Just got my teenager cycling - bullies in cars - I'm furious!

[Dave the Smeghead]

It is a shame that the moronic elements of society choose to hurl abuse at any one perceived to be "different" - in this case your son riding a purple bike.
I got shouted at a few weeks ago, in the most vile terms, by some moron in a beaten up old Mondeo with children in the car because I was sitting on my bike, having some water having just ridden a very steep hill, and happened to be in his eye sight. The abuse was mostly about me being overweight (one of the reasons out of the many that I ride a bike). I had 3 thoughts in very quick succession: what an appalling example to set to young children who will grow up thinking that shouting at and abusing cyclists is a good thing to do, that my bike is worth far more than his beaten up old car (ok, not so proud of that one) and the fact that he wouldn't dare walk up to me in any other arena and say such things if he wasn't protected by a tonne of metal that he knows he can get away from me in, as he would definitely be picking his teeth up with his broken fingers (not my usual response these days but it was incredibly vile).
If you could let your son know that he is doing a good thing (probably one of the best in my opinion), and I know that it seems hard at times to be "different from the (moronic) norm" but he will end up being the better person for it.
I hope he keeps his interest in cycling and is not put off by morons.

 

[i hate hills]

Julia tell your young lad not to let a car load of spamjockeys put him off. Truth is we all have at one point or another had some idiots scream abuse at us. I realise that for a lad this is a very upsetting experience, but the best thing he can do is get back in the saddle and carry on. I'm sure i speak for everyone on this forum when i say " TELL HIM WE ARE ALL BEHIND HIM " all the best Mike.

 

[Cameronmu917772]

Its a shame the world is full of a******s such as these idiots. I really hope your lad isn't put off by these idiots and carries on doing something positive which is the total opposite to these lads that are probably of a similar age to him. It is refreshing to see a young lad doing something positive rather than hanging around dabbling with drugs and alcohol and trying to act hard and damage property etc.
Talking of idiot young guys in cars abusing cyclists a couple of years ago a mate of ours did LEGOG and did the return GOGLE in one go. That is some achivement considering he was self supported. On the way north he crashed in Devon or Somerset and injured his wrist. Hospital said badly sprained so being the idiot he is he continued.
On the return journey south in the Midlands not far from his house ironically some chavs in a beat up car drew up to him and thought it funny to push him off. No witnesses as normal.
On completion of the marathon the local hospital diagnosed a broken wrist from the first fall at the beginning of the ride.

Top lad for the achievement and on a broken wrist!!! Karma is a beautiful thing though

 

[Globalti]

Keep the non-emergency number for the local Police on your phone and use it to report incidents like these. The report will be logged on the computer against that reg. and if the driver accumulates more than three reports they will get a home visit from the Police. We use it to report speeders in our street and it definitely works.