Bike Attacks

[Oliver]

 

 

I've been cycling (mostly MTB?ing) for several years now and

have never been the victim of any sort of "bike crime" until I picked

up my bike again this year...

 

A few weeks back I was chased by a group of youngsters near

Retreat and was lucky enough to anticipate the trouble and got away in time

with these ?scavenger? kids screaming "bring your bike here whitey"

behind me.  Sorry to say, but these children

behave far more like animals than humans.

 

 

 

I was attacked last night while I was cycling home from a local PnP at about

8pm. I had my bike lights on (two Silverback LED flashy thingies) and noticed a

character about 20 metres in front of me. I immediately knew something was up

with this guy and anticipated an attack of some sort.

He stretched his

arm into his jacket pocket and pulled out a knife - by this time I was all

alone, and about 10 metres away - too close to turn my bike around. My "fight

or flight" instinct kicked in and I started pedalling as fast as I could,

towards him (what the hell was I thinking!) - I approached him at about 25k?s and

lifted my front wheel as high as I could and wheelied right into the guy,

knocking him off his feet.  I remember

feeling his knife shave my right arm as I shoved past him. 

 

Everything happened so fast I can?t

understand how I didn?t wipe out because my feet were still clipped into my

pedals and my front wheel landed at one heck of an angle in a pile of loose

stones (I have my WTB velociraptors to thank for this, I think).  At this point I just wanted to get as far

away from this guy as possible.

 

 

 

After I had cycled a

fair distance down Prince George, I turned my lights off and purposely cycled

back along the wrong side of the road (my mentality was to confuse him and

perhaps disappear in the flood of traffic lights).  My chest was on fire, and I felt like my

heart was going to attempt a solo flight.  I stopped a little further down the road and

pulled my can of pepper spray out of my pocket and slowly made my way home (he

attacked me on the corner of the road I use to get home, so I had to go back) ?

the attacker was gone.  Hopefully I did

some damage when I hit him with my bike.  I escaped without a single scratch...

 

Now, there are a few lessons I?ve learned from this nasty

experience:

 

 

 

If you?re going to carry pepper spray or any

other self defence item, make sure it?s accessible and within reach.  Mine was in a zipped pocket and if I had been

pulled off my bike I would NOT have been able to get to when I needed it.

 

2.      

Learn how to defend yourself on a bicycle and

learn how to use your bike as a weapon ? in all honesty, I have PACIFIC BLUE to

thank for my little stunt (remember that old ?bike cop? show on SABC a few

years back?), which may have saved my bike and possibly my life.  I used to watch TC Callaghan and the rest of

the bike cops do their thing on their Trek Y22?s!

Be VERY alert ? have eyes everywhere &

observe your distant surroundings.

 

I?m posting this as an eye openener for all fellow cyclists.

 

 

 

 

[fandacious]

wow... you're lucky to have escaped. pity you didnt find the f**ker on your way back. would love to teach some of these sewer rats a fkn lesson about ownership

[DaSH82]

Damn... good thing you weren't hurt... There are some seriously bad characters out there. We aren't safe anymore...

[TheLegend]

quite bold to react like this. good you got away!

[com_menc(t)tal]

thats wheelie hectic

[Oliver]

to be honest with you, i wasn't thinking. as i said, my instinct just kicked in and I did what I thought was right... perhaps hunting the guy afterwards wasn't the best thing to do, especially considering I have a pregnant fiance at home (that's why I was out - she was craving chocolate!)

 

The things us guys do for our ladies... LOL!

 

[Oliver]

i also think i've got a collection of punctures - i cycled through several thorn bushes to get away from this "sewer rat" as fandacious rightly worded it. i didn't even check my silverback when i got home, i just lomped onto the couch and downed an energade. probably gonna have lots of holes to fix when i get home...

[Viskop]

wow,well done

[L'Bie]

i think you owe everything to your allertness!! Gald you're safe

[El Gringo]

I've been mtb'ing in the Eden/Paradyskloof area near Stellenbosch and have noticed a couple of scaly looking characters lurking around there, and have had to change route in a hurry. I have also heard of bikers been muuged in that area as well. Bottom line as Oliver says, you've got to be aware of your surroundings at all times.

[Ane Gouws]

That is so sad!

 

South Africa is so amazing and we have such nice biking trails. Now we have a huge problem with the crime and focused crime on Cyclists. I have heard so many stories and how badly they hurt cyclists.

 

I am relieved that you are ok, we need to stand together and adress this issue!

[Oliver]

 

I think some sort of "bike safety initiative" needs to be put together to serve as a reference to cyclists to watch out for certain areas etc. I've heard too many stories of cyclists being knocked off their bikes, stabbed, and even murdered. We need to make people aware of these "hot zones" and hopefuly minimize / illiminate this scurge in our country, especially with the recent "bike to work on the first wednesday of every month" thing I've been hearing about recently...

Oliver2008-05-12 02:12:40

[slowpoke]

i am very glad you survived this incident, especially without injury.

 

i also truly hope this piece of $%^&* get his cosmic justice sooner rather than later

 

(and before any of the radical liberals come on here shouting about "hear the other side to the story" - there is no other side - this piece of $%^& tried to steal something that isn't theirs. plain and simple. hopefully they will suffer and get their just rewards)

[infernox]

you should hvae riding and bunny hopped on his legs afterwards and his hands. just to make sure he wont hold that knife again.

[Oliver]

I've been doing some research into bike-mounted self defence items, like frame-mounted mace spray, frame-mounted "pull alarms" (with the pull-cords?) Imagine this: you're cycling and spot a possible attacker so you reach for easily-accessible cord on the alarm and pull it - sounding the signal, then you remove the mace cannister from the frame-mounted bracket and spray the crap outta the "offender" i.e. f@#ktard. Huh? Also, those little extended telescopic things? how about a bike-mounted telescopic place putter? I wouldn't wanna be on the receiving end of one of those, especially if it were an angry dude on a bike, screaming towards me at like 25k's an hour?

[Baaisikilist]

1 times glock in shoulder holster when out alone. Even considering purposefully wearing visible gold jewelery and some R200 notes fluttering out of my pocket to weed out the motherf&*%er so i've got an excuse to rid society of the bastards...