Yarra Boulevard - tacks - 6.3.14

[biker jk]

Apparently the hoses on the pumps placed by Boroondara Council and Cycles Galleria have been cut.

Couldn't the geniuses place CCTV cameras at the location of the pumps?

[marty_one]

Apparently the hoses on the pumps placed by Boroondara Council and Cycles Galleria have been cut.

Wow. This numptie must really have absolutely no life of his/her own if they are no sabotaging the pumps!

[macca33]

Apparently the hoses on the pumps placed by Boroondara Council and Cycles Galleria have been cut.

Couldn't the geniuses place CCTV cameras at the location of the pumps?

There are issues around the use of surveillance devices - apart from the obvious that they are easily stolen / damaged...

For mine, it is definitely a local - too high a frequency for someone who is not from / in the area, as well as the fact that they are comfortable enough to not only distribute tacks, but have moved onto damaging the cycle pumps - actions of a person who is VERY familiar with and comfortable in those surrounds.

cheers

[jules21]

it's clearly a local. the pattern of tacks laying and recent pump damage points to someone coming out at night, and even on weekends - doing it. that's unlikely to be a commuter on their way home from work.

the persistence points to mental problems to me. some people hate cyclists, but most are balanced enough to get on with their day. this person has dedicated a good part of their life over the past year or so to hating cyclists. they are necessarily thinking about this a lot. that's not healthy. although i suspect they weren't healthy to begin with.

[gabrielle260]

Just spoke to a colleague who picked up a carpet tack on the MYT between Glenferrie Rd and the velodrome. He saw others with flats there. Has the numptie (and I use the term as the most polite thing I can think of right now) moved or expanded his area of operations?
Andrew

[takeitasread]

Just spoke to a colleague who picked up a carpet tack on the MYT between Glenferrie Rd and the velodrome. He saw others with flats there. Has the numptie (and I use the term as the most polite thing I can think of right now) moved or expanded his area of operations?
Andrew

I would think it is extremely unlikely that he/she/they have expanded out after 18 months operating in a very small area. More likely that all the publicity last weekend might bring out a copycat or two.

The person tacking the Bouli clearly doesn't want cyclists riding that particular road, though for what reason is hard to ascertain.

[__PG__]

Got tacked today.

Rode the Boulevard in the wet in between letting the wife sleep in and Mother's day lunch. At the bottom of a hill around the corner from home I noticed a flat. I ended up pulling a tack out of the front tyre.

Either
a) I hit a random tack in Northcote
b) I got tacked on the Boulevard and it took a few kms to work its way through two layers of Vectran on my GP 4 Seasons.

What do you guys reckon?

[jules21]

it can take a while to work in. you most likely caught in on the Boulie.

[Hillsaretheenemy]

I have a mate with a gun who likes hiding in trees... Seriously this is way beyond tolerable. Time the Police gave this priority over waving radar guns.

[marty_one]

I have a mate with a gun who likes hiding in trees... Seriously this is way beyond tolerable. Time the Police gave this priority over waving radar guns.

Maybe get him to stake out the boulie and shoot the tyres out on the tackers car!

[biker jk]

I have a mate with a gun who likes hiding in trees... Seriously this is way beyond tolerable. Time the Police gave this priority over waving radar guns.

Maybe get him to stake out the boulie and shoot the tyres out on the tackers car!

Perhaps a nail gun would be more appropriate?

[Calvin27]

The stop the tack rides should be a regular occurance - say a constant 8am roll out from a prescribed point.

This would have the impact of:
- Making sure vicroads spends as much as possible until someone decides there is a cheaper option.
- Giving the tacker a more consistent time to deploy (between a saturday night sweep and Sunday morning ride), thus a shorter window for us (on the off chance, authorities) to monitor and survey.
- Highlight an exact time where it would be optimum to tack and thus making it high risk to do so - you'd have to be crazy to even think about dropping tacks multiple weeks in a row.
- Giving riders a chance to chuck on the marathon plus tyres to collect the tacks o na sunday morning.
- Highlight that the instance of tacking is actually making the situation worse. More riders, more frequently.

I mean there are a lot of riders that ride sunday morning it's just a point of rallying the troops.

[warthog1]

I would suggest the turkey seems to gain some gratification from the notoriety and probably reads threads such as this. It will no doubt pop up on a search.
Edit: already suggested by mister horsey. People should bear that in mind when posting as the emasculated, repressed and impotent fool is probably reading

[Calvin27]

I would suggest the turkey seems to gain some gratification from the notoriety and probably reads threads such as this. It will no doubt pop up on a search.
Edit: already suggested by mister horsey. People should bear that in mind when posting as the emasculated, repressed and impotent fool is probably reading

FIND THE MEMBER THAT HAS THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE VIEWS ON THIS THREAD!

Chances are it will be something like 99% on this thread and nothing anywhere else.

[clackers]

FIND THE MEMBER THAT HAS THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE VIEWS ON THIS THREAD!

Ooh, like those firefighters who are actually arsonists.

You don't seem to post much in evenings, Calvin, what else are you doing, hmm?

Let the witch hunt begin!

[jules21]

find whoever has been tacked the most

[misterhorsey]

I would suggest the turkey seems to gain some gratification from the notoriety and probably reads threads such as this. It will no doubt pop up on a search.
Edit: already suggested by mister horsey. People should bear that in mind when posting as the emasculated, repressed and impotent fool is probably reading

I dare say everything on this thread, and everything in the media, is likely to provide motivation for the tacker. What can you do?

