Cycling these days .... rise of the clones?

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jayonabike

Powered by caffeine & whisky
Location
Hertfordshire
Have you lot listened to yourselves? Your worse than the people your bitching about. Your so far up your own arses you need to ram a toothbrush up your backside to clean your teeth.

It's bad enough with the 'them and us' attitude from car drivers let alone from cyclists as well.
Just ride your f***ing bike FFS.
 

w00hoo_kent

One of the 64K
It strange how the culture of cycling differs between countries; I work most weeks the Netherlands and have never seen anyone in a team kit yor in anything resembling Lycra. Cycling here is a means of getting around and everyone is on "sit up and beg" bikes, riding in the rain with an umbrella and texting one-handed without looking where they are going. They can do this because it isn't a perpetual race and they cruise along at about, I guess, 8-10mph. But they rule the road like we in the UK can only dream about.

Stay for a weekend, you'll see the Lycra and helmets come out as they head for they countryside.
 

John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
Most people start any new endeavour by emulating someone else, because not all of us are blessed with boundless self confidence; as time goes on, most will develop their own way of doing things.

Jeez, even if some of these folk *are* terrible people, I'd rather encounter them on a bike than in their Audis.
 

John the Monkey

Frivolous Cyclist
Location
Crewe
Stay for a weekend, you'll see the Lycra and helmets come out as they head for they countryside.
When we toured Belgium, the number of "sport" riders seemed similar to the number I see in Cheshire - it's just that there are more folk in jeans &c around them all. We were passed by some very quick groups in team kit &c, and passed groups of oaps who'd obviously turned out for a potter to the next town.

My supposition is that the number of people riding for sport is similar (per capita of population) but there are more "utility" riders around them than you'd see in most places in the UK.
 

Brandane

Legendary Member
Have you lot listened to yourselves? Your worse than the people your bitching about. Your so far up your own arses you need to ram a toothbrush up your backside to clean your teeth.

It's bad enough with the 'them and us' attitude from car drivers let alone from cyclists as well.
Just ride your f***ing bike FFS.
Have you listened to yourself? This discussion is mostly about the fact that some clones are nobbers. The same clones probably see me riding without all the kit and think that I am the nobber. So what? I couldn't give a flier about their opinion any more than they care about mine.
Cycling is such a diverse sport/pastime/necessity that there are bound to be differences of opinion.
Forget them and us; most of us are both (drivers and cyclists). There is no such thing as a fluffy love-in cycling community, we are too diverse. That is a good thing IMHO..
 

Longshot

Senior Member
Location
Surrey
With all due respect to the opening poster,
Cycling is growing - Hooray!
It's almost the new Golf, people spending all day in silly clothing.

Now on a Sunday morning there are cyclewaynekers everywhere, like marauding groups of 2 wheeled Piranhas moving en-masse. But here's the thing, they're all identikit, clones, like they have all fallen out of the same pattern book ... and they're so terribly earnest.

3 things have brought me to this point:

The other morning I arrived earlier than usual for the Freewheeling run to see Abingdon's other club depart for their Sunday constitutional. In some ways it was heartening to see 20 plus cyclists but saddening to see every one in pristine matching club kit, obligatory helmet, 'cycling shades' and latest big brand plastic bikes. Several of them waved at me from across the street and I had no idea who they were, each one a pea in a pod, each identical.

The TdF is much the same, it's impossible apart from the numbers or a facial close-up to figure out who is who, you only see their mouths and chins, they could be anyone out there.

My BIL has recently started cycling for fun and fitness, in Surrey on a hybrid and the one thing that puts him of cycling is being identified with the earnest pseudo-racer, lycra-clad Strava chasing MAMILs, and I'm starting to see his point. Mrs FF has a similar view.



Now, I'm speaking from a point of hypocrisy here, as to the layman I probably confer to the stereotype except for no helmet, plastic bike or designer shades, but somehow I don't feel I belong to the modern Sportive/Pro-emulating herd for whom cycling is about stats and the latest gizmo.
No, I guess my heart lies more with the everyday commuting and shopping cyclist, those that frequent the CTC, the Audax fraternity, our Freewheeling group and the diverse bunch that are The Fridays. People that have grown-up with cycling in their blood, for whom cycling is so much more than burning-up the local club-run, the latest gear and associated bragging rights.

I may not have managed to express my thoughts clearly, but the upshot is that I'm increasingly finding that the rise of the clone-cyclists not only puts other people off, it's starting to work on me .....


One of the most narrow minded and depressing posts I've read on this forum and that's saying something.

One of the joys of cycling is about freedom - that applies to everyone not just those that you have an affinity with.
 
