Small midwestern town. Shouted at even in drab!

[Marshchild]

Well that has never happened to me in Europe, not even in the colder weather when I was cycling to work in lycra cycle shorts and brightly coloured lycra leggings.

From what I've heard, Europeans tend to be a lot more tolerant of stuff that'd have a good chance of inviting rude comments elsewhere (it'd depend on which part of Europe you were in, though, I suppose).

Teenagers are pretty much the only group that have yelled at me while I've been riding (in drab, so far). The one I found funny was the teen who got cuffed upside the head by his mother after basically screaming in my ear when driving past. Serves you right, boyo!

It is a rude thing to do, and potentially dangerous. Some folks are easily startled, and it could cause an accident.

Which these deadheads would no doubt find the height of hilarity! Still, I had to laugh at your story of the yob getting a well-deserved clip around the ear for his moronic behaviour. Serves him right indeed!

It is a terrible thing to do, agreed. I've cycled for many many years (in drab) and find that it's normally the teens, and always in groups. I had a beer bottle thrown at my head (he missed) years ago as I was descending a steep hill in California. I tried like hell to catch the car at the stoplight, but couldn't.

Always wearing a helmet and avoiding high traffic areas has always been my best prevention.

Believe it or not, it really is much better out there for us than it was before Lance Armstrong won all of his races.

Yeah, I've found where I come from that the main offenders tend to be teenagers, usually ones on their P-plates (basically, what you put on your car when you're no longer a learner, but still haven't been driving long enough to get a full driver's licence). You're right too about them usually being in groups; as I said earlier, idiots like them tend not to be noted for their courage...

I really don't know where this apparent stigma concerning men riding bicycles comes from. Judging from some of the moronic comments I've copped myself (a common one being "Real men ride women!" Yeah, hilarious), a lot of these mental midgets evidently consider there to be something effeminate about cycling. Go figure. Oh well, I just take consolation from the realization that natural selection will probably take care of at least some of these nitwits (a not too unlikely scenario given the way they tend to drive...), and that the rest will probably be forlornly putting "For Sale" signs in the windows of their souped-up hot-rods before too long (because they won't be able to afford the repayments on them, as well as all the petrol and tyre rubber they must go through driving like complete imbeciles). Oh yes, and they'll probably all have the hearing of eighty year-olds by the time they're thirty, thanks to the "doof doof" music they have pumping through their vehicles at earsplitting volume, just so everyone else on the road knows what legends in their own minds they are.