Cyclists v POBs

[Muddyfox]

If you cycle, you're a cyclist.

Thank God for that ! ... I have a mountain bike so i joined an MTB forum but i dont really do all the hardcore downhill - XC - Enduro's etc etc so i dont really feel like i fit in very well so i joined Bike Radar as they have lots of different catergories of cycling and guess what ? same thing, i dont commute to work - i dont do road racing or touring i dont have a recumbant ? so i come to cycle chat (which incidentally is a very good read) but again i dont really know what category i fit into ? I ride some forest tracks - i ride around the lanes in our lovely Devon countryside and sometimes i ride into the local town and watch the POB's - Chavs or whatever else you might call them ride their BMX Bikes and Trials Bikes and they are massively entertaining

Maybe i should campaign for a Leisure