OP
OP
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
Have you listened to yourself? This discussion is mostly about the fact that some clones are nobbers. The same clones probably see me riding without all the kit and think that I am the nobber. So what? I couldn't give a flier about their opinion any more than they care about mine.
Cycling is such a diverse sport/pastime/necessity that there are bound to be differences of opinion.
Forget them and us; most of us are both (drivers and cyclists). There is no such thing as a fluffy love-in cycling community, we are too diverse. That is a good thing IMHO..
Actually I'd hoped it was a bit more subtle than that, hence I wasn't sure whether I'd explained myself well enough.
There are nobbers in all parts of life, it's NOT about nobbers.
It's not about one kind of cyclist vs another. All cycling is good.

But it is about the fact that cycling is booming and possibly the biggest and most visible part to me and much of the public I suspect is the 'weekend warrior' or Cycling plus' man to grab at a shorthand. There are positive connotations in this, but to an increasing number it seems there are also some negative effects too.
10 years ago if I told a someone I was a cyclist, they simply thought me either odd or too broke to run a car. 25 years ago commuting in London they would have thought 'nutter' and now they probably think MAMIL.
Does this put non-cyclists off cycling?
Is all the marketing and media aimed at a very narrow spectrum of the cycling fraternity?
Will there be a change of direction?
Does it matter?

It's not about snobbery, it's not about nobbers and it's not about the bike ... but it is about how the growth in cycling is perceived by ourselves and others and whether it has an impact.
 
OP
OP
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
With all due respect to the opening poster,



One of the most narrow minded and depressing posts I've read on this forum and that's saying something.

One of the joys of cycling is about freedom - that applies to everyone not just those that you have an affinity with.

I agree.

It was posed to stimulate debate and it has, maybe not quite as expected but maybe it was badly posed.
It was also posted on a forum where my views on cycling are (hopefully) well established among the majority here. Hence I felt comfortable to raise the issue as I find others see it.
Cycling is a broad church, many things to many people, but the public persona of cycling right now is seen by many as a very narrow stereotypical view. Think about what that might mean, that's all.
 
OP
OP
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
I don't care what people wear, what they ride, or how good they are. Good manners always count with me. As a general observation, it seems that the more blinged-up people are, the ruder they tend to be, whether on the Chelsea Embankment or Richmond Park. They don't look very happy either. Maybe that's just their daft sunglasses.
I think this is along the lines of what I'm getting at, or at least some of the vibe that I'm picking-up from others. Whether it's true or perception I don't know. Cycling does seem to be more 'macho' these days ... maybe it's time I took up basket weaving :thumbsup:
 

welsh dragon

Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll pass.
As far as the media is concerned, halfords (whatever you think of them) has possibly the best advertisement that anyone could wish for and encompasses every kind of cyclist there is. You have the lycra clad club cyclist, being overtaken by the very overweight man and a woman on a hybrid wearing a pink helmet, followed by sunday riders, office workers and professors all, giving the same hand signals, to hard core MTB riders covered in mud, to kids screaming and overtaking everyone.

That is what cycling is all about. The very diverse range of people and equipment that you can see on the roads and in the parks. Its a brilliant commercial. I doubt very much that this will change in the future. Yes some bike companies will always try the hard sell of the most super duper equipment and the best fittest cyclists, but in the end people will always cycle for they're own reasons, and in they're own way, riding the bikes they like, and wearing the clothes that they feel comfortable in, and doing things they're own way. Thank god.
 

Learnincurve

Senior Member
Location
Chesterfield
From someone who's just getting back into it's point of view the only other kind of cyclist that bothers me are those that think that because they have more expensive bikes and kit then it makes them better than me and therefore have more rights to the road/path. I had one guy get ever so confused when he saw the girl in ordinary clothing on the same specialized as him. A special mention goes to the air force guy yesterday who saw a girl going a reasonable pace on gravel and then thundered past 3 inches from my elbow only to slow right down again when he thought I couldn't see him, I could, he was going slightly slower than me, and I had nearly caught up with him when I got to the place I wished to be.
 

Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
As far as the media is concerned, halfords (whatever you think of them) has possibly the best advertisement that anyone could wish for and encompasses every kind of cyclist there is. You have the lycra clad club cyclist, being overtaken by the very overweight man and a woman on a hybrid wearing a pink helmet, followed by sunday riders, office workers and professors all, giving the same hand signals, to hard core MTB riders covered in mud, to kids screaming and overtaking everyone.

That is what cycling is all about. The very diverse range of people and equipment that you can see on the roads and in the parks. Its a brilliant commercial. I doubt very much that this will change in the future. Yes some bike companies will always try the hard sell of the most super duper equipment and the best fittest cyclists, but in the end people will always cycle for they're own reasons, and in they're own way, riding the bikes they like, and wearing the clothes that they feel comfortable in, and doing things they're own way. Thank god.

What that little sh*t licking the ice cream with the smug grin on her face after causing a massive pile up, oh yeah, GREAT advert!! :whistle:
 
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