I live in a crazy area

[dwalt]

When I come to work it is dark.  I live in a very rural area so it is very dark.  Lately I have noticed there are idiots (yes, idiots) riding their bikes at 4:00 in the morning on very dangerous highways.  WTH, are they trying to get killed??  I am not a bike rider enthusiast anyway but gee, they are going to become roadkill.  Is this Dawins therory?

[dwalt]

Well I live off the highway that goes to Mt Rainer.  It is very steep hills, two lanes and horrible curves. To ride a bike in the daytime is not smart but when it is dark...you gotta be nuts.

[Snagg]

We have quite a few of those around here - The fanatical fitness freaks, whose egos and OCD drives to "excel" have gotten them jobs where they make too much money, and as a result mistakenly believe that their bank accounts and $5,000 bikes will protect them from a skidding, 50-mph delivery van. Guess again, Lance Armstrong wannabes....

I stick to bike trails and side streets - We already have generally lousy and inconsiderate drivers around here as it is, and after my fair share of crashes I've learned what blacktop and concrete can do to even the most cautious cyclist when they have to choose between the sidewalk and getting crushed by some texting teenager, random drunk or schedule-frenzied soccer mom.

[dwalt]

Thank heavens someone understands what kind of people I am talking about.

[flippr 2.0]

[Merry]

OH HUNNY, let me tell ya about the kids in Burlington, VT. It's a college town and we all know how expensive it is to get an education so there's a certain amount of what I call Ninja Cyclists out there. They dress in black at night to ride through traffic hoping someone will hit them so they can pay off their student loan.

[Kim]

You know I remember a show on Oprah or something A LONG TIME AGO people claiming that martians have "visited" them and I'm starting to BELIEVE that its precisely what happened because they were probably "uninstalling" common sense from young brains....!!!!

[Lifesighs]

Most of the serious bike riders I know have had broken limbs or concussions. Bikes and cars don't mix and the bike people seem to be the most arrogant as if to say "I know I'm riding too far into your lane and tough shit". I think a lot of them deserve the injuries.

My question is why do bike riders have such a superior attitude?

A family member by marriage took a bad bad fall a few years ago, he was a dentist and had to give up his practice, his wife had to go back to teaching, I think he just recently is attempting to drive again after 5 years of trying to recover. He was a member of a bike club and I think was in a bike race when he fell. 

[Snagg]

It's a chickenshit ego thing....We have a local bike club, and too many of the members are high-powered "professionals", insanely competitive pricks who need to beat EVERYBODY at EVERYTHING - But reveal their true colors by usually choosing the easy way out and hurling themselves against hobbyists and folks just out for a little exercise on a sunny day, instead of against other serious "road-warrior"-type cyclists. They belong to a club that successfully lobbied the local government to put in public bike trails throughout the area, but they now pretend that those trails BELONG to them and them alone, and that they have the right to plow through anybody that also dares to use them.

Most of them wouldn't dare ride that way on a city street - They're too afraid of scratching the paint on their high-end wheels, so they haul their bikes to the trails and contemptuously leave the streets to the peons. Fine, and good riddance, jagoffs. But sometimes, when I'm on a trail and hear some putz barreling up behind me, yelling "GET OUT OF MY WAY !!!", I feel an urge to bodycheck them as they pass and send them cartwheeling into the weeds, timber and ditches, where they probably wouldn't be found for days. (My bike would cost a LOT less to fix than their fine Italian toys, and it might even take them longer to heal than it would their bike's time in the repair shop, further keeping them off the trails - So it almost seems like an acceptable risk.) But, usually, I just let it go and yell "ASSHOLE !" at them as they whiz by. They're generally too candy-assed to interrupt their precious "training regimens", let alone risk a real dust-up, so after a sneer over their shoulders they just keep zipping away. Fine. I hope they hit a tree.

[frenchy]

well just my 2 cents , if you ride a little 20 pound bike , in traffic with cars and trucks that weigh 3,4,6,10 thousand pounds then you should at least consider the consequences if you get hit .. cause if you don't consider them much bigger vehicles then sooner or later you will get hit , and even the ones who do look both ways and try to be polite and give the right of way get hit anyway .. i suppose it can be a certain amount of ego like snagg says .. laced with a certain amount of stupidity , and a dash of i don't give a shit .. arrogance , ego , stupidity , all deadly combinations if you wanna ride a bike with the big boys .. 

[Snagg]

I bike for recreation, exercise and to slice a few bucks out of the monthly gasoline bill, not to prove anything to anybody. I am quite content to meander on side streets, wait my turn at all traffic signals, and treat other people on the road with respect and deference. (I also do not wear earphones while pedaling - So much of intelligent bicycling is being aware of your environment, and a divided attention can get you killed in a heartbeat.) I DO carry a pad and pen and something heavy and mean, for those occasional dolts who just have to hassle a cyclist, but are dumb enough to afterwards park their car or truck where I can find it. I rarely go that far, but I HAVE left a few shattered windshields and left "Next time, watch your driving AND your mouth, asshole" notes under the wipers. I toy with the idea of getting a phone mount and recording my rides, just in case I need a video record of something bad happening...

[dwalt]

All I know is...I don't want to be the one to hit one of them.  There are way too many idiots up here..

[dwalt]

We had this problem in Houston with ummm people from another country pushing their kid out in front of cars to collect money. Usually on residental street when you were going about 15 or 20 miles an hour.