Quote of the day (from non-riders)

Possibly the most English comment I’ve ever received: I was making hard work of riding my 24 inch ultimate wheel along a muddy and slimy bit of forest track when I passed a dog walker who merely commented, “Not the easiest thing to ride in this weather.”

I laughed out loud at that! :smiley:

A web search might find you a conversion chart of some sort between RAL and Pantone, though they are not necessarily totally compatible (car paint vs. ink for printing). The Paint mixing expert might be your best bet.

Pedestrians, sometimes. Or they swerve around while trying to watch, or they move unpredictably, like squirrels. You never know!

Today I got a little “respect” from a bicyclist.

I was out on the 36 today, riding hard doing laps of the rowing lake in unpleasant weather. Ahead of me, I saw a woman on extra long roller blades, doing something that looked like cross country skiing. She had long ski poles and was plodding along.

I was lining up to overtake her, making sure that there was space to get past safely when suddenly she glanced at her wrist watch, meaning that her ski pole flew up across my path like a security barrier. I slowed sharply and rang my bell and she made way for me. As I passed she said, “You win.”

Later, I passed her again. This time, she shouted, “You win. You win the prize for coolest user.” (Meaning user of the sports facility, I hope.)

First Trucker‘s greeting

T‘was the first time today I got a trucker‘s greeting (honking his horn) while riding across an Autobahn bridge. Happy now.

“You’re missing your handlebars.” A slight variation on the usual, and incorrect :p.

Later on I heard the last part of a conversation between two other passers-by: “No, he’s not missing any wheels.” Finally!

Conversation between two dog owners across a small creek seeing me ride by
„That’s pretty difficult.“ - „Unless you know how to do it, I guess.“

Kid, about 5, comes up to me as I stopped to drink some water.
"- Monsieur, was it you on the wheel?

  • Yes it was.
  • You are very skilled monsieur."
    And he casually walked away with his little scooter.

Yelled from a car with a couple teenagers “you’re a beast”
And a different car on a different day “you’re my idol”

As I ride more around the towns, I must have got about 30 different , nice pleasant beeps of the horn, I assume giving me a their thumbs up, or atta boy type of approval.

But there was ONE long negative horn beep right when the car was along side me. You can’t please everyone…

Ok, today I’m quickly moving along the side of the railroad tracks, there’s everything from snow to mud to loose rocks to small gravel to dirt. I’m moving pretty quick to power through all the things that might cause a upd.
I hear this but never saw who said it… probably a young teenager …

"wooh hooo…Ride it like you stole it… "

I had to laugh…

ROFLMAO is close to UPD I’d say.

as I was entering Versailles’ Castle park with my Coker Big One …
a member of the security staff: “are you sure you’ve got the registration documents for this vehicle? (wink)”

a lady (considering my big 26" fatty): “it that … thing … tiring?”
me: “oh! half the bike, twice the man!”
lady: “Oh I don’t need that much :D!”

I think you’re in there… :astonished:

I was chuggin’ along a nice long stretch of road today, when the light went red - dropped to low gear and trundled up to it, filtering past a big 4x4. Once the light went green, I clicked back up and sped off, and the 4x4 overtook - and I was surprised to see a lad, probably not much older than 13, shouting out the window AWESOME BIKE!!! :smiley:

A guy coming from a grocery store: “I am glad that I am sober. Otherwise I would have been hallucinating.”

From some women on a balcony: “Show us your abs!”

that happened also to me … but in french slang they were requesting “chocolate bars” :o (we’ve got different slang names for parts of the torso from “chocolate bars” to “love handles” :D)

Strangely, it is considered socially acceptable and even mildly amusing for women to shout “show us your abs” at a strange man in the street, but if a group of men shouted at a woman they didn’t know, “show us your [body part]” it would rightly be considered offensive.

But they were clearly joking, parodying the stereotypical drunken males on a New Orleans balcony, nicely combined with the common (mis)conception that unicycling is a great core workout.

So a big step up from the typical half-a-bike joke.