Marco

I tend to agree with Johan on certain instances of the behaviour of cyclists, BUT i still think and this is of course my personal opinion and my right, to say that, should anybody threaten my life be trowing fat into an already burning fire, that I also have the right to counter. This is not mud-slinging, it is merely, as with Maas, my response to an idiot who clearly does not like cyclists. He tends to forget that people just need to be nudged a bit and he is doing a lot of nudging on the part of the anti-cycling side. YES, we do behave badly on roads, YES, we do take up lanes and YES, we dont cross lines the way we are supposed to. BUT........... I have ridden on my own quite a lot and also usually train with just one other team member and on EVERY week, even though we are riding single file and following the rule of law, we still get harrased by motorists!! AND I cannot kill someone by knocking them over should I ride into or over them!! I have been trown with eggs, pelted with rocks and bumped off the road a number of times while out cycling alone. As an example it has happened before where it got to a point where a number of us laid charges against individuals who where harrasing cyclists in the Bedfordview area on saturday mornings on a regular basis. These individuals ended up knocking some of cyclists clean off their bikes with sunvisors while hanging out of their cars!! The main reason Johan that everyone is having a go at Maas is exactly the same reason he is having a go at us. We are tired of people like him blaming cyclists and pushing us off the road. You have to remember that the people in this country are tired of all the sh*t they have to eat up every day. This is why people are stepping up and basically standing up for their rights. It is after all our right to live, our right not to be harrased and our right to share the road with the other road users. We have all been pushed and shoved into places where we dont want to be, living in fortresses because of crime and trying to do our job in a country where the infrastructure clearly cannot cope. People of tired of this and I for one am glad that cyclists are starting to voice their opinion. VIVA CYCLING, VIVA!!

i heard its a lekka jol!! cool chicks and evewyfing!!

What where you doing at Boksburg hyper in the first place, two days in a row??

FYI - I spoke to some of the cyclists in the club mentioned in the article. The newspaper obviously took no interest in doing a proper investigation into the story and never bothered to get the other side of the story! The other club guys said that this motorist was honking repeatadly and then took it upon himself to ride as close as possible to the cyclists while passing them. Doing this he managed to knock two cyclists off their bikes. The rest of the group chased him down and one guy (actually a small oke) got to the motorist (big oke) as he stepped out of the car and floored him!! and I believe rightly so!! I, for one am glad that cyclists are starting to do something about #$#$%$ that continualy hoot at us and shout and throw rude signs at us. Cyclists have had enough and in a lawless country like this one, it might be better if we start taking the law into our own hands as it doesnt seem to help if you take the route of laying a complaint at the police station. Perhaps motorists will think twice before flying past a group of cyclists, nearly killing them, if they the thought of being "klapped" crosses their minds! In the east rand now you are 100% assured that no week will go by without some guy coming past you, even if you are riding singlefile, and nearly getting knocked over. This happed to me and 101% on thursday, yet again, and as before, these guys sh*t in their pants when the cyclist start chasing!! Believe me, I am the first guy who thinks that sometimes cyclist are in-considerate and sometimes take up a whole road. This is true, BUT, have you ever heard of a cyclist killing a guy in a car by riding into him?? This does not happen. Therefore motorists need to remember that they are driving a dangerous weapon. You dont go and wave your gun around in a shopping mall, so why try and knock cyclists down?? Ask them yourself these questions: How many cyclists have been killed in the last 12 months by motorists and How many motorists have been killed by cyclists? How many incidents have you had in the last 6 months? How many times was it a "near death" experience? How many times have you been harrassed by drunk drivers? Now, with regards to this Maas character - does anybody have any contact details and information about his business interests? Why does he hate cyclists so much? If this guy (satirical or not) is going to try and get people to knock down cyclists, then perhaps its time someone confronts him or hurts him where it hurs the most - his pocket! I heard this weekend that some of his customers have already withdrawen their business from him. Perhaps we can spread the word (satirically).

Kanji for Peace

I have known Marco for a couple of years now and have done a lot of business through him. I have NEVER seen him swear at a customer and have also never seen him thrown a punch or even start a fight! Based on the replies on the other post on the same subject, it is hard to believe your story if you decide to hide behind an alias. I do however believe that if you are going to bad-mouth a guy as well as his livelyhood, you can at least have the decency and balls to not sit behind an alias. Marco is an honest, VERY HARD WORKING guy who essentially runs a family business cause he also employs his mom who works at the shop. He works extremely long hours untill late at night to ensure his customers are happy. I was at a tour about two years ago where a guy came up to Marco out of nowhere saying his new wheel (out of box) he had bought recently was broken. Marco, without hesitation, took his own personal (better) wheel off his bike and handed it over to the guy, no questions asked, and apologised to the guy!! Marco then had to go and lend a wheel from someone else to compete the tour!! Dont see how this could have happaned, UNLESS............... he was severely provoked!!! Dude, have the balls to say who you are. - the other Marco (vB)