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

[Roadhump]

Have been cycling for over 20 years, with a break of a few years a while back. I can't wear shades as I am visually challenged and need my varifocals at all times. My love of beer and consequent largish midriff mean I would look like a freak in lycra, but I do wear practical clothing for cycling (Ron Hills or shorts, tee shirt underneath baggy cycling top and a pair of cheap cycling shoes from Aldi), and I ride a hybrid that is more of a flat bar road bike, fitted with mudguards, a rack and a bag so I can choose whether or not to carry stuff round with me.

I considered joining the local club but after looking at the website felt I would not fit in unless I had a proper road bike and all the kit, so I enjoy 20 - 30 mile rides in the countryside a few times a week, occasionally with a mate but usually alone, and at this time of year enjoy stopping at a countryside / canalside pub or cafe for half an hour, or finding a remote spot and reading a chapter or so of a novel.

I understand the OP's feelings, and when I see the lycra clad, shade wearing, carbon fibre riding speed merchants, I often wonder if I am a real cyclist or just a sub-species....wish I could get rid of that complex!!

 

[Roadhump]

On the flipside I get more people shouting WAaaankeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr at me for no apparent reason when cycling (but if the cap fits ....) .....

I receive similar derision, but the favourite word around here to abuse cyclists seems to be Diiiccckkkkheeeaaaddddd!!! I just can't see what benefit people get from shouting out of car windows to upset people who are tootling along minding their own business.

 

[yello]

wish I could get rid of that complex!!

Yes, you ought. Because your cycling experiences sound ideal to me. The envy of many I'm sure.

Cycling's what you make it (if you've any sense), be it gentle countryside afternoon rides or MAMIL meets. Ain't no rules.

 

[Saluki]

Wait until you come across them in the middle of no where with a problem with their bike that they cant fix, the attitude drastically changes

So true. We've fixed a puncture or two for golfers on the side of the road before now. Why don't they take a repair kit with them?

 

[glasgowcyclist]

So true. We've fixed a puncture or two for golfers on the side of the road before now. Why don't they take a repair kit with them?

Too used to having a caddie?

GC

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I absolutely don't and won't prefer it as a minority sport. My other sport is inline skating. It was big in the 90s, it was tolerably sized during most of the 2000s (the decade I really got into it) and now every single bit of skating news[*] I get is about a manufacturer withdrawing from the market, an event that's stopped running, a shop that's closed down, a track under threat of redevelopment, a race that won't be run again next year ... how am I supposed to be happier that a pursuit that has given me so much enjoyment is each year harder for anyone else to get into (and harder even for me to carry on doing) than it had been the previous year?

[*] not counting rollerderby, which is an entirely separate phenomenon

Let me be clear. I couldn't care less how may millions of people take up cycling, it's none of my business what people do. I personally preferred the better community spirit when it was more of a niche sport.

 

[Saluki]

Too used to having a caddie?

GC

You might have something there.
We met a couple of sky clones, one with an upside down bike and a perplexed expression, who didn't know how to take a wheel off. Hubster took the wheel off, had the tyre off in seconds and then spent a couple of mins locating the hole and fixing the puncture. The Sky-clones asked where he went to learn how to do that Hubster said "watch and learn, watch and learn". Hubster fixed the puncture, put the tyre back on and left them too it. He figured that they could put the wheel back on and pump it up properly. They may still be there for all I know.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Sportifs are the place to meet the fashion cowboys, top range bike and kit with the owners sitting around talking the talk. Then follow them up the road and listen to the tortured screams from their Dura Ace / Record drive trains as they clunk and crunch the chain up and down the cassette because they've been, "Too busy to have the bike serviced". One twiddle with the adjuster and ten seconds later you would have it running sweet as a nut.

Then as Saluki says above, the childishly pathetic attempts to get a wheel out of the frame. Now everybody started out knowing nothing, there's nothing wrong with that. But by the time you get to owning a decent bike you should at least know the basics.

 

[screenman]

I am sitting here using a computer, does not mean I know how to fix it should it go wrong. Also I see no reason why people should not buy an expensive bike if that is their choice, it has nothing to do with the rest of us.

Sounds lik moaning for the sake of it too me.

 

[Brandane]

I am sitting here using a computer, does not mean I know how to fix it should it go wrong. Also I see no reason why people should not buy an expensive bike if that is their choice, it has nothing to do with the rest of us.

Sounds lik moaning for the sake of it too me.

I don't see anyone moaning about it; just making an observation. The observation being that if they weren't so clueless they would be able to enjoy the bike as it was intended. I would rather ride my sweetly tuned 4 year old Tiagra shod Tricross than some £4k bling machine that doesn't change gear smoothly, just because a barrel adjuster needs to take up some slack in a cable!

 

[RedRider]

Isn't thinking something was better before it was popular a hipster trait?

I was always ambivalent about my favourite and o so obscure bands having a hit record! (btw, how comes you chose that user name if you don't mind me asking?)

 

[TVC]

I've noted a few of my neighbours taking up the road bike thing this season. The same ones that used to gawp at me on Sunday mornings five years ago as I set off in my lycra, helmet and shades on my over shiny bike.
Some of this new flush will stick with cycling when they get the benefits, and the rest will tuck their bikes away when they realise it's difficult to ride up a hill like Wiggo.

I've not decided exactly what I feel about the new army of weekend warriors, but perhaps I prefered it when most people thought I was a bit weird for staying sober on a Saturday to get up early on Sunday.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

So true. We've fixed a puncture or two for golfers on the side of the road before now. Why don't they take a repair kit with them?

I fixed the chain on a roadies bike the other day by using the quick link I carry around with me just a shame he doesn't carry one the numpty and instead of carrying the chain link remover in a multi-tool bollocks that he was carrying that was totally useless he could carry a proper chain link tool like the one I used to remove the rest of the broken link on his chain

 

[RedRider]

I really get where FF is comng from but eyach day I try to get over it. Having said that, I vow here and now to never ride a sportive. Good luck to those who do tho. (That's enough fence-sitting, it's starting to hurt my erse.

 

[Wafer]

(btw, how comes you chose that user name if you don't mind me asking?)

Nick name I picked up many years ago playing cricket, I guess I was thinner back then or something..... It's what most of my friends know me as!