After a lengthy break off the bike, I went out for a road ride last Saturday morning. Started at 6am and enjoyed a blissful 2hrs on local country roads. I live in the UK and we have some lovely undulating minor roads, flanked by hedgerows, with fields and woodlands either side. It’s really pretty.
“Why did I ever give this up?” I thought.
And then a car appeared from behind and overtook on a blind bend. “Bit risky” I mused, but pretty common behaviour.
The driver approaching from the other direction probably had to brake a little and this caused him to scream C*NT! at me from his open window.
I laughed at the time, it was so ridiculous, but on reflection this is why I stopped cycling. Sad isn’t it.
I doubt I’ll go out again. I don’t like having to share my free time with these people.
Hey @grawp,
I’m sorry you had to deal with that. Those experiences can be hard to shake off. 
I’m not sure what’s available where you live, but this is one of the several reasons why I tend to stick to really low-traffic roads, bike paths, gravel & singletrack.
It’s certainly possible to ride on the road and deal with those types of people, but I’ve found that not having to worry about it allows me to enjoy my rides much more. 
I’ve got a network of off-road trails, I was on my mtb so I could sneak in a couple en route (maybe he was a roadie 
), but often need to link them via quiet country roads if I want to ride more than an hour.
I’ve been running a lot recently, which I can do entirely off road, but I miss being on a bike sometimes.
As a UK country-road rider, I can confirm its quite common, but I just laugh to myself most-times. They’re bottom feeders, who cares? They’ll have high stress, high blood pressure and probably die young. Hey ho 
Driving a vehicle can turn the most well-adjusted adults petulant, impatient, and juvenile. You can’t take it personally, just like you wouldn’t be offended by a dog that barks at you when you walk past his yard.
And remember; If I driver yells at you that means they saw you, and being seen is safer than being unseen.
They always see you, they just don’t care.
I’ve only twice in decades of cycling had someone actually not see me (when they should) and pull out on me. Both times, the driver stopped and apologised. That’s the normal reaction - “oh sh*t, I didn’t see that person”, and then you either apologise, or at least drive more careful for a bit. People that stare straight ahead while close passing you know exactly what they are doing.
As a rule, I always smile and wave at frightening or unpleasant situations while cycling:
- if other person made mistake, it shows all is good and they can relax
- if anything happens due myself, this is my way to apologise
- and if somebody really is dck, I don’t really care but smiles are always free
They always see you, they just don’t care.
I see this mostly when running. Crossing a street with the walk sign on but they make a right turn in front me, it is like if I don’t look at the runner I don’ see him, I don’t see him I don’t have to stop.
I mainly run these days. To further remove myself from having to interact with the public, it is often at dawn in remote, off road places.
I find the behavior of a large sector of the population very dispiriting. They seem to treat the planet and other people like crap and thus I don’t want to be anywhere near them.
Sadly road riding puts you into their territory. I love cruising along smooth tarmac. I love a group ride with friends. But these are always spoiled by the actions of a few individuals.
I think this sort of riding is no longer tenable in my area. It’s the SE of England which is very busy and very entitled.
Cyclocross is a bit of a saviour. Fun, fast and on private land. Every Sunday throughout the autumn, we can celebrate bikes in a big, messy, melee. Between those tapes, its OUR territory. 
You have to change your perspective. The problem is all them. You cant allow your self to feel responsible for someone elses lack of awareness and/or IQ.
You can also change your persepctive in another way. No to estrange others here but In the UK we are (atm at least) lucky enough to be able to go out and ride our bikes mainly without fear of being shot, chased down and bitten by animals for the most part or getting into a lot of dangerous situations that people in other countries face. There are cyclists who probably dream of someone yelling cun* being the worst thing they face out there.
I don’t trust that person. It’s yelling one day, a close pass the next, a straight up the arse due to low sun blindness potentially. They don’t care.
I’ll be frank; I hate them for it.
And all because I fancied an easy spin on a Saturday morning on the way to help at a parkrun. It’s disproportionate.
I’ve only gotten yelled at once, and an absurdly Canadian thing happened. I was crossing and a car had to slow down so they didn’t hit me. They instead slowed down a ton and started yelling at me because they had to do so. A car stopped at the intersection rolled down their window and started yelling at the person who was yelling at me, defending me.
UK is full of cretins. I live in an area full of mouthy idiots and everyone is billy big bollocks when in a 2 tonne metal cylinder it’s normally not the case when you roll up alongside them at the lights. Anyone shouting abuse out of the window isn’t worth your salt.
I always tell myself they are probably travelling to a job they hate, to fund a lifestyle they hate and haven’t got the ‘out’ that I’ve found through cycling. They are ultimately miserable.
If you enjoy it. Carry on. Life’s too short.
Don’t let the B’s Grind You Down. I can’t recall the last time I’ve had verbal’s from a Neanderthal like that in the UK. Just smile and wave which will totally confuse them and speed up their inevitable extinction. Whilst there’s still a few idiots out there, I’m finding they are becoming rarer and confined to keyboard warriors.
Are you sure the comment was directed at you? Could it have been at the driver who swerved into his lane on the blind turn?
I commute so sometimes i’m riding in rush hour…yeah it really sucks. makes me hate people also…so many people are so mean.
that’s my feelings. my logical brain tells me anyone yelling out the window is clearly miserable / dealing with something else…and they dunno how to behave them selves…and you’re just there
the “spin” I put on it is I’d rather them yell at me than at their spouse / kids…so now I just wave them on and tell them to yell more lol.
p.s. every now and then I deserve it and I’m sure I do stuff here and there that I should get yelled at…so there’s that too. I try to be careful but you know…sometimes I make mistakes too. I got yelled at last week when I was on a bridge that had a sign that you’re supposed to walk your bike on the cross walk. I miss the sign and I took the lane on the bridge so no one would try to pass cause it was narrow. I only realized the next week when I saw the sign and realized I deserved a yelling at.
p.p.s. sometimes people yell stuff out the window and it takes a while to register. I was going up a hill and a kid screamed YOU CAN DO IT but it didn’t register what he said for a while and I was wondering what their problem is.
Get a camera. Report the worst incidents. Police in the UK are pretty good at following up decent video footage now. If enough people get warning letters, points or fines from the police then behaviour may just start to change. Certainly more likely than anything you can do or say in the moment. If the vehicle is a company one with a logo on then employers are also now pretty good at dealing with it. And knowing you have the option to do something helps your peace of mind.
It was definitely at me. The other driver was long gone.
I just think I can’t let the idiots bully me off the road. If we all just give in and only ride off-road, we’ll just confirm the idea that “the roads are just for cars”.
Yeah, I’ve made mistakes too, both whilst cycling and driving.
I made one in the car a few months ago. Went to overtake a parked tow truck, realised I’d misjudged the closing speed of a bus in the other lane so I stopped dead. The bus driver purposely swerved towards me to show his anger and then I got so much abuse from the truck driver that I ended up telling him to eff off. Most people would have accelerated into the closing gap but I thought I’d behave sensibly and got a load of verbal for my trouble. It’s this disproportionate rage these days that gets to me. People are so keen to get worked up into a frenzy and that bus driver put the safety of his passengers at risk just to scare me. The congestion in the SE has turned people into maniacs. Day after day of it and they lose their shit at the smallest things.