Coincidence?

[al-fresco]

I have noticed that my fellow cyclists fall into 2 broad categories - there are the ones who acknowledge my greeting or respond to a friendly wave and then there are the, err, miserable gits.

Now, when I'm out on a 'proper' bike with dropped bars, wearing a cycling top and a helmet the other riders I meet tend to fall into the former category and are all smiles and waves. But - here's the thing - when I go for a bimble in to town on my ratty old MTB wearing a T-shirt and baseball cap most of the cyclists I meet are of the miserable git persuasion.

Is there a fair bit of bicycle snobbery out there?

 

[Fab Foodie]

Is there a fair bit of bicycle snobbery out there?

Yes. Ditch the MTB.

 

[sabian92]

I ride a road bike and lycra, and I very often see a club doing a ride near where I live. I've given the wave a few times and not once have they ackowledged me. I often meet proper roadies (i'm more a fat bloke with a road bike than a roadie ) on a narrow path along side a bridge where I live. Every time I stop....and every time I get ignored. I've even had them force me on to the wrong side of the path (and towards a very busy dual carriage way with a limit of 60mph) because they don't want to ride near the road.

Miserable bastards or what eh....

I don't bother now. If they want to be miserable sods I'm not going to waste my time bothering.

 

[Globalti]

You can find lots on the web about cycling tribe pecking order, here's an example: http://ilovetobikelots.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/tribes.html

 

[ianrauk]

There was a thread about this very subject last week.
One of many.

Not a case of snobbery at all.
Who cares if someone does or doesn't say hello just because you/they ride a bike.
Where is there a rule that one has to aknowledge every cyclist one passes?
It really isn't important.

Who are you to say they are all miserable gits?

Myself.
Sometimes I say hello to cyclists who say hello, sometimes I don't.
And if they don't like the fact I don't say hello, it's their problem not mine.
It's not a case of being miserable it's a case of if I can be arsed at the time or not

 

[LosingFocus]

*dons tin hat* INCOMING!

 

[black'n'yellow]

As above - don't worry about it. Me, I'll say hello to everyone I see - joggers, dog walkers, other cyclists. If they don't acknowledge, then it's their problem, not yours.

 

[Francesca]

Yes. Ditch the MTB.

oi!! nowt wrong with MTB.

 

[Sittingduck]

If you're happy and enjoying yourself, surely that's all that matters? I'm a miserable git 95% of the time but when I am on my bike and outside of the M25, I turn into a Care bear

 

[Francesca]

I have passed loads of cyclists , MTB's and road bikes and also club rides, and I have always acknowledged them with a waive , nod or hello - never been ignored once. However, you will ALWAYS get the odd miserable t**t who thinks he/she is better than everybody else - who gives a toss..let them get on with it. Enjoy your ride

 

[Boris Bajic]

I too detect some intra-communal snobbery in the cycling world and find it as unhealthy as it is unhelpful.

I abhor any form of discrimination, so this sort of thing is bound to get to me.

The worst snobbery comes from the new-to-cycling, team-lycra, carbo-fantastic brigade. They should appreciate that if there were a scale of cycling merit, they'd be at or near the bottom of the pond. Maybe even in the silt on the pond bed.

I feel slightly sorry, on the other hand, for commuters on folders. They are somehow excluded from any community feeling by their fellow riders. This is quite wrong and I disapprove thoroughly. Even though they are the worst possible type of so-called cyclist.

Then there are the mid-20s, baggy-shorted, tousled-hair MTB mob.... They are as bad as all the rest, if not worse. Probably as bad as each other and at the same time significantly worse. Certainly no better than they ought to be.

Some are close to them in moral and social delinquency. Others might even outstrip them. It is all very, very sad.

So... Accepting (as I now quite suddenly do) that there is a place for snobbery in cycling and that it is just and right and proper, I place all the above below plankton and only slightly above fixter-hipsters on their brakeless, skip-find, death traps with chains in primary colours.

I write the above to inform and elucidate, not to provoke a reaction.

I do not include myself (on roadbike, MTB or fixie) in any of the groups on whom I pour justified scorn.

 

[Sittingduck]

Perhaps the miserable git found his / her much loved pet rabbit dead in it's hutch that very morning and went out on the bike to get away from everything and zone out. Contemplating the sad demise of Mr floppy (ears), might not make them particularly receptive to the complete stranger who was waving at them....

Just a thought

 

[Nearly there]

Ive only ever been blanked once funnily enough whilst on my Mtb but it didnt bother me

 

[al-fresco]

Yes. Ditch the MTB.

I'm trying but nobody will nick it

 

[Fab Foodie]

oi!! nowt wrong with MTB.

Just analysing the data ....
Most roadies are miserable cnuts too ... as are most pedestrians, most motorists, most people in fact... no wait, Gospel singers ... Gospel singers are nearly always happy and wave a lot, and so do the Royals for that matter.