I bike everywhere these days. My car is basically not getting used anymore. It seems like every day I ride, at least one random asshole feels the need to start some conversation with me about my bike. It's often multiple people, and it is starting to really get on my nerves. The things they say are usually really dumb too. I wish these people would stop presuming that I even care to talk to them in the first place. But I have to be polite and pretend that I'm not super annoyed, because god forbid that I shouldn't want to talk to yet another random stranger about how cool my bike is, how I should "be safe", whether I am cold or not, what "that thing" is, etc.
Am I alone here? It's really starting to bother me, especially when these people come up to me from nowhere and stop me to talk to them about whatever dumb bike related story they have. I cannot be the only one this happens to.
edit: It seems some people aren't quite getting the source of my irritation over this, but I guess that's understandable.
You try having the exact same conversations with random strangers nearly every day for a year and then we'll see if it doesn't start to annoy you. There is no socially acceptable way to tell people you'd rather be left alone. They will always get offended even though it's a situation they created, again with a totally random stranger.
If you're still having trouble with this, try to imagine an RPG in which nearly every NPC has the exact same set of dialogue and a certain percentage of them will initiate conversations with you at random, at which point you cannot cancel or skip through their dialogue. It will get old very fast, and it's a game that you would most likely quit playing very shortly.
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[–] CANCEL-CAT-FACTS 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
I had some guy follow me down the block telling me my chain was rusty. I have a rusty, crappy bike that I use for local errands and I keep it in crappy condition so that nobody steals it.
[–] DelusionalHominids [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
That seems like the best way to go. Thieves typically don't steal bikes like that. As for me, I don't even leave my bike unnatended anymore. It's not worth the risk. Too many thieves live around here. I've had a few instances where I interrupted someone trying to take my bike after I left it locked up outside, and I've spotted several incredibly suspicious people scoping it out. In a few cases, it was the same guy multiple times. Now I just never let the bike out of my sight.