Summer Dress Days
Even though it’s been a mild winter I’m excited that spring is here. However it seems that winter decided to skip straight to summer with temperatures in the 80’s last week. Everyone was outside welcoming the good weather. I was no different. And I knew exactly how to celebrate the change of season, A polka dot summer dress! Which made me feel like this:
But going from being all bundled up to a summer dresses I noticed a big contrast. And everyone else on the road did too. As I biked around suddenly everybody was… polite.
While it’s nice to feel that everyone is looking out for me for a change, it makes me realize how little people pay attention the rest of the time. Nobody can wear summer dresses every day.
I think as a safety device I should employ a 6 piece bike- band to follow me wherever I go. I could be like the ice cream truck- everyone would know when I am coming.
I miss the warm weather 🙁 It’s been particularly hard to get out the door in the morning this week with the cold and the overcast skies.
I particularly like the “I’ll right hook the next cyclist” Who presumably is not wearing a summer dress?
I’m afraid a 6’3″ bearded guy in a polka-dot dress would just be even more of a target…
Seriously, I have noticed that the less I look like a “cyclist” and the more I look like an “old guy on a bike” the more polite most drivers are to me.
Me too: as a conservatively dressed ugly old man (63) riding an archaic-looking bicycle rather slowly I never get any of the aggression which posters on other cycling blogs claim they receive on a daily basis. I drove my wife to London Stansted Airport yesterday, and in three hours there and back received more jostling and routine ill manners than I’ve had in five years on my bicycle.
But then I’m not “A Cyclist”; rather an elderly gentleman who goes everywhere by bicycle if he possibly can. If you dress yourself up to look as unlike other people as you can manage, to underline your special status, then it’s hardly to be wondered at if you arouse some resentment: particularly if you behaviour towards other road users is something less than courteous. The following YouTube clip of a cyclist being thumped by an angry car-driver in Bexleyheath, south London, was widely viewed last year and everyone tut-tutted and said how awful. But it appears that a few seconds before, the thumpee had banged on the car roof and shouted some disobliging comments about being passed too close. Myself, I felt a certain sympathy with the motorist, being abused on a Sunday morning by people dressed up like aliens. (He later got fined and bound over to keep the peace, by the way).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd6Kxs_2UaE
Bikeyface, I’m sure you looked charming in your summer frock, and we’ll forget about that object on your head because it’s the States and you have a thing about them over there. Look behind you at regular intervals though, because you may find yourself being followed by a man on a Danish Velorbis bike with a video camera fixed to the handlebars. Lure him into a quiet bit of Central Park then give him a good going over with your lock: far quicker than reporting him to the police.
Is the world already so full of beautiful objects that we can afford to go around being unsightly?
You definitely have your finger on the urban pulse (giving BikeSnobNYC a run for his $).
I read about a study recently which concluded that drivers are far more likely to be kinder to cyclists with obvious feminine features, like long hair or flowers on their bike or skirts. I’m not really sure what that says about the world, but as a woman, I’ll take not being hit…
Exactly! And if I can’t wear a polka dot dress, I have also found that attaching a long blond pony tail to my helmet works pretty well too. ;). (Love the BandTandem)