mickle
innit
- Location
- 53.933606, -1.076131
Right then, Ms Mickle rides over 2000 miles per year for fitness and leesure, always on her own. She has a very sweet bike which has inherited some nice parts as I upgraded my bikes, Hope hubs, XTR mech, Pace rigid carbon forks and the like. However she resolutely refuses to accept that she is a 'cyclist'.
I on the other hand, to my eternal shame, ride less than a third of her mileage. Most of it on an (whisper it) electric bike. Part of this I can blame on my job, part of it I can blame on my dodgy hips. I used to do the high mileage, would think nothing of riding 150 miles in December when I was younger and have always worked in the cycling industry. I spend my days talking about bikes, surrounded by bikes and thinking of ways to get more people riding bikes. I am a Cyclist. No doubts at all, in fact if I were to describe myself I would probably list 'cyclist' right near the top of the list just after 'Mountain Biker' (though I havent been off road for more than a year! Jeez). I think if I was confined to a wheelchair I would still think of myself as a cyclist, but what does the word mean?
To be fair she has no interest in the bike apart from its ability to be a bike, she cant fix a p******* or even get her head around a front mech but she is a proper rider, a roulleur, day in day out, in all kinds of weather and all year round. She'll get up at six on a Sunday to ride 30 miles yet she doesn't consider herself a cyclist. Maybe I havent provided a good example for her, I suppose she thinks that being a cyclist means being obsessed like me!
I reckon that with a very few exceptions its fair to say that we members of CC are 'cyclists'. Its not a badge we get when we go over a certain mileage, I guess it's an attitude.
What got me thinking was that she stopped off at a friend's house recently and their next door nieghbour (a 'cyclist') went nuts over her bike. She was quite chuffed but didnt know what the hell he was talking about! She said to me afterwards rather sheepishly 'Is my bike good'? And I'm like 'Hello!?! Its proper lush! Look at it love, its got a complete SRP bolt kit in green ferchristsakes!
I on the other hand, to my eternal shame, ride less than a third of her mileage. Most of it on an (whisper it) electric bike. Part of this I can blame on my job, part of it I can blame on my dodgy hips. I used to do the high mileage, would think nothing of riding 150 miles in December when I was younger and have always worked in the cycling industry. I spend my days talking about bikes, surrounded by bikes and thinking of ways to get more people riding bikes. I am a Cyclist. No doubts at all, in fact if I were to describe myself I would probably list 'cyclist' right near the top of the list just after 'Mountain Biker' (though I havent been off road for more than a year! Jeez). I think if I was confined to a wheelchair I would still think of myself as a cyclist, but what does the word mean?
To be fair she has no interest in the bike apart from its ability to be a bike, she cant fix a p******* or even get her head around a front mech but she is a proper rider, a roulleur, day in day out, in all kinds of weather and all year round. She'll get up at six on a Sunday to ride 30 miles yet she doesn't consider herself a cyclist. Maybe I havent provided a good example for her, I suppose she thinks that being a cyclist means being obsessed like me!
I reckon that with a very few exceptions its fair to say that we members of CC are 'cyclists'. Its not a badge we get when we go over a certain mileage, I guess it's an attitude.
What got me thinking was that she stopped off at a friend's house recently and their next door nieghbour (a 'cyclist') went nuts over her bike. She was quite chuffed but didnt know what the hell he was talking about! She said to me afterwards rather sheepishly 'Is my bike good'? And I'm like 'Hello!?! Its proper lush! Look at it love, its got a complete SRP bolt kit in green ferchristsakes!