Many months ago, on a random Thursday evening, I found myself cycling back home after a cozy evening of playing chess.
That’s one of my regular weekly activities.
The chess club at the university organizes its weekly club evening every Thursday from 8 pm till 11 pm. I don’t always stay until 11 pm though. It depends on both the amount of work I want to get done the following day and the general vibe of the moment.
I left early that day.
It was still relatively light outside—it couldn’t have been later than 10 pm. There was quite a lot of traffic on the road. That didn’t bother me as a cyclist. I could just continue cycling on the bike line, not caring about all the cars stuck in a traffic jam.
But there was one biker riding his Harley Davidson who got quite bothered by the traffic jam.
I noticed it when he drove off the road and onto the bike line where I was cycling—together with about 5 other cyclists. I didn’t care much about it at first. He drove in front of me and as long as he didn’t knock any cyclists over it didn’t seem to matter much.
Those other 5 cyclists, however?
They cared. They all give him dirty glances and let out subtle, but not so subtle that we couldn’t hear it, grunts. Obviously, the biker’s selfish actions of wanting to skip traffic left a bad impression.
We drove a few hundred meters further when the bike lane and the road started to diverge. The cyclists would continue going straight, while the road itself would make a turn onto the highway.
It’s at this point that the biker realized he had to get back on the road.
There wasn’t much space however. Traffic was still jam-packed, mostly with big freight trucks. Nonetheless, the biker attempted to drive off the bike lane and onto the road.
The problem?
The bike lane was higher than the road. He had to drive off a curb while making sure not to hit any trucks or cars that were in the way. None of the trucks would make space for the biker to join either. They either didn’t see him or—more likely—didn’t appreciate how he tried to cut traffic and just wouldn’t let him.
Either way, the biker drove off the curb at an awkward angle.
He immediately lost balance and fell to the ground, damaging the side of his bike and losing one of his rearview mirrors in the process. The fall must have made quite the impact because the other rearview mirror shattered as well.
Meanwhile, me and the other 5 cyclists were still next to him, witnessing everything that happened.
I was the only one who stopped, waiting to see if everything was alright.
I saw the biker stand back up and remove his helmet. He was an older gentleman. Short gray hair, square face, quite rugged as well. Probably in his mid-50s to 60s.
He tried to get his Harley back up but to no avail.
It didn’t help that the ground on which he fell was also quite muddy and didn’t allow you to get a good grip.
I went over to him to help him pick up the Harley, making sure I was in a safe position and none of the cars nor trucks would hit me. It wasn’t easy, but after some trial & error, again, the mud didn’t make it easy and the bike was heavy, heavier than I imagined, we did it.
I helped him pick up his mirrors and went on my way.
To this day, I think about that interaction often.
It’s one of the most perfect examples of “you get back what you put in” I’ve ever seen. He tried to cheat the system and got punished because of it. Not only did he probably waste more time than by waiting in traffic. He also severely damaged his bike, costing him a lot of money.
Not only that, but he pissed off a lot of other people as well in the process. Resulting in nobody even stopping to help him.
I sometimes think about it, wondering about what would’ve happened if I wasn’t there. Would somebody else have gone back to help him? I’ll never know.
Anyway, let this be a reminder to always be humble, do your work, don’t try to cut corners, and be a respectable human being. Because you’ll get hurt if you don’t.
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