Oddest thing you've ever seen while cycling?

ozzy jr

Was moving slowly between stopped traffic at Whitehall Church heading into town. There was a girl in a taxi in the middle lane flashing her tits at a dog in the backseat of a car on the inside lane.

CramCycle

Forgot about the time the UCD ball/end of year thing was on. I was heading down to the shops about 10 or 11 in the morning as I couldn't sleep with the noise, there was a guy lying starkers on his back, going hell for leather with himself at the bus stop across the road about 10 metres from the entrance to Clonskeagh mosque. He did not care who seen him, he was having a grand old time, people walking by seemed less impressed, with several crossing the road to take the long way round him.

Bloggsie

ozzy jr wrote: »

Was moving slowly between stopped traffic at Whitehall Church heading into town. There was a girl in a taxi in the middle lane flashing her tits at a dog in the backseat of a car on the inside lane.

what? are you sure it wasnt a man dressed up as a dog?

RV

CramCycle wrote: »

Forgot about the time the UCD ball/end of year thing was on. I was heading down to the shops about 10 or 11 in the morning as I couldn't sleep with the noise, there was a guy lying starkers on his back, going hell for leather with himself at the bus stop across the road about 10 metres from the entrance to Clonskeagh mosque. He did not care who seen him, he was having a grand old time, people walking by seemed less impressed, with several crossing the road to take the long way round him.

Was he circus-sized by any chance?

alanucc

I saw someone on a hybrid with aero bars at the Ring of Kerry this year.

Also saw someone around Cork who had done a hatchet job on the boot of a scooter (this) and turned it into a giant saddle bag!

Alek

I saw someone on a hybrid with aero bars at the Ring of Kerry this year.

Nothing too shocking, I've seen a lot straight bars + aero/tri extensions among long distance touring folks.

This group cycled 8500km in 75 days, Poland to Siberia:

rflynnr

Going through the road parallel to Blackhourse Avenue in the Phoenix Park one night after midnight, I encountered a badger. It freaked me because although it was immediately obvious that the dim shape bumbling along the middle of the road was an animal, it was equally obvious that it wasn't a cat or dog which, in the middle of the night, led my imagination in all sorts of directions...

WakeyTyke

Descending off Mont Ventoux last September I was greeted by the sight of a cyclist making the ascent pulling a child trailer with a dog sat in it. :eek:

Needless to say when we regrouped in Bedoin we were all keen to confirm what we had seen. Would be interested to know whether the both of them made it to the summit

gozunda

Doing a mountain road descent on very steep road many moons ago encountered a fully grown hare in middle of road - High banks either side of road so hare took off at high speed down hill - unfortunately for the hare I was already doing full speed for downhill descent and could not rapidly apply brakes - fair distance further down hill, the hare spots gateway into field and exits. Reckon I must have been going approx 30-40 mph easily. Hare must have been absolutely knackered though ...

Nanazolie

WakeyTyke wrote: »

Descending off Mont Ventoux last September I was greeted by the sight of a cyclist making the ascent pulling a child trailer with a dog sat in it. :eek:

Needless to say when we regrouped in Bedoin we were all keen to confirm what we had seen. Would be interested to know whether the both of them made it to the summit

Now, that's the oddest thing I've read on Boards.ie.... I spent all my childhood holidays in Bedoin, 99% of French people haven't even heard of it. Yet I find it mentioned on an Irish website

WakeyTyke

Nanazolie wrote: »

Now, that's the oddest thing I've read on Boards.ie.... I spent all my childhood holidays in Bedoin, 99% of French people haven't even heard of it. Yet I find it mentioned on an Irish website

Wow, who would have thought by participating in the 2013 Paris2Nice Charity Cycle Challenge we would get the opportunity to encounter such a seemingly rare occurrence. Hopefully the 2014 participants will be just as fortunate .

triggermortis

Arrived at work last night. There is a motorway parallel to the road my entrance is on and I see traffic stopped with some guy shouting at, and standing in front of a taxi. Don't know what the argument was about, but it looked heated.
As I go into work, through security, I look out and see the taxi take off down the road at high speed with the guy who was shouting, now clinging onto the bonnet of the taxi.
A colleague came in 5 minutes behind me and said there were lots of blue lights outside, so it probably didn't end well...

biketard

CramCycle wrote: »

as I ran down the steps I started to get unbutton, turned the corner to start my relief only to realise I was flashing a brazer and her John, she stopped to look at me from a kneeling position, he didn't seem to notice as his back was against the wall.

Wouldn't it have been HILARIOUS if the guards had arrived at just that moment?

cdaly_

I saw somebody cycling on Griffith Ave this evening with a pannier on one side and a cooler box on the other...

Andalucia

Going up Stocking lane recently, a guy went past me on a road bike which is fair enough

But he was wearing a tracksuit bottom with black dress shoes though, together with no helmet, fairly demoralising experience for me, would have had to go into the red to match him and probably still wouldn't have managed it!

