hailed him and ended up having a nice talk with him for about a half hour to 45 minutes.

Anyway, thanks for the stories. I have not been messed with very much over the years. I guess 1) cuz I'm a Clydesdale and 2) I tend not to react when bad things happen, just get bummed out over it and lament our society and my luck.

Had a close call last weeek, but too long to go into...I need to head off to bed.

pH in Aptos

On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 8:05:40 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/23/2016 2:55 PM, W. Wesley Groleau wrote:
On 03-22-2016 09:05, jbeattie wrote:
If you spend enough time on a bike in a large metropolitan area,
someone will assault you. A sad fact of urban life. It has happened to
me more than once in Portland and San Jose.

How much time is "enough"? Apparently my five hundred hours isn't.

(Plus forty or fifty more in small villages and rural trails.)

Interesting point, although I can't begin to estimate my hours of riding
time.

I've had two different motorists pass me and fling a beer can. I
suppose they were trying to hit me, but if so, they were so far off that
it was hard to tell.

I had one guy get out of his car and pretend he was going to attack me.
He had passed me very closely on an empty residential collector, then
got stopped at a traffic light. I pulled up along side and said "That
was rude." He yelled stuff back, pulled his car forward, then jumped
out of the car and feinted as if he was going to run at me. I stood
there calmly with my hand on my can of Halt and stared him down.

And technically, that is an assault -- which is conduct placing you in fear of imminent bodily injury. Criminal law conflates assault and battery, battery being nonconsensual touching. Assault 1/2/3 requires physical contact whereas misdemeanor assaults like menacing and gun-pointing don't.

And to answer Wes' question -- 500 hours on bike is not much. That's like a year of riding for many, and certainly me a few years ago -- and maybe even now (I'm toying with going back to racing). And if you do that kind of riding in a dense urban area for 40 years, there will be at least one person who throws a can at you or pushes your or makes contact with you that amounts to an assault. Maybe not, and I certainly hope not, but that's not my experience or the experience of my cohort.

-- Jay Beattie.

On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 8:04:47 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
On 3/22/2016 9:14 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 6:15:09 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Pureheart in Aptos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Boone

I used to ride to Aptos all the time when I was in college and shortly thereafter -- around Lexington, up Old Santa Cruz Highway, Summitt and over San Jose Soquel Road. Great ride in Jobstlandia. I had a friend who lived in a cabin with a view of Monterey Bay. Life was good.

Sun, fun, stay, play.


-- Jay Beattie.

Yeah, that was one of my favorite day trips, from Campbell to Aptos and
back. But I don't know if I could still do that trip in one day.

Even more OT, I had to get over there in a hurry one day and decided to skip the route around Lexington and take HWY 17 to Summit. Stupidest thing I've ever done. Well, among the stupidest things I've done.

-- Jay Beattie.

On 3/24/2016 7:34 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 8:04:47 PM UTC-7, sms wrote:
On 3/22/2016 9:14 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 6:15:09 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Pureheart in Aptos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Boone

I used to ride to Aptos all the time when I was in college and shortly thereafter -- around Lexington, up Old Santa Cruz Highway, Summitt and over San Jose Soquel Road. Great ride in Jobstlandia. I had a friend who lived in a cabin with a view of Monterey Bay. Life was good.

Sun, fun, stay, play.


-- Jay Beattie.

Yeah, that was one of my favorite day trips, from Campbell to Aptos and
back. But I don't know if I could still do that trip in one day.

Even more OT, I had to get over there in a hurry one day and decided to skip the route around Lexington and take HWY 17 to Summit. Stupidest thing I've ever done. Well, among the stupidest things I've done.

I've taken 17 north from Bear Creek to the dam to avoid the trip around
Lexington, but never between the summit and Bear Creek.

On 3/24/2016 10:29 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 8:05:40 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:

I had one guy get out of his car and pretend he was going to attack me.
He had passed me very closely on an empty residential collector, then
got stopped at a traffic light. I pulled up along side and said "That
was rude." He yelled stuff back, pulled his car forward, then jumped
out of the car and feinted as if he was going to run at me. I stood
there calmly with my hand on my can of Halt and stared him down.

And technically, that is an assault -- which is conduct placing you in fear of imminent bodily injury.

:-) In his case, it was conduct _attempting_ to place me in fear.
Didn't work. I wonder if that makes a difference legally?

I now remember one other incident. I was biking to work, and a young
guy with about $1000 worth of tattoos was biking toward me, riding the
wrong way. I said something about his wrong-way riding, and he got mad
enough that he did a U-turn and tried to catch me, challenging me to fight.

It was kind of funny. I was on my ancient commuter, he was on some BSO
with the seat too low, puffing and yelling at me. I slowed down a bit
to let him get closer, but easily cruised ahead of him. I managed to
bait him along for a couple blocks, the same way I sometimes do with
dumb dogs out in the country.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On 3/24/2016 10:29 AM, jbeattie wrote:

(I'm toying with going back to racing).

Ouch! Sounds painful.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 9:30:53 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/24/2016 10:29 AM, jbeattie wrote:

(I'm toying with going back to racing).

Ouch! Sounds painful.

It is when you are slow and old -- and it would only be racing out at Portland International Raceway when my son came home to visit over the summer. He started racing a few weeks ago, and I was thinking I could do a Cat 4/5 race with him. Go out on a Tuesday night and ride with a few guys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6pruxdPS4g If I can't hack it, I drop out and jump back in. Back in the day, the hardest part of that race was riding home afterwards. At the height of the summer, it is 50 miles for Cat 1/2/3, plus 25 miles RT commuting for 75 miles on a work day.

Since I'm perpetually digressing, let me tell another story. I was riding with a group of guys last weekend -- some current racers and some not. It included a guy who was 72 years old and who sat on the front doing 20+ mph for significant portions of a long-ish ride -- probably 55 miles total for him and about 78 miles for me since I started from my house. He cut out a climb and slowed at the end, but man . . . he was an inspiration. He was on a CF Wilier with, IIRC, Di2 and CF wheels. Everyone in that group works in the industry and gets pro deals, so cost is no object.

-- Jay Beattie.