Greeting fellow cyclists.

[Shearwater Missile]

I prefer to be alone in restaurents!!

Except for my wife if she is with me
otherwise I like to be alone

which is why I ride alone and don;t look for group rides!!

A man after my own heart. Besides, I find it difficult to hear people in restaurants anyway, even if I did want to engage.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

A man after my own heart. Besides, I find it difficult to hear people in restaurants anyway, even if I did want to engage.

Yup - my hearing has always been weird

if there is background noise then I struggle

It was always a total mystery to me how on Earth blokes could chat up a girl/woman in a pub/club
I would never be able to do that as I would not have a clue what she was saying!!!

Did help when I was a teacher - we had to do the register at the start of every lesson
If I could not hear someone reply due to other talking
then I started the whole thing again

after the third time they generally co-operated !!!

it was quite funny at times!

 

[Dogtrousers]

Supposing you pop into a public loo and someone is already in there, should you use the urinal next to them and strike up a conversation or stand as far away as possible and ignore them?

It can be a real dilemma, Do they want to P in peace or will they think I am stuck up and unfriendly? I often lie awake at night worrying the correct procedure.

If I see one of the stalls is locked I knock on the door and give a cheery shout of hello. Its only polite.

You'd be surprised how many of the miserable sods completely blank me. So rude.

 

[blackrat]

I recognise I made a joke of only waving at pretty female cyclists. So don’t wish to appear as a genderist.

But, this is a true story involving a pretty female cyclist. I was camping touring in the Highlands, the weekend before Etape Loch Ness. Suffering up the fecker of a climb out of Fort Augustus (if you know, you know). About three quarters of the way up, a female cyclist catches up with me, and noticing my luggage, starts a friendly chat. Where you going? Where you come from? Where you staying? Yadda,yadda, whilst spinning for fun and being in total control of her breathing.

Me, I was at my limit and then some. Huffin n puffin out of every hole. I almost wanted to say ‘FO b…’ but that wouldn’t be game.

Anyway, she rode on, turned around at the summit and back down to repeat. She was exceptionally fit and likely doing final prep for the following week.

So, I kinda empathise with those people who say they want be to left alone in their suffering.

I talk to everyone whether walking or cycling or shopping, why not? And if anyone wants to talk to me, very welcome. There are more than enough curmudgeons in the world as it is.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

Yup - my hearing has always been weird

if there is background noise then I struggle

It was always a total mystery to me how on Earth blokes could chat up a girl/woman in a pub/club
I would never be able to do that as I would not have a clue what she was saying!!!

Did help when I was a teacher - we had to do the register at the start of every lesson
If I could not hear someone reply due to other talking
then I started the whole thing again

after the third time they generally co-operated !!!

it was quite funny at times!

Only last week the wife and I walked out of a cafe that we had not been to before but recommended by family. After being seated and whilst we were awaiting to be served to take our order we got up and walked out. We simply could not hear each other and why should we pay good money to sit in silence and listen to other peoples banter ? We did get a strange looked as we walked out. Instead we went to where we usually go and and had a nice lunch and we could hear each other.

 

[blackrat]

If you arrive at a bench and there's someone there, and instead of going and finding an unoccupied bench you proceed to sit on the bench, then you are some kind of weirdo. Quite probably a serial killer.

What a sad way to look at the world.

 

[ColinJ]

Supposing you pop into a public loo and someone is already in there, should you use the urinal next to them and strike up a conversation or stand as far away as possible and ignore them?

What I really didn't like was the shifty guy pretending to make a telephone call near the urinals. I had a strong suspicion that he was down-pantsing**!




** cf upskirting

 

[Katana]

Some guy said hello. I put my hand up as I slowly passed. Lights went to red. Then he’s shouting there’s no need to be dick I said hello. I said I put my hand up. He said yeah only because I said hello first.
Absolute mad man shouting in an aggressive manor. He’s probably caught his wife cheating.
I know it’s nice to say hi to folks and I did to about 5 people on that ride. If somebody responds slow or ignores you, then just go about your day. There’s no need to get all Pat Tate on people.
We also don’t know what’s been going on in each others lives.
In busy places like London you can’t be expected to greet every bike you see either. Even in friendly Yorkshire there’s a lot of cycle traffic to greet.

All these years of cycling I often wonder about the different reactions you get from pedestrians and cyclists from very similar situations! I don’t take it to heart anymore and just brush it off by reminding myself that you have to take good with the down right ugly!!