Mean people suck. Group mentality sucks.
Take any of those mean guys out of their group, and that incident wouldn’t have happened. It might start the same way because they’re idiots, trying to scare you off the road/trail, but they probably would have kept going, without the backing of their group there. And there would be no one for them to show off for.
If you honestly have it in your means to defend yourself, I wouldn’t worry about making unicyclists look bad. I doubt people are ever going to stereotype unicyclists as violent/aggressive/thugs. It might be better than circus clowns anyway.
I’d be more worried that any aggression on your part will be followed up later. It won’t be hard for the bad guys to spot the guy on the unicycle later.
Personally, not being a fighter, avoiding confrontation would be best for me. Calling someone an asshole, especially a drunk who is part of group, and stopping to lecture them on my point of view wouldn’t be best. Yelling “asshole” might be my reflex, but I’d then recognize the need to keep moving.
I might then find a way to fix the situation… in this case, maybe talking with the town about speed bumps, signs, higher fines, and/or police monitoring at those zebra crossings. Maybe that’s unrealistic in your town… I don’t know.
WTF??, carry a weapon with you is the worst idea I’ve ever heared. In Spin you are not allowed to carry a gun or a knife, and in the hipothesis of an assault if you stab somebody you’ll go to the justice. Weapons are not the solution, they only bring more violence. Stop being afraid.
…except that “some people that have picked on me are of group X” doesn’t logically extend to “all people of group X are scum”.
It wasn’t actually an “anti-Christianity” comment.
I find it interesting that a self-proclaimed christian would defend a racist diatribe.
Back on topic, I’ve never had any negative reactions stronger than shouted insults, and those were actually from the “safer” neighborhoods in which I rode.
What a shame… maybe the majority of the population that aren’t unicyclists are just mean people? Haha, just kidding!
The worst I’ve ever had was a few weeks ago along my school commute, trying to figure out how long it would take me. I was riding down an extremely busy road, on the sidewalk of course, when some drunkard thought it would be funny to add to the noise of the road, yell “GREAT JOB!” and throw a half drunk beer bottle at me.
The bottle shattered upon impact, bruising my knee really badly, and leaving a rather wide gash on my shin and a smaller one just above my knee. I was only going about 15km to avoid a serious fall into traffic, so I’m not sure why it was so bad… maybe he threw it forcefully.
Surprisingly I managed to avoid falling but dismounted shortly after to check out the damage.
Of course I now realize that I should have memorized his plate number and reported him, but it’s too late now.
i don’t mean to defend the racism. I just think that people are way too quick to jump at racism. there is usually an understandable cause that makes people draw slightly exaggerated conclusions… I believe this is one of those cases.
Because trouble happened to person A several times and people from group B
were causing the trouble every time, person A doesn’t like group B so much.
Not a joke at all. S&W 3913 9mm. And I don’t just carry in on a unicycle it is with me at all times I can legally have it with me.
If someone attacks me first in my country and I perceive it as deadly force I am well within my rights to respond in a like manner. Don’t get me wrong I don’t go looking for a fight nor have I ever had to use either. I’m just in the crowd that believes in being prepared for the worst. Like I mentioned above I don’t just take it riding it is on me at all times I am legally able to have it. So I would literally have to take it out of my pocket and walk it in the house and put it on the shelf. Why do that and waste good riding time?
When it comes to violence if someone wants to harm me my motto is “much better them than me”… also, your country is different than mine. I am legally able to respond with deadly force if a situation escalates to risking my life or limb.
I have enough military training that I feel very confident that even if I were to be hurt the other guy would seriously wish he had just stayed home. That is if he made it through the situation at all.
I’m truly not a violence seeking person nor do I condone going out and seeking out confrontations. Quite the opposite. I just believe in exercising my rights and doing what I believe to secure my own safety as well as my families.
My opinion of the OP is that possibly they are just riding at times that aren’t optimal and in areas that aren’t the safest. I personally would avoid both of those.
Not everybody here is religious… And the racial view is TOTALLY equivocated! To discuss stuff like that we must take an historical and social point of view…
I can’t blame the brazilian natives or ex-slaves to be getting money from the government! 500 years ago a bunch of Europeans just walked in, destroyed everything they had and made them slaves! And that situation changed less than 200 years ago… Can you imagine a way to replace MILLIONS of people into the society… People that didn’t had ANYTHING?
Similar happened in Oceania… Africa… Insular America…
It’s a loooong discussion…
Must agree on that… If you was alone, and knew that could not handle the guys by yourself… Dismounting was a bad idea…
Easy and polite solution… Must agree on that one…
Makes sense… I did it in the past… And worked somehow… Even if not polite… But you must ALWAYS consider the risk… The guy who punched he could have a gun and just shot him in the head… That wouldn’t be nice!
My comment was a suggestion to be careful. Your derogatory words aren’t warranted. I’m reminding folks that adding a gun(knife) into a situation where there wasn’t one increases the chance of someone getting shot(stabbed) from 0 to greater than 0. This is true even if you have military training. Be careful.
Sorry I didn’t mean it directed at any single person. That is just a super poor argument that is usually used by those trying to take away my rights.
Yes, be safe is true. But, the alternative to not having a way to protect yourself should a situation arise is to have no way to fight back. My odds at winning a conflict are much greater if I start out armed.
Most of the time those that have their weapons used against them are not trained or didn’t have te element of concealment. I would say that 100% of the people that see me out riding would never guess that I am armed and I would like it to remain that way and never have to use either if them.
Again, sorry if I offended you I just hear that excuse a lot and it is a very uneducated and not very well thought out reason to not carry protection.
How did all this escalate to racism and bringing weapons? Good to know that weapons are illegal in Spain, I wouldn’t like that next time kids shoot me instead of throwing stones at me or that someone tries to stab me at first sight instead of hitting me…
Good to know that weapons are illegal in Spain, I wouldn’t like that next time kids shoot me instead of throwing stones at me or that someone tries to stab me at first sight instead of hitting me…