Battery on the bike path

BubbaK - 2009-04-04 8:41 PM

Never had a confrontation like that, though I've been thrown verbal abuse from drivers and such in the past. 

At any rate, a piece of advise for all is to keep your bike between you any wild animal/person.  It is not threatening and you can always use it to shield yourself from attack.

breckview - 2009-04-05 7:12 AM

A "headbutt"? I thought that was just something people do on TV. What kind of an idiot uses his head as a weapon? Good job keeping your cool. Anybody stupid enough to headbutt someone probably carries weapons as well. One day he'll get into the face of the wrong person, and then he'll be a statisitic. Natural selection at its finest. Much better than getting a slap on the wrist from a compaint with your name on it.

zeroviz - 2009-04-05 4:24 PM

  

You’re a better man then me..........I very rarely let someone during a confrontation get within what I call my inner space which is about a arms reach. But that’s just me being from the northeast. Been suckered a few times so I know what its like. Glade you didn’t get hurt.   

tcovert - 2009-04-04 11:09 PM So, on a ride with my wife today, I ended up in a confrontation with a psycho on the local bike path whose wife rollerbladed right into my path, even after I'd warned them I was coming up from behind. Managed to hit the brakes and unclip and neither go down or hit her. But he got in my face and things escalated from there. I was very conscious not to touch him or make any threatening gestures or statements, but he was pretty likely high on something and when he started threatening me, my wife called 911. While she was talking to the operator, he headbutted me in the face. No real damage (very small chip on a front tooth and small cut on my nose from my sunglasses) and he backed off a bit after that (and me finally throwing down my bike at that point). There was a witness and when I went to flag down a passing city bus, he and his wife and another woman with them split. I followed on my bike (at a distance) but lost them in a nearby neighborhood. Cops took my statement (when they arrived almost 20 mins later) and the witness's name, but I don't expect to hear anything more about this. People always caution not to escalate "bike rage" confrontations--and that's definitely the way to go in my book--but those are usually drive-by situations where the a-hole is taillights moments after throwing something at you or such. In this case, I had to stop and clipout and this guy got right in my face immediately (as did his wife). At a certain point, I have to say, life isn't really worth a lot if you eat crap from some random dirtbag just because he threatens you. If there was a weapon in evidence, maybe I'd be singing a different tune, but this was a pretty difficult situation to just walk away from (both practically speaking and in terms of personal dignity). Clueless pedestrians and cars...two reasons I'll never really like road biking all that much.