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Cyclists call for boycott of custom car shop after owner films himself ‘rolling coal’ at bike rider

The motorist claimed the response to the incident was an example of “cancel culture”

Cyclists in north Texas have called for the boycott of a custom car shop after a truck driver, alleged to be the owner of the business, filmed himself blowing black smoke from his exhaust, known as ‘rolling coal’, at a bike rider.

Kevin Soucie, the owner of Turn 5 Fabrication, posted the video to the local Facebook group ‘McKinney Uncensored’, though it has since been removed or made private.

The footage shows the driver, who filmed the incident on his phone, saying “Oh my God, a cyclist”, before accelerating to pass and covering the rider in thick plumes of black smoke from the truck’s exhaust.

The process, which is known as ‘rolling coal’, originated on the truck racing scene in the United States. Some motorists now illegally modify their vehicles to produce the same effect.

Megan Tyler, a cyclist and car enthusiast from the area, posted a screen recording of the video in the North Texas Cycling group. Tyler, who says she recognised Soucie’s voice from the video, called on members of the group to boycott the motorist’s business.

A number of cyclists have since posted reviews of the custom car shop on Google, though some patrons responded by defending Soucie’s alleged actions and ridiculing cyclists.

“Owner posts videos of himself endangering cyclist on the road,” one of the reviews read. “Not someone I’d recommend working with.”

“If the owner acts anything like his business does, I highly do not recommend,” another reviewer noted.

> Texas teen who ran over six cyclists charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon 

An evasive Soucie initially told local newspaper the Star-Telegram that he was “vaguely familiar” with the video but didn’t “know all the details”. When asked if he was the driver in the video, the business owner refused to comment. 

However, Soucie, who posted a photo on Facebook after the incident with the caption ‘I used to want to be a cyclist – but then I remembered I wasn’t gay’, later admitted that he was the driver behind the wheel, writing: “There's one person I'd like to apologise to, and it's the guy who got coal rolled on him.

“It was something stupid. If you are reading this, I would like to apologise to you in person. You're the only person who deserves an apology.”

He subsequently posted a video claiming that the response to the incident, which has included death threats, was an attempt to “cancel me, tarnish the shop and attack me, unprovoked.”

The motorist, who said he was “trying to move this forward in a positive direction”, has offered to build bike racks for the area and to fix broken frames for local cyclists.

> “Get smoked boys”: Driver filmed ‘rolling coal’ at cyclists 

In another video, however, Soucie attempted to downplay the incident, claiming that “I, myself, I ride bikes and I’ve dealt with people who have done stuff like this. And you know what? I’ve always just kind of laughed it off.

“It’s not like I hit the guy or swerved toward the guy,” he said. “I got over a lane because he was taking up a lane. That’s what cyclists do. But I understand that what I did was not cool and it was kind of a bad reflection of my company.”

He said that the attempt to boycott his business, and the negative feedback he has since received, is an example of cancel culture, “and that’s really not cool, either.”

Soucie’s actions aren’t the first time ‘rolling coal’ has hit the headlines in Texas. In September 2021, a sixteen-year-old crashed into a group of six cyclists in Waller, 250 miles south of McKinney, after allegedly rolling coal at them in a Ford F-250 pick-up truck. 

The teenager was charged in November with six counts of felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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16 comments

Avatar
The _Kaner | 1 year ago
4 likes

I've had an Irish Boy Racer 'smoke' me in his Passat (haha all 140bhp).
Apparently its a 'thing' to have your lame diesel car 'tuned' for 'pops and bangs' and 'smoke'.
It was also a very close pass at speed on an 80kph limit road with bends, and limited visibility.
As he's a local it's not hard to find where he parks his car...ah well...cold dishes and all that karma...

Avatar
BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 1 year ago
2 likes

this Kevin Soucie sounds like a bit of a snowflake. He obviously doesn't see the irony in this statement: (that death threats were an attempt to) . . . . .  “cancel me, tarnish the shop and attack me, unprovoked.”

 

Avatar
cmedred | 1 year ago
7 likes

What the cyclist involved should do is file an assault charge. He had a noxious substance intentionally sprayed into his path in such a way that he could not avoid breathing it. It's up there with someone with Covid spitting in your face. Clearly an assault. 

Avatar
Steve K | 1 year ago
3 likes

I had a car and a van roll coal over me (is that the right phrasing) over the weekend.

Ok - I didn't.  They just had filthy and clearly illegal exhausts.  It was very unpleasant - and I just don't get why someone would do it deliberately.

Avatar
P3t3 replied to Steve K | 1 year ago
4 likes

I've had a London Cab type taxi driver do this to me in the past definitely deliberate but no idea why it was done as I didn't have any interaction with the driver before or afterwards. He put it into neutral and revved it up as he came past.

