On the open road it might not be so bad, but put MAMILs in an urban environment and all hell can break loose.

OPINION: I'm a road rager.

Yep. Me.

For the first time ever, I let rip.

Actually, it was more like road whining or maybe just road speaking.

I thought I was road raging because I was loud. I may have been yelling, but it was meant to be instructional.

So call me a road rager. I don't care. They deserved it.

My road-rage expletives were done primarily to save a MAMIL from extinction. (MAMIL = middle aged man in lycra).

But I lost my cool. And I shouldn't have. I think I may have even said f^&$.

As in f^&$ off you cycling f^&$twit!!

And you know who I'm talking about. MAMILs – those idiots on bikes all dressed in pretty colours and shiny lycra trying to look like all those Olympic cyclists on steroids.

Is it just me or do they look posy riding around in their poncey colours?

Are they pretending to be Lance Armstrong (really?) or some drug-free competitive cyclist.

Yeah righto.

My road rage encounter started when a MAMIL and his three mates decided the road rules didn't apply to them.

The bozo on a bike was drifting into my lane while talking to his MAMIL mates. All three were side-by-side as they drifted and weaved in and out of my lane – the lane with a 300HP sports car up their wazoo.

Now, normally I'd let the MAMIL and his mates go. I wouldn't say anything. I'd just think cyclists have a death wish and sooner or later they'll get their wish.

Only I don't want it to be me granting them their fast-lane visit to the cycling hereafter.

So when MAMIL and his mates started drifting into my lane I thought, this time I'm going to try to save them from themselves.

As they pulled up alongside me at the lights I wound my window down and calmly asked if they noticed the white line on the cycling lane behind me.

That started a diatribe about their human rights as cyclists, the ozone later and carbon emissions, Lance Armstrong (really?), the state of the nation and how Jacinda likes bikes and cycleways and how I should shove my 300HP car up my f^&$%^$ass.

I was just a little offended.

Here I was going out of my way to help MAMILs stay alive when the lycra pack turned on me to accuse me of putting cyclists in danger.

"It wasn't me riding three abreast bozo!" I said. But probably not in those words.

As I replayed the scene over and over later, I wondered if I should have let these MAMILs continue to be a danger to themselves and everyone else on the roads.

My road rage really set a line in the bike-stand. I was once a strong advocate for cyclists, but not any more.

Every time I read debate on the cyclist in cities issue its car drivers who have the most to learn. They are the ones creating the danger to cyclists.

I disagree. Cyclists are a danger. Many of them routinely ignore road rules and make safe city driving difficult.

Let me speak for other drivers. The streets of Hamilton are not your raceway. They are not your local tourist viewing platform. They are not your chat-room. They are not your short-cut. They are not your fun-parlour. They are not yours alone. Hamilton streets are for everyone to get from one place to another.

Hamilton roads are not safe and cyclists and MAMILs are making them more dangerous by their juvenile bike riding habits.

The inconvenient truth is Hamilton's roads are more cluttered and congested than ever.

And with more subdivisions planned and more new residents bringing cars to the city – just wait till Peacocke is developed – Hamilton will be even less cycle-friendly.

So here's the deal cyclists: If you want to survive Hamilton's mean streets you're going to have to compromise a little.

Maybe you could follow the road rules and maybe you could do a course in defensive riding and maybe you could stop the bozos on bikes brigade thinking that has you protesting about cycle helmets.

What colour is the lycra-tinted sky in your world buddy?

And yes I know, electric bikes are all the rage and people are getting excited about new green cycle-power. It's fashionable and they are fun to ride.

But we're not on the easy streets of Hamilton in the 1970s any more, when you could find a park and ride a bike around town and be safe.

I know my attempt at a road-side intervention probably sounded like a road rage. And you know what?

I liked it.

MAMILs can kiss my car-driving ass.