just a rant

[Talus]

My pet peeve recently has become old people that get mad at me when I am out riding, aspecially in neighborhoods. I am not a dangerous or aggressive rider, and I don't exceed the speed limits by much when I'm riding through places that warrent caution... ie, blind corners, neighborhoods, schools to name a few. But I am forever having some crotchety old man or big-assed mother of five yell at me, point their finger at me or give me dirty looks as I ride by. I think the sound of a sport bike automatically triggers their brains to think that I am some hell-raiser that is out to blow by their house at 100+ MPH and kill their children. I AM NOT! In fact, it's these same space cadet moms that fly by my house at twice the speed limit in their behemoth Suburbans and roll through stop signs. And at the same speed, I can stop faster, and manuever more quickly on my bike, plus I weigh about 1/10th what they do. So if I blind-side their honor student on their way to bible study, it's me who is going to be hurting, not your precious little child in their car. I just wish the common person had a little more knowledge and a little less prejudice. If they just knew that I was a responsible rider who kept the high-speed antics on roads that are more clear and much less populated.
/rant

(haha, dont let my sig fool you, I just know which corners around my house are safe to test the limits of adhesion on ;)

[ryanman]

You tell em!

[Dmann]

I feel your pain thats why i carry a gun now. Ok well i dont but i sometimes wish i did but then there would be alot of children without there mommys so i take the less violent route if thay yell at me or almost run over me thay lose a mirror its been 1 too many times. Fuck and if you do wheelies dont do them near highlands ranch i was doing them randomly down there i had a cop on me in a matter of min and thay followed me maybe like 10 miles damn glad i caught them before thay caught me. FTP

[Deltron_3030]

hell yea fuck them old hags some old lady almost ran me over because she doesnt want to stop for a stop sign.

[GimPin]

yeah I hate that too ... one thing do you wear a helmet? I know when I didnt wear a helmet I got a lot of nasty looks ..... I never ride with out one after my accident now... I even had a guy make a comment to me ... I was getting ready to leave red robin and this guy walked up and said that he was a volenteer fireman and he was glad to see me and my GF wearing helmets ... kinda caught me off gard but he was really cool about it

[Shadow_Falcon]

Join the club, Talus! I've been a hater of soccer-moms just like you. Not only have they me off the road (in a big-ass suburban, no less), they've yelled at me saying "This isn't a race track!" when I'm barely going the speed limit, for their kid's sake. Some respect. Then again, these are the same people who probably think of all bikers as dangerous, gang-banging punks (i.e. F & F [the asian gang], Biker Boyz, etc.), which they probably get the idea from the media...hey, the cops already think that, so what makes you think the misinformed suburbianites won't?

But, rather than speed past them to "show" them what a real danger is like, simply stop, calmly walk up, and talk to them. Assure them of what you're doing, and how you're making it so it's safer for others on the road. Worked for me...who knows, maybe next time, they'll wave instead of flip you off!

[Mario]

Talus - I have people do that all the time... for the most part, I'll do 25 in residential areas. When I am delivering, I usually slow down to about 10MPH. I STILLL get these Highlands Ranch parents yelling at me... I just ignore them to be honest. If they are worried that a kid is gonna get hit, they shouldn't let the kid play out front. When I was a little kid, my parents told me: "Lil Super Mario... if a car comes, honey just get outta the road... they won't stop for you and you could die". That's all I needed to be told... I saw a car, I bolted outta the road. :D

I now just give them a thumbs up, wave, and smile at them. Sometimes I'll point to a local speed sign or down to my dash, and then they give me this confused look.