Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Payback

As many-a-roadie can attest, motorists often underestimate the catch-up speed of road bikes. Especially in town, with the stop signs, and the traffic lights, and what not. With this underestimation, motorists sometimes find themselves in an awkward situation when you catch up to them - you know, after they've just shouted some lame remark or, better yet, tried to scare you by swerving as close to you as possible and/or honking or yelling. Every cyclist has been there. And instead of the usual one finger salute, you finally have a chance to actually call them on their behavior. What to do - do you dump a water bottle in their window, do you smash their window, or do you just look threateningly at them as they try their best to look straight ahead and ignore you? I rarely get it right. One time I did. Jared Hill, Ben Rabner, and I were headed back from a trip up Hobble Creek Canyon. It was spring time, late May if I recall, and during the week. And in the middle of the day. I was in college and school was out - what can I say. Anyway, we were riding downhill near Springville High when a couple of girls drove as close to me as they could. The girl in the front passenger seat shouted, "HEY" at the top of her lungs. The car speed off, the girls giggling with satisfaction. And then they ran into a line of cars at a four-way stop. I saw my chance and gave chase. I quickly realized I had plenty of time to catch them and plenty of time to plan what I'd do. I really wanted to get it right. With my plan thought out, I moved in close to the line of cars and slowed down. As I neared the vehicle, I leaned in until my head was nearly in the front window and screamed, "WHAT!?" The girls shrieked and jumped, which caused the former shouter to spill her drink all over herself. As I rolled on, I could hear the rest of the girls giggling - I assume about how the shouter was now covered in Diet Coke.

4 comments:

Pat said...

Awesome.

KanyonKris said...

Excellent. (say in Mr. Burns voice if that works for you)

Mr. Flynn said...

I had some car on car rage going once. I tossed a nearly full 44 oz Super Big Gulp out through my passenger side window into the jerk's driver side winder. The cup hit the steering wheel and Dr. Pepper went everywhere. This was back when I wasn't drink diet stuff either. It was a beautifully shot. Not a drip in my car either.

That is one of my stupider moments in my life. It sort of scared me that I would do something so aggressive even if the guy deserved worse (its a long story)

Mr. Flynn said...

oh and both my car and his car were doing around 30mph on one of the streets near BYU when I tossed it.