I'm hoping it will appear on candid camera yet.

Boscoirl

An old lady stopped on a roundabout to let out in front of her earlier, I was crawling up to the roundabout so not to have to clip out, eventually I had to, then it was a Mexican stand off ad to who was to go first, I gestured to her to go, she to me, eventually, she went, luckily no other cars around.

Utterly bizarre

alcyst

Not a "bicycle experience", but unusual.

Bloggsie

commuting this morning, on my way along lower road in the strawberry beds, 3 lads cycling the other way, 1 of them wearing a GAA hurling helmet(without the face guard) red face, he looked totally fooked!

jmrc

on da Cooley Triller on Saturday. at the last food stop some 45km into the race a lad pulls out a pack of cigs and has a smoke while the rest of us grab as much food into us as possible to get us home. Quality

tomasrojo

Cycling home on Saturday night, I came to a stop to allow a car to reverse out of a driveway onto the road. Despite it being dark, the car had no lights on. Then it occurred to me that the driver must be very small, possibly a child, as I couldn't make them out. In fact, there was no driver. The car rolled silently across the road, and up into the driveway opposite, narrowly missing the gatepost and coming to a rest without harm.

I rang the doorbell of the house from whose driveway the car had emerged to tell them their car had gone wandering off, and they were very surprised. I guess the car had been sitting in their driveway with the handbrake down in a state of precarious equilibrium for a while.

John_Rambo

tomasrojo wrote: »

I guess the car had been sitting in their driveway with the handbrake down in a state of precarious equilibrium for a while.

That could have been really messy. Good cop and good awareness!

This thread is hilarious by the way.

smalltalk

last Sat morning around 9.15am near Kilmacthomas co Waterford on the N25 Waterford to Cork road someone on a roadbike in full Spiderman costume complete with cycling helmet heading towards Waterford

laraghrider

Commuting into work last week and came to a roundabout. A motor cyclist is coming around it with the helmet sitting on top of his head, a cigarette hanging from the mouth and the other hand holding a mobile phone to his ear. I looked at the driver beside me and he just shook his head in utter disbelief. Luckily the gardai who was on the far side of the roundabout was also in disbelief and had to wave him in for a chat.

Victor

tomasrojo wrote: »

I guess the car had been sitting in their driveway with the handbrake down in a state of precarious equilibrium for a while.

May have been temperature dependent.

magicbastarder

maybe tomasrojo was breathing so loud the noise of his breathing was what tipped the balance.

tomasrojo

I was coming back from Ikea with a rug, a mattress and some lamp shades in the trailer, so perhaps the street sagged in the middle as I was passing.

(I may currently feature in another thread on Boards titled "Strangest person who's interrupted you dinner".)

Temperature theory is intriguing.

on_the_nickel

On the back road between Garrettstown beach and Ballinaspittle, I once saw an old lady out the front of her house, cleaning the two traffic cones she had outside her gate to stop people parking there. Very house proud.

Kinet1c

In the banging heat today in Dublin... a cyclist wearing jeans, heavy bomber jacket, Headphones, holding a can of coke while trying to light a cigarette.

DUBintheSTICKS

While doing the Kells Kings Charity cycle on Saturday I definitely saw the strangest thing ever. As I was descending from Coppenagh into Thomastown I came across an old man walking a fox on a lead with a second one sitting on his shoulder!!!

cdaly_

Saw a lad in Fairview the other day with a child seat on the back of his bike. Only thing is it was a wooden kitchen chair...

Fian

dvntie wrote: »

About a month ago I was going up over the top of Coom between ballingeary and the county bounds and I saw a black and white sheep. It looked like it was a friesian sheep. I'm kicking myself I never took a photo tho

I saw one of these between lough bray and the sally gap yesterday. Used to live in connemara so I am used to seeing sheep, white or black, but I remember thinkig "I didn't know they could be patchy".

monkeysnapper

A good few years ago I was cycling into work in Killarney and as I passed by a load of trees a crow flew out into the side of my head , nearly knocked me off the bike. .. I was for ages thinking... Did that really just happen?

Bloggsie

DUBintheSTICKS wrote: »

While doing the Kells Kings Charity cycle on Saturday I definitely saw the strangest thing ever. As I was descending from Coppenagh into Thomastown I came across an old man walking a fox on a lead with a second one sitting on his shoulder!!!

thats why hydration is so important, you were hallucenating. it was a scarf & his poodle!

smurphy29

I had a car-sort-of-running-me-over incident on sunday. Such incidents normally belong in buffalo & doozerie's grumpy old men thread but the ensuing tete-a-tete was so bizarre it really needs to go up here.

It was on the Howth cycle track and the car drove across the track (without looking) into one of the car parks that punctuate the track. I was riding along and slammed on the brakes but went into the side of the car. It was a 'lucky' outcome in that my bike reared up but I could sort of use the bonnet to manage the impact and bounce back to earth on my feet. No damage done.