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
19 likes
Quote:

He subsequently posted a video claiming that the response to the incident, which has included death threats, was an attempt to “cancel me, tarnish the shop and attack me, unprovoked.”

How is it unprovoked if it's a direct response to him being an obnoxious idiot on the road? What was unprovoked was his attack on the cyclist using his illegally modified motor vehicle.

I'm not sure where he was going with his "gay" statement about cyclists - did he mean it as a slur? Was his assault due to his sexuality being somehow threatened by a cyclist even though many cyclists are not gay?

I wouldn't want to use any business that promoted that kind of behaviour, so I'm glad that people flag up his business with their reviews. He didn't have to publish the video, so he's just reaping the rewards of his own stupidity.

Avatar
Ric_Stern_RST replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
6 likes

Almost certainly he meant the "gay" statement as a slur. I've had a few encounters where people have called me gay because i was wearing lycra. In one particular incident while cycling through Northenden, just south of Manchester and while being stopped at traffic lights - i copped a pretty bad beating by a group of 4 or 5 males because i was wearing lycra and was gay (because i was wearing lycra). 

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hawkinspeter replied to Ric_Stern_RST | 1 year ago
2 likes
Ric_Stern_RST wrote:

Almost certainly he meant the "gay" statement as a slur. I've had a few encounters where people have called me gay because i was wearing lycra. In one particular incident while cycling through Northenden, just south of Manchester and while being stopped at traffic lights - i copped a pretty bad beating by a group of 4 or 5 males because i was wearing lycra and was gay (because i was wearing lycra). 

Sounds like a good reason for not stopping at traffic lights

Avatar
andystow replied to Ric_Stern_RST | 1 year ago
4 likes
Ric_Stern_RST wrote:

Almost certainly he meant the "gay" statement as a slur. I've had a few encounters where people have called me gay because i was wearing lycra. In one particular incident while cycling through Northenden, just south of Manchester and while being stopped at traffic lights - i copped a pretty bad beating by a group of 4 or 5 males because i was wearing lycra and was gay (because i was wearing lycra). 

Oddly, they seldom call these lycra-wearing guys "gay." At least not to their faces.
 

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nosferatu1001 replied to Ric_Stern_RST | 1 year ago
4 likes

Damn, that's terrible. 
I don't understand peoples hatred of Lycra. It's just appropriate kit for sport. 

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Mungecrundle replied to nosferatu1001 | 1 year ago
6 likes

Those sort of comments are often made* by people who see no contradiction in sitting on the sofa nursing a huge beer belly whilst wearing a football shirt.

*I have no actual evidence of this beyond my own prejudice. Or do I?

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Rendel Harris replied to Ric_Stern_RST | 1 year ago
7 likes
Ric_Stern_RST wrote:

Almost certainly he meant the "gay" statement as a slur. 

A memorable encounter on Battersea Bridge last year when I asked a scaffold lorry driver to stop hooting a learner driver who'd stalled on the corner, word for word as I wrote it straight down on my 'phone to make sure I remembered it:

Me: Mate, you're not helping anyone, you're just making them more nervous.
Him: Was I fucking talking to you, you poof? Fuck off you fucking queer -
Me: I'm just saying, stop hooting, you're not helping -
Him: Fuck off you poof or I'll fucking do you, look at you in your fucking gay fucking lycra with your big dick bulging out...

He stopped here, somewhat nonplussed at what he'd said, as was I. Unable to think of a suitable response, I blew him a kiss and rolled on my merry way. Possibly the lamest insult I've ever received - or the biggest compliment?!
 

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nosferatu1001 replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
4 likes

Suggests some repressed feelings there! Decent compliment I'd say.,,

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
2 likes

What gets me about these van / scaffolding drivers (and I've mentioned this to them) when they make the 'gay' slur is - well you are all nicely snug, three abreast in your cab, thighs rubbing and touching - and you accuse me of being 'gay'. At which point I cycle off and leave them in the traffic usually to a volley of further abuse. 

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eburtthebike | 1 year ago
18 likes

“I, myself, I ride bikes and I’ve dealt with people who have done stuff like this. And you know what? I’ve always just kind of laughed it off."

House!  The good old tired excuses aren't working any more, and I have my suspicions that any cyclist would do that to another cyclist.  As for complaining that his business is being affected, well, he owns it and if that is the way he treats total strangers, I wouldn't feel confident paying him to do anything.

Rolling coal is a premeditated assault, since the vehicle has to be modified to produce that effect; illegal in some states.  Good to see our American cousins making this pathetic person pay for his arrogance and stupidity.

Avatar
nosferatu1001 replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
8 likes

Agreed on the above

its not "unprovoked".  It's "I assaulted someone and am now complaining that people, don't want to give a criminal business "

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