Cyclists are pack animals

At least that is what labyonnette of youtube thinks. He posted the following comment on my Why are cyclists using video cameras video.

Most of these incidents reflect a very sensitive individual who is over reacting to quite normal road occurences. Listen to the aggressive yelling, its typical of of you low IQ, low education, gay, self opinionated, paranoid prima donnas who think they own the road. You have absolutey NO tolerance of morists and you are pack animals often gathering together to intimidate motorists. Well boys you dont frighten me, I’ll cut you up at every opportunity. Give blood, run over cyclist every day

What a charming individual, with some incredible opinions about cyclists and those that choose to record what happens to them on the road. The road conditions and drivers are only normal to him, because that is the way he drives.


12 thoughts on “Cyclists are pack animals

  1. I don’t really want to follow this link. It will just upset me. I’m a driver too and I just really don’t understand the attitude, which frankly is verging on threatening homicide. Gaz, you are actually very well balanced, you criticize cyclists that you see misbehaving almost as often as you criticize motorists. That youtube commenter doesn’t actually deserve to be given the time of day, so don’t give him any more of the oxygen of publicity!

  2. Thank you for compiling all of these incidents onto one video. It is unbelievable how terrible drivers are, and how little respect people have for cyclists. A mechanic at my local shop was hit by a bus and was in a coma for five days. Drivers forget that cyclist are people. Did you report the plates to the police? After watching this video, I am considering getting a camera for my helmet. Which camera are you using?

  3. It really is incredible how much this person thinks they can tell about a group of people just from them riding a bike!
    Lets see: Low IQ/education (not strictly linked but what the hell….)? Whilst I’m sure there are plenty of riders that fall under this banner I also know of plenty who solicitors, programmers, managers etc.
    Gay? Oh a homophobe, how lovely! Peoples sexual orientation doesn’t matter FFS!! This is the 21st century, grow the f**k up!
    Self opinionated, paranoid prima donnas? I’m sure the same could be said for many car drivers who treat each journey like a qualifying lap and get pissed off at the slightest infringement of their right to use the road. The only difference is they are encased in a metal shell, us cyclists aren’t so you have to allow us a little bit of shouty time *IF* you come close enough to scare us….

  4. The twisted logic and unintentional irony of labyonnette. He [it almost certainly must be a ‘he’], is such a dangerous moron that he cannot see that many of his accusations regarding cyclists are more applicable to people like him than cyclists. Bad people drive cars, they also walk and ride bikes. But who endangers who? It’s all about the abuse of power. The more power one has, the more damage one can do.

    Cyclists intimidate ‘motorists’!
    A cyclist is a person on a bike, with a maximum sustainable power output of perhaps a few hundred Watts and in the everyday, ‘real world’ rather lower. It may be true that: ‘….power output of a professional cyclist during flat and mountain stages of a Grand Tour (Giro d’Italia). …. Mean power output was 132 W +/- 26 (2.0 W x kg(-1) +/- 0.4) for the flat and 235 W +/- 10 (3.5 W x kg(-1) +/- 0.1) for the mountain stages…..’
    [Ref. 1], but those are young athletes in their prime, they are far from being typical, everyday cyclists.

    Most everyday cyclists probably deliver between ~70 and ~120 Watts
    Here is a useful graph from the IHPVA:
    http://www.ihpva.org/projects/tools/HPcap.jpg

    In contrast, an average car has a sustainable output of somewhere in the range ~60-200 HP – that’s ~ 45 kW to 150 kW.

    The ratio of power outputs are between
    45 kW / 120 = ~ 375 times
    and
    150 kW / 60 = ~2500 times

    Given these admittedly rough figures, how precisely do cyclists ‘intimidate’ motorists? And remember that brave motorists like labyonnette are shielded by a steel cage.

    Cowards like labyonnette who intimidate and endanger cyclists are dangerous scum and they should be incarcerated inside a steel cage specifically designed for that purpose until their dangerous traits have gone.

    Ref. 1
    ‘Cycling power output produced during flat and mountain stages in the Giro d’Italia: a case study’
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17786683

  5. Careful please livinginabox…

    “He [it almost certainly must be a ‘he’],..”

    while this may be true, it makes it sound like you attribute boorish, ill-considered behaviour to just males. Your observation is irrelevant to the argument that this /person/ is woefully misguided.

    Let’s not drive a wedge between males and females as well 😉

  6. If any of labyonette’s rant had a grain of truth, it would be the bit about shouting at less-than-stellar road skill. I think we should be allowed that tiny sin.

    We may shout and rant at motorists – I believe that most of the time we’re provoked into doing so. I do not start a journey with the intention of verbally harassing anyone – but as we all know, we’re the ones keyed up on adrenalin, not usually the cosy motorist sitting in his car.

  7. For the first two sentences I read it as referring to the drivers. Anyway, as soon as “gay” is mentioned I consider the argument lost.

  8. Shouldn’t you be reporting him to the Police? Threats of automotive violence and inciting others to do the same?
    Mind you – Clarkson got away with it!

  9. Some times I honestly think that alot of riders have never driven in peak hour traffic. Its standard to be cut off and cut up in a car, its not big deal because you just press a pedal. But on a bicycle its a huge deal, as you are more aware of how close you came to injury and more effort is required to stop and then go again.

    The point is that unless you commute by both car and bike alot (I do) I don’t think you can actually appreciate either side properly. Having filmed my bike and car rides I get about the same number of incidents on both.

  10. I’m possibly going to be a little bit controversial, but on the basis that cyclists are vulnerable road users, I will try my hardest to intimidate a motorist if the situation calls for it. I don’t mean verbal or physical threats, I just mean that I will defend my road position with as much gusto and enthusiasm as I can manage!

    Of course, I have to make sure *I’m* not the one making any errors. That hasn’t always gone according to plan, like the day I overtook during a right-turn down a steep hill only to find that the car I was overtaking (which was also turning right) was actually pulling into the minor road to do one of those wonderful “I’ve gone the wrong way, so I’m turning round” maneuvers! I’ve also managed to pull out in front of a car, which I will never forget and for which I will surely one day receive a “sorry mate, didn’t see you!” because of karma.

    Thankfully, living in Shropshire means that the majority of my commuting incidents involve dogs, other cyclists and the odd pedestrian (and trust me, some of them are very odd!).

    As far as the ‘pack animal’ thing goes… I have to agree with it. If I see another cyclist having a barney with a motorist, my first instinct is to go and back them up (even if I’m not sure who was in the wrong). Personally, if a car driver does something daft to me I mostly just shake my head and smile because life is far too short to waste on getting mad at someone who has had a lapse of judgement.

    Over the years, I’ve had to have far more conversations with daft dog owners (owners of daft dogs as well) than with car drivers.

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