Threatened assault on Empire State Trail Yorktown Heights Railroad Station area
Normally I never post this kind of stuff, but after biking up to Somers to see my uncle who has stage 4 cancer, I was coming home Saturday the 4th on the Empire State Trail in Yorktown Heights. I was in a rush to get home since I have a sick toddler with RSV and flu to attend to so I was chugging along. There was one rider ahead of me but I kept a good 10 yard distance since I didn't want him to think I was trailing or drafting him.
We get to the Yorktown Heights Railroad Station area and there is zero people on the trail and zero kids at the park, basically the area was dead. There is a set of stop signs on the trail and again zero people were around. The guy in front of me, who was a middle age male probably in his mid to late 40's, riding a dark bike with a rear fender mount stops at one of the signs. I slowly roll past it since there is zero people at the park let alone on that segment of the trail and then I hear, you got to stop man! I think nothing of it and this guy is beat red in the cheeks and pissed off and now is screaming you got to stop! At this point I realize he is clearly talking to me and not going to relent. I politely say, there is no one remotely around and I am in a rush to get back home. He then goes on this tirade of how people like me give "us" (cyclists) a bad name and how when he goes to the town meetings and his HOA meetings he is falsely defending assholes like me. At this point he is riding side by side to me maybe 2 inches off me giving me no room wile there is now oncoming foot traffic with families with kids. At this point I loose it and tell him, there was zero people around and what did he think someone squirrel was going to jump out onto the path out of nowhere? Again this guy will not relent and at this point I am telling this guy to just fuck off. He continues to spiral into saying how he's been riding way before I have and he is constantly calling me "son". I quickly reply stop calling me son, I am not your son man. He questions my age and I tell him 39 (I look young) and he goes silent. He starts to pivot and says, well I noticed you trying to chase me down back there. I start to laugh and just say get over yourself. Not to make this into a Bicycle Circle Jerk post, but this guy was a Fred MAMIL with mismatch kit, a fender, and nice gut hanging out. To say I was following might be true in the sense that I was on the same trail as him and just didn't want to unsafely overtake him or go any faster than I had to since I had a good 25+ miles back home. To say we are the same type of rider or that I was trying race or draft him is comical.
The argument starts to heat up since this idiot kept cutting me off not allowing me to cycling past him. He starts saying, "I am going to make you stop!" almost goating me to get off my bike and engage with him. I respond again, just fuck off I am trying to get home and to shut up you Karen. For whatever reason he absolutely looses it and starts saying how Karen is an anti white racial slur. To put this in context this guy is white, middle age, probably 6' plus tall, 200lbs+ and I am Asian 5'5" and 138lbs soaking wet. When he sees I am clearly not engaging with him he shouts, why don't I get off this bike and beat the shit out of you! I turn to him as I am wearing my Meta glasses and say Meta record. I ask him to repeat what he says and to keep talking so I can call the police. He goes dead silent and slowly starts to drop back.
My glasses actually failed to record so I don't have a photo or video of this asshole, but it's so sad that the fear of being held accountable via recording is the thing that stops people from becoming violent. If anyone see's a guy in Yorktown following this description just be aware of this psychopath Karen. I would love to have recorded and know his name so I could have sent his tirade to his employer. IMO HE is a prime example of why people in general hate cyclists. I like to think if I wasn't some small Asian guy, he would equally would have been an asshole and threatened assault to anyone out there, but it always crosses my mind, guys like this always love to pick on the smaller guys. Simply an asshole bully.