BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Hey Dane cook!

Show me your tits (applies to dudes also..including bros)!

DOUUUUUUUUUUCHE!

"I hope you fall over!"

"I hope you get herpes!"

I didn't hear "I hope you get herpes" but that's pretty brilliant.

it's my 21st biirthdaaaayyyyyy! WHOOO!

haha i can't believe how many people said things like "hey, look, a bike gang!"

too bad school is back in session. i like when people point and say things like "dude must be smoking something!" when they see the tall bike, rather than when people yell "lance!" or "virgins!" or try to walk right into our path on purpose. but it's all amusing in the end i guess.

you know though upon further reflection today... i really hate to see FOC turn out like this... it's not what it's supposed to be... i mean i am not going to sit there and eat shit handed to me by drunk undergrads, but, at the same time tossing it back isn't helping things... feels too CM to me. maybe in the future we should ride in places other than oakland and southside. enjoy our ride without dealing with douchebags the whole time. just a thought. sorry to get all hippy about it.

yup. noah i believe you hit the nail on the head. this is one of the main reasons i have avoided flock all night. every time stef gets home she tells me at least a couple stories like this. i really dont want to do a ride where at some point i KNOW i am going to be in a situation like that.

it's tricky ya know. i think the solution is to avoid those areas. is the point of flock to be seen (a la CM) or just have a nice group ride? if the former, obviously oakland/SS are the places to go but it's guaranteed we'll get harassed and it's very difficult, for me at least, to sit there and take it, impotently jingling my bell at the drunk meatheads. last night i retaliated at these assholes, then felt bad about it later for going against the principles of flock in general... it just suddenly became critical sass to me... i'd rather enjoy the company of you all and enjoy a nice night ride... not tangle with the pinheads in oakland or SS...

i don't agree with staying home just because you're going to encounter some douchebags - by that logic you'd never leave the house. flock all night and midnight mass are mostly just a lot of fun. i love riding at night and feel a lot safer doing it in a group - especially when we do cool things like the bloomfield bridge, armstrong tunnel, etc.

that being said, the novelty of carson has certainly worn out on me (although mostly because of sitting in all that traffic than the people). and, oakland was never really an issue before the students came back. yeah, yelling stuff back probably isn't the best thing to do - although it is kind of funny since 99% of them are too drunk/stupid to come up with any sort of retort aside from just yelling "lance" again. it's about as pathetic as people who yell "freebird" at concerts.

i never said stay home. but maybe try a new route that doesn't unnecessarily force us to encounter such people. i mean 75% of the ride was oakland and SS.

basically i just don't want to reinforce the very image that flock originally was trying to avoid - the obnoxious cyclist. we may not be corking intersections and pissing off drivers, but getting into shouting matches with the denizens of carson doesn't help. not that i'm innocent but like i said. when i'm encountering it left and right, i'm not content to just brrring-brrring at them. plus 'dale earnhart' was pretty clever (nick). but at the same time i found myself a bit embarrassed especially since we had first-timers on the ride. i actually apologized to one of them.

sorry to sound sanctimonious. especially since i was involved myself. but when i thought about it later and more clearly, i just felt a little crappy about it. i wish we could avoid that in the future, and maybe trying a route that doesn't involve carson and all of south oakland would be a good solution.

@noah - "staying home" was in reference to what colin said about avoiding the ride, not anything you said...

but i agree, i don't want to battle the douchebags by becoming douchebags ourselves in the process, keeping it fun is a much better option. in general i find all the people more entertaining than annoying and although we get some people yelling dumb shit, i think there are plenty of people who get a kick out of it too.

There's lots of other neighborhoods out there, not sure why there'd be difficulty sampling others instead. Does make it tricky starting in Oakland and ending in SS (isn't that where they mostly end? I can never stick around that far, or late), if you're trying to avoid those two neighborhoods. Not like I've ever planned anything in my life, but just pointing out the obvious

Yeah i am an instigator.. Sorry about that (Colin knows how true this is). I don't see flock yelling back anything that isn't in good fun though... Or at least I hope it isn't taken as a threat or anything that would start a fight.

I get a good laugh out of carson street every time we do it. We might want to stop encouraging the birthday celebrations though.. ehem.. Nick..

well here's how i look at it: some other observer (not cyclist, non drunk asshole) might see us going down the street screaming "SHOW ME YOUR TITS", not know what's going on, and say, "who are those assholes? oh, flock of cycles? fuck them!"

like i said i enjoyed it at the moment, did my share, thought it was funny - i'm not innocent, but afterwards i was a little disappointed by it.. it's really hard not to yell back at these douches but then what's the point of our ride?

Noah, I fully agree with you, and I apologize for my yelling. I have a hard time holding back-especially at night.

@salty if I go out for a nice ride and happen to encounter a douche or two that's fine. But I am not going to purposely head into the two biggest clusters of douchebaggery in the city. Not when there are a ton of other neighborhoods to ride in, both crowded and quiet.

Nick - no apology necessary... like I said I was right there with ya... thought it was hilarious at the time, felt bad about it later...

It was my first flock. I wasn't quite ready for the slo-mo freakshow on Carson, but I had a good time.

Thanks for letting me ride along.

"GET A HORSE"

My kingdom for a horse!

My favorite comeback is "I wish I could be as cool as a drunk undergraduate!" So far, no one has called me on it's being true.

A good comeback is one where any bistander who only heard that remark would tend to support it.

"Dale Earnheart" works.

"Show me your tits," "DOUCHE!" and "I hope you get herpes!" do not.

If the whole group just yelled "FREEE BIRRD!" any time we got something cliche'd yelled at us, that would be cool. Very few of them will figure out where the cage is, but that is OK.

FREE LARRY BIRD!

"lance!"

"halberd!"

"uhh...lance!"

"glaive-guisarme!"

"......lance?...."

"bec de corbin!"

i await this interaction.

Ha! Someone's been up to the Ren-faire.