On 09/08/2007 20:02, naked_draughtsman said,
Quoted message said:Is there a standard way to greet other cyclists you pass?
Ah well, first you have to ascertain whether they are really a cyclist,
or a POB. If they're the latter, you have to totally ignore their
presence, as to give any kind of acknowledgement seems to break some
secret code of POBism, and will at best get you a strange look, but
hopefully nothing worse than the verbal abuse I've had back.
Assuming that they really are a cyclist though, you then have to
ascertain the type. An old boy who's been cycling to work since the
bleak winter of 1947 deserves nothing less than a tug of the forelock
and a polite "Morning!" (or "Evening", as appropriate). A fellow
long-suffering commuter you see every day can be greeted by a "Hello",
"Hi", a nod or a wave depending on their response to previous
encounters. Then you get the real cyclists, but of the variety known as
"right miserable buggers" who refuse to acknowledge anyone they don't
consider to be at least an equal to them in terms of machinery. These
types are rare but easily spotted because they're not looking at you -
they're looking at your bike. Then you get the roadies. They often
haven't even seen you because their nose is glued to the stem and their
eyes are fixated in a manic stare at some point they absolutely must
reach within the next three seconds.
So you see, it isn't a simple matter, this etiquette malarkey :-)
--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/