I also think that he or she has been so persistent in their efforts that:

a) It really is taking up a lot of their life, which means they may not have much of a life (I don't mean this as a personal insult Mr/Mrs Tacker. But people who do this kind of stuff don't really have much else going on.) I.e. Friend: Would you like to meet up for a drink on Friday night? Tacker: No sorry, have to wake up early on Saturday morning? I need to get up at 3am to spread tacks on the Yarra Boulevard as I have done persistently for the past 18 months. So no I can't meet up.

b) The ordinary rules may not apply. The Tacker may be acting out to address some kind of perceived personal slight, or injustice. The Tacker may be lacking or incapable of experience empathy. The Tacker obviously has some emnity towards cyclists and has lost perspective about their actions, the justification and the consequences. The Tacker has some kind of mental imbalance going on, and of course, doesn't appreciate quite how much of an outlier they have become. Think a combination of Low IQ, social dysfunction and anger. Recent debates by Herald Scum and talkback radio fanning the flames of cyclist hate probably have framed cyclists as some kind of depersonalised enemy. That can't have helped much.

Not sure what I'm trying to say other than that we are dealing with someone who has possibly lost it.

There are also people out there who may know who is doing this. Its possible that he or she is bragging to people about their successes. Unless it is a total loner.

In the meantime, riding to the right of the white line yields less tacky riding experiences. I find giving friendly hand gestures to motorists approaching from behind tends to assist in sharing the road as well.

[jules21]

Not sure what I'm trying to say other than that we are dealing with someone who has possibly lost it.

people who can't stand cyclists tend to strike me as those who struggle to internalise issues. projecting their anger onto others is a coping mechanism for some people. it's useless trying to reason with them, as there are more base, sub-conscious emotions driving that anger that are resistant to logic.

[warthog1]

I dare say everything on this thread, and everything in the media, is likely to provide motivation for the tacker. What can you do?

I also think that he or she has been so persistent in their efforts that:

a) It really is taking up a lot of their life, which means they may not have much of a life (I don't mean this as a personal insult Mr/Mrs Tacker. But people who do this kind of stuff don't really have much else going on.) I.e. Friend: Would you like to meet up for a drink on Friday night? Tacker: No sorry, have to wake up early on Saturday morning? I need to get up at 3am to spread tacks on the Yarra Boulevard as I have done persistently for the past 18 months. So no I can't meet up.

b) The ordinary rules may not apply. The Tacker may be acting out to address some kind of perceived personal slight, or injustice. The Tacker may be lacking or incapable of experience empathy. The Tacker obviously has some emnity towards cyclists and has lost perspective about their actions, the justification and the consequences. The Tacker has some kind of mental imbalance going on, and of course, doesn't appreciate quite how much of an outlier they have become. Think a combination of Low IQ, social dysfunction and anger. Recent debates by Herald Scum and talkback radio fanning the flames of cyclist hate probably have framed cyclists as some kind of depersonalised enemy. That can't have helped much.

Not sure what I'm trying to say other than that we are dealing with someone who has possibly lost it.

There are also people out there who may know who is doing this. Its possible that he or she is bragging to people about their successes. Unless it is a total loner.

In the meantime, riding to the right of the white line yields less tacky riding experiences. I find giving friendly hand gestures to motorists approaching from behind tends to assist in sharing the road as well.

Nicely said
I am not a psychologist, however this is clearly someone who has some serious personal inadequacies in their life. I don't expect it will stop unless they are caught and then I don't expect much of a penalty at the first proceeding. It is only affecting us cyclists after all and we are an out group.

[misterhorsey]

yes, I'm not psychologist either! But I am interested in reading about mental issoos in the popular literature, and I did major in History at uni so have read quite widely about sociopaths through the ages.

[defy1]

I willing to guess the person is someone who has time on their hands obviously, holds a grudge and has a major chip on their shoulder, someone who isn't happy with their life and wants to take it out on others.
I would say male, white, old, retiree maybe on pension/benefits, never married and lives alone, worked some menial job either blue/white collar, lacks friends, unable to form meaningful long term relationships, loner, angry

[takeitasread]

I willing to guess the person is someone who has time on their hands obviously, holds a grudge and has a major chip on their shoulder, someone who isn't happy with their life and wants to take it out on others.
I would say male, white, old, retiree maybe on pension/benefits, never married and lives alone, worked some menial job either blue/white collar, lacks friends, unable to form meaningful long term relationships, loner, angry

Don't worry about all this stuff, just give us their address!

[misterhorsey]

I willing to guess the person is someone who has time on their hands obviously, holds a grudge and has a major chip on their shoulder, someone who isn't happy with their life and wants to take it out on others.

I'd agree with this.

I would say male, white, old, retiree maybe on pension/benefits, never married and lives alone, worked some menial job either blue/white collar, lacks friends, unable to form meaningful long term relationships, loner, angry

But not sure that the information we have about the person/persons (i.e., nuthin'), really warrants this kind of profiling. At least in respect of gender, ethnicity and age. As a member of an out group ('cyclists'), you don't really want to start characterising another group as being responsible for the ills that befall us do you?

Same goes for all the accusations aimed at Tradies. Far as I know, anyone is allowed to buy things from Bunnings.

[Bentnose]

I'm a tradie and I ride a bike so lets not go stereotyping too much, unless you're a criminal profiler, then go nuts.

[antigee]

Used to live in UK near some well established downhill trails - had a problem with buried nailed logs and fishing line across trails , went on for quite some time, riders just checked and cleared the trails so wasn't a big deal business as usual.

Eventually a guy came forward to local press after writing to the landowners (equivalent to state forests) and not getting a response.

He detailed to the local press reasons for his actions, but press insisted he couldn't remain anonymous for them to print - some of his complaints were reasoned and valid and were easily fixable, others a bit more complex and requires some investment by the land owning authority.

The police declined to prosecute saying too complex and hard to identify a specific crime