anybody else get much aggro from kids?

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ninjajebus

New Member
Hi,
With the great weather and all I've been cycling to work this week for the first time this year. It's been great, no problem from motorists but the last few days I've had a few run-ins with kids throwing stones and that. I called the police for the first time today and because the kids ran away he wasn't interested at all because in his view "nothing happened". I didn't really expect a CSI squad (or any police at all) to come, but I thought it would at least be noted.
It's been different kids in different areas each time and I'm reluctant to pick another route because it'll add about 2-3 miles on to a route I'm already struggling to finish. At this rate my summer of cycling to work is over halfway through april because I can't be bothered with this aggro if nothing is ever gonna be done about it. What's the best way to deal with this?
Cheers,
Paul
 

Trevrev

Veteran
Location
Southampton
Tricky one........Just try not to react. Which is easier said than done.
If you react it'll probably make matters worse and the crowd will get bigger.
Ignore and they'll soon get bored.
I hope !!!!
 

Plax

Guru
Location
Wales
Ignore them, they should get bored eventually. Any kind of reaction will just "feed the fire" and make you a more sporting target. Also practice avoiding projectiles :wacko:. I quite often pick up the pace and move further out when I'm near iffy looking feral types. By the time they've noticed you you're too far past them for them to bother with you.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
we had a problem with kids on our commute last year. One of our few was pushed off his bike and suffered quite bad facial injuries. Does your area have a Safer Neighbourhood Police team to contact? We badgered them until something was actually done. We managed to get patrols regularly in the effected area.
 
OP
OP
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ninjajebus

New Member
Thanks guys,
I've been ignoring them as much as possible already but I guess I'm mostly dissappointed by the police's complete lack of interest in it. I doubt there's any safer neighbourhood police scheme because it's belfast and things aren't done like that around here yet. I'll still ask around though.
The area where I tend to get the aggro is around the top of a wee 3 mile climb (well by my standards) and close to my gaff so I'm pretty puffed by the time I reach the "baghdad" bit which I suspect might be a factor, the kids today caught me right at the top, yesterday was a bit lower down so I had something left in the tank to get away. I was just checking out an alternate route in google maps though and the extra distance is only about a mile so I might try that instead.
Cheers,
Paul
 

gaz

Cycle Camera TV
Location
South Croydon
I've had some little tossers throw cans at me etc.. most of the time i see it coming and take avoiding action.
i changed my commuting time to avoid the school rush as i kept getting kids just walking into the road on purpose!
 

jonredhornet

Active Member
I've had plenty of problems with kids in the past, I find changing my commute time helps. A little earlier in the morning to miss the school rush helps. Not much you can do about cycling home on a warm sunny evening when they're all out.

If they're saying something and get too close a nicely timed 'snot rocket' always goes down a treat :smile:
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
Put on a hi viz jacket and as you approach clearly show them you are filming them on a handy cam. Or next time it happens call plod. If they still appear disinterested say they have been firing at you with a couple or air rifles and you have been threatened with basball bats and petrol bombs. That should get some action .............

A couple of years ago cycling along a new cycle lane painted on the road, I had a group of sh1ts who had just finished school walking toward me 4 abreast, across the pavement, and the new cycle lane which was on the road. When I rode around them giving a final life saver before I pulled out to avoid the one deliberately blocking my path to check for traffic behind, as I knew a Mini was probably passing me, one of the sh1ts barged me off and I landed in the middle of the road. Fortunately the following car was driving slowly and managed to avoid me. I jumped up like a flash to collar the sh1t as he tried to run away, but I didn't succeed. An old lady came to my assistance offering to help me lift my bike up and asked if I was ok. Purely by chance a police car came around the corner about 30 seconds later and I flagged them down. They ran off after the scrotes and caught them although the scrote (16 years old) I identified as barging me off, lied through his teeth accusing me of assaulting him. Plod did absolutely f*ck all they were useless. I protested demanding they do something as I had been barged off by the little sh1te and my arm and hip were killing me where I had hit the road. The plod said they would arrest him if I insisted but they would also arrest me as well for assault - WTF! For good measure the fat man plod decided to do some rudimentary first aid on my arm which meant him squeezing my arm in a vice like grip. "Tell me if this hurts!" "Arghhhhhhhhh!" Sorry VoaB but he was a to$$er and his WPC partner was clueless. Unfortunately the Council CCTV which I paid to view was facing in a different direction so didn't capture me being barged off.
 

Vincealot

New Member
Location
Coventry
I live in probably the worst area in Coventry. Thankfully the local scroats dont throw anything or shout any abuse. They usually cheer me on as I fly down the roads at 20+ mph.
 

XmisterIS

Purveyor of fine nonsense
I think I must have a natural cloaking device or something! I ride through some of the roughest areas of Portsmouth, and I have only once had an apple thrown at me!

I did once have a group of chavs blocking my path (sauntering down the middle of the road, like they own it), so I just picked up my pace, stared at them and rode directly at them. When it became clear that I was prepared to collide with them, they moved.
 

trekpilot

New Member
Never had anything thrown at me, but one day last year a car full of chavs drove by with a super soaker watergun, If they'd have just got my body/legs I wouldnt have been to fussed, but they got me in the face in heavy traffic, which was not only dangerous but humiliating! I caught them up a short while later in a queue of traffic, I must have been mad as there were four of them. I jumped off my bike and begun to run towards the car shouting Im gona rip your f*****g heads off! The driver pulled out of the queue into oncoming traffic and shot off the wrong way round a roundabout!! Absolute tossers, A couple in a drop top audi aplauded me so I can only assume they had a soaking too. Not too sure what I would have done if they stayed put, I was outnumbered for a start, never seen that vehicle again since and I use the same route daily, although the following few days I thought everyone driving past will be thinking thats that mental cyclist!! If it happens again though I wont get mad, just even and squirt the driver in the face with my water bottle if I catch them in a queue.
 

Moodyman

Legendary Member
I've had kids messing around quite a bit - usually 'come on fatty' or beeping chav cars - though no stone throwing yet

Best to ignore it and carry on. Can't expect kids to think like intelligent adults.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Vincealot said:
I live in probably the worst area in Coventry. Thankfully the local scroats dont throw anything or shout any abuse.
So where is 'the worst area in Coventry' these days? I used to think it was Wood End when I lived in the city.

I thought I'd got away from gangs of marauding teenagers by moving to a quiet little town in West Yorkshire but things are definitely taking a turn for the worse here.

A couple of months ago I was walking along a local street when two young drunks barged into me and stole my woolly hat. That was more annoying than anything else, but it was the first time anything like that has happened to me up here.

I walk to the shops most evenings and have noticed that gangs of kids are hanging about more and more. It's not so bad when there are only 4 or 5 of them and they are skateboarding or doing tricks on their bikes. When there are 10 or more grouped together drinking and smoking joints, being very loud and shoving each other about, sometimes into passers-by, it starts to get pretty intimidating.

I read the local paper yesterday and discovered that a gang of 7 youths recently attacked a 37 year old who was on the way to the pub to meet his family. They kicked him unconscious in the town's pedestrianised square. I'm sure that I walked past the same spot about 30 minutes before the attack and found the gang of 'hoodies' hanging about there a bit worrying. I told myself that I was just getting old and that they were probably harmless!

I have had a few things chucked at me by kids, the worst being eggs, but to honest I'm more worried about idiot drivers trying to kill me! There are the young idiots who tend to be dangerous by driving too fast and aggressively, and then there are the older idiots who are looking at the scenery rather than up the road, or the just plain doolally who shouldn't be driving at all!
 
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