waving to fellow cyclists

Quote:

Hi, hope you lot can help me, I almost always splay my fingers or do a mini wave at other cyclist but the other morning as I was bimbbling along a nice quiet wide road A chap going the opposite way on a “pedalec” motoring along on the pavement waved at me and the “red mist” started to descend and almost spoiled my day. now my question is was I right to be offended?

I think that it’s a resounding yes! These people that go around waving at everyone are an unecessary distraction. Do they really wave to every cyclist that they pass? Do they really get the hump when there is no reply?

As for a pedelec rider having the audacity of waving to a real cyclist, that’s just taking it too far. Having Castelli writ large across my chest means something, and it means I’m a proper fucking cyclist and not a hobbyfuckinghorse rider!!

Here’s raising an eyebrow behind the Oakleys, and keep up the fight bro!

Perhaps the offending pedelec

Perhaps the offending pedelec rider is recovering from a horrible injury, bravely borne, sustained whilst only 30 yards from smashing the 24 hr time trial record…perhaps not.

Don’t judge…do wave.

Cyclax Maximus wrote:

Thought I’d have a little experiment with this. Most recently while doing a couple of laps around Richmond Park, I decided to wave to about every 3rd or fourth solo rider I saw.

Got absolutely fuck all back, even with eye contact and hand off the bar waving. I never accentuated it to the point of St Vitus Dance type shenanigans.  I just kept it formal and matter of course.

All in all, I must have saluted about 30 odd riders, with, and I repeat, no acknowledgement whatsoever. Needless to say I found it quite amusing, and treated it such as a feasibility study.

I was not dressed any differently or stood out in any way compared to anyone else. No Heinrich Himmler bib shorts or Donald Trump overshoes. So as far as I am concerned, I will gladly ignore any fucker who waves at me in future.

Closing narration:

“For centuries philosophers and theologians have debated what it means to be human. Perhaps the answer has eluded us because it is so simple…To be human is to choose”.

Result of feasibility study = Not feasible

I wonder whether this is one of those ‘London things’. I never commuted by bike when I lived there for a few years, and didn’t do much riding, but I did loads of running, and fell out of the acknowledgement habit because no bastard ever responded (notable exception being Howard Eastman, for any boxing fans – we used to do the same Greenwich Park hill runs and not acknowledging would’ve been weird).

So when I moved back oop North, at first I was the unresponsive grumpy bastard, and I quickly fell back into acknowledgement.

I ride on the hoods pretty

I ride on the hoods pretty much exclusively and I tend to give most cyclists I pass a 4 fingers up wave of acknowledgement and my success rate is around 50% getting an acknowledgement back. Mind you, I don’t wear a helmet and I notice some of these other cyclists give me a slightly sniffy look. To each their own I guess.

Barely perceptible nod of
Barely perceptible nod of acknowledgement

If I was walking down the
If I was walking down the street and somebody with obviously different interests or background said hello to me, I’d say hello back. Same principles apply to being on the bike. It’s just good manners to respond to people if they say hello. No need to get angry…

there are so many reasons a
there are so many reasons a cyclist would develop the Red Mist so why rise to another?

Its not like the culture around us is going to change overnight!

So I would summise that, Yes you may get offended but there is no point in doing so…just ride on regardless…they did 😀