So far so 'bad driver hits cyclist'... but the lads... Lordy, what a pair! They were complete scobies, prison tattoos, alcohol/drug abuse-afflicted features etc. Their car was a heap. They both got out and the passenger started having a go at the driver, telling him to look where he's going and then said 'Look, bud, it's a cycle lane!' as if only seeing it for the first time. The driver started saying that my wheels looked expensive and imagine if he'd broken them! I pointed to the stop sign in front of him and he became apologetic, saying 'Aw yeah, it was probly [sic] my fault', again, as if seeing it for the first time and only starting to twig what had really happened. A guy who'd seen the incident told him 'no probably about it, it was totally your fault.' The driver eventually wanted to shake my hand and seemed very affronted when I was initially reluctant, as if he was the one put out!

In the end I shook it. Normally if I've a close shave my adrenaline is up and I'd be furious, but here the lads were just so far removed from 'normality' that it was just impossible to impress upon them the seriousness of road safety and looking out for cyclists /other drivers / pedestrians / whoever. It was almost hard to keep a straight face.

Unknown Soldier

In the city centre today I saw a guy cycling what looked like a bike welded on top of another bike. He was at least 10 foot in the air.

Maybe more.

I swear.

rizzodun

Unknown Soldier wrote: »

In the city centre today I saw a guy cycling what looked like a bike welded on top of another bike. He was at least 10 foot in the air.

Maybe more.

I swear.

A tall bike, they're cool, I plan to make one should I ever get round to it.

shiversd

It was lashing out and although i wasn't cycling at the time, i thought it relevant to mention this to y'all. A cyclist with a large cardboard box on his head with a cut out piece for his eyes just cycling away in the rain in Cork! I laughed, but then thought to myself, wish I was him!

Wishbone Ash

While grinding my way up the Col D'Izoard on Thursday last I inched passed another cyclist who must surely be a contender for "Father of the year" - he was towing a trailer with two children on board.

It made me feel very inadequate!

check_six

Unknown Soldier wrote: »

In the city centre today I saw a guy cycling what looked like a bike welded on top of another bike. He was at least 10 foot in the air.

Maybe more.

I swear.

There is a bike mechanic in that newish bike shop on Pearse St who has fashioned himself one of those contraptions. I am struggling to get my head around the practicalities of using it in traffic, however. I'd imagine you would want to be exceptionally good at track stands to make up for the absence of a lamppost to hang on to when you need to stop. Also, I felt slightly freaked out when I saw him heading over the humpback bridge in Ringsend as he was sitting way above the level of the parapet/wall.

I wonder whatever happened to the fellow with the front forks made from medical crutches (nowhere near mechanically strong enough on a long term basis for that purpose).

Rush hour traffic in Ranelagh this morning.
http://imgur.com/qqQv1B2.jpg

DaithiMC

ronoc wrote: »

Rush hour traffic in Ranelagh this morning.
http://imgur.com/qqQv1B2.jpg

By the way he is pulling at the leash, that dog does not want to break that red light!

Bloggsie

ronoc wrote: »

Rush hour traffic in Ranelagh this morning.
http://imgur.com/qqQv1B2.jpg

yeah, those shorts! OMG!

wanderer 22

ronoc wrote: »

Rush hour traffic in Ranelagh this morning.
http://imgur.com/qqQv1B2.jpg

The two lads with Hi viz and helmets are the ones breaking the lights :pac:

DUBintheSTICKS

Bloggsie wrote: »

thats why hydration is so important, you were hallucenating. it was a scarf & his poodle!

Well it was a warm day haha. I regret not turning around to get a picture, hopefully I'll come across him again soon and make sure to get proof

simonrooneyzaga

colm18 wrote: »

The two lads with Hi viz and helmets are the ones breaking the lights :pac:

unless the dog walker has insane powers of balance, then he is well on his way to breaking the lights too!

wanderer 22

simonrooneyzaga wrote: »

unless the dog walker has insane powers of balance, then he is well on his way to breaking the lights too!

Ha, true...actually the fourth guy is also kinda sorta breaking the lights too :rolleyes:

Ninap

There's a chap I've seen around Foxrock who brings his little girl to school standing on the crossbar of his bike with her arms round his neck. They both seem pretty relaxed....

eeeee

Ninap wrote: »

There's a chap I've seen around Foxrock who brings his little girl to school standing on the crossbar of his bike with her arms round his neck. They both seem pretty relaxed....

It's a ' don't tell your mother situation'

Very familiar from my own childhood, which involved almost being killed an awful lot Followed by those immortal words. It was Fun though!

biketard

Out on my bike at the weekend and found myself behind a guy on a unicycle. The wheel was the size of the big one on a Penny Farthing. He was in full cycle racing gear too.

Alek

Seen this one on the Clontarf path. Wasn't sure if I'm not hallucinating.