My favorite bike compliment to have ever received happened on the Williamsburg bridge. It was a regular crossing; I wasn’t running late or desperate to get home ASAP. I wasn’t racing for a purpose, it was just one of those rides where you’re feeling it, when your legs meet the resistance of the incline like a hungry belly meeting snacks — give me that, give me that. And I ate.
The going was West to East back to Brooklyn. Sometime past the shoulder and before the crest I passed a biker who started chasing my pace. I stopped pushing at the crest and chilled downhill. Near the bottom he caught up to said, “You’re an animal.” He was smiling and breathing hard. I said, “Thanks, man. Ride safe.” A lovely compliment. People can be nice to each other.
My second favorite, though objectively much better, happened on the Manhattan. It was near rush hour, and traffic was moderate. It wasn’t a full throng yet, but there were enough bikes that you had to wait for no oncoming traffic to make passes. (The Manhattan bike lane is wide enough to for two bikes easy, three in a pinch.) This occasion I wasn’t feeling it. I wasn’t racing or in a particular hurry. But the situation being what it was, pushing a 46/15 gearing with a light load, I’m going to be faster than the average bear.
The way from Manhattan to Brooklyn ends with a descending curl at the bottom of the bridge. It’s the same width as the bridge path, though not banked for speed. Brush inside the curl is usually long, making visibility dicey for bikes oncoming around the curve. The usable curve narrows at the sharpest bend because the concrete barrier there abuts the path. Everybody has to slow down from their bridge pace, and most people - quite rightly - take it real slow. Point being: you don’t want to get stuck behind someone before that curl.
As I neared the bottom of the bridge, there was one biker ahead of me - regular commuter bike with a rack and geared-out rider. I got in a good position to view oncoming traffic, saw a clean safe window to pass, and blew past him right before the curve starts. It was not a close pass by any stretch. I thought nothing of it because it was nothing. At the bottom of the curl I was stopped at the traffic light with others when the guy came up behind and yelled, “Keep your death wish to yourself!”
That he was upset by an objectively safe pass is too bad. Most certainly he was surprised and got scared, then got pissed off because he was scared because the mind can do amazing things to refuse to admit that it’s scared, especially in a flash, especially dudes. Never surprise a cop. However, even though it was an overreaction and an unnecessary performance of patriarchy (he was older), it came from the heart.