Today I was practicing the trick where you pedal with one foot and put the other onto the wheel as a brake and try not to put much pressure on the foot that’s pedalling (I really need to find a name for it :)). I was in a carpark of a gym and swimming pool place with absolutely no cars or people in sight just peacefully riding down the slopes and a groundskeeper came up to me and asked me to leave (in a bit of a rude tone). He said it was a private property and I shouldn’t be in there (there are no gates or anything by the way). The conversation went:
“This is a private property, you shouldn’t be in here.”
“Okay, sorry, I’ll leave but I didn’t think there was anything wrong with what I’m doing”.
“You’re bigger than me, you should know you’re not allowed in here.”
“Okay, but I really don’t see what I’m doing wrong…I’m not doing any damage”
“How would you like it if I walked around in your house and said the same thing”
“Fair enough” (then I left)
I left thinking that this was ridiculous and his argument didn’t make much sence towards the end (totally different issues). I was waiting for him to say something along the lines of, “In my day, young people didn’t ride in private property” so I could say, “Well in my day people are usually pretty reasonable about these things.” But he didn’t.
Luckily I ended up practicing on the road with a nice slope on it which turned out much better.
Re. Those damn unreasonable old men. Good on you Andrew. Some old men are pretty grumpy around lately these days today. I would do the same here too. David.
Around 70 maybe. Don’t worry you’re not old in my opinion if that’s what you’re thinking :). And I didn’t say “Those damn old men” I said “Those damn unreasonable old men”. Most old people are really nice and reasonable.
I’m with you too, Andrew. In fact I have met heaps of old folks too. It’s the mainly grumpy types that hates Computers & the Internet & doesn’t like Updating their cars. Besides I’m not knocking that either if they want to keep their FJ Holden or a
Morris Major. I’m with you mate 100% all the way. There ARE
nice old Folks about these days, 55-Plus.
I was jumping on some benches in a PUBLIC park, and this old guy came up to me, and told me not to jump on them, cause people want to sit on them. That is a fair point, but there was 4 other benchs with no one on them. And i wasnt even damaging them. I was using a 2.5" Luna, and i had plastic, not metal pedals. I think i was probably doing less damage than he would if he’s sat on it.
LOL
Joe,
(New Videos on Cool.Unicyclist.Com - yey. I’ve eventually compressed them, and got them up. I’d just like to say thanks to Phil, coz he’s helped me loads with computer stuff - Cheers!)
On two occasions I’ve had people watching me for a minute or two before saying “haven’t you got anything better to do?”. The fact that they’d stood there for ages seems to be beside the point…
'Twas a shame, though. The first time the chap stood there for a while watching; I thought he was enjoying it; only a few minutes before I’d had a chap say I should put a hat down :D, so I was showing off a bit, doing various tricks I could do rather than the one I was working on. For him to turn round and say I was wasting my time was a bit of a let-down.
On the plus side…
Yesterday I rode to town on the muni, as my bike is temporarily out of action (bah! overcomplicated unreliable things…). That was great, not one bad comment and loads of people being very supportive. Good fun. People are nicer when it’s sunny.
Best comment: “Mum! That man’s on a one-legged bike!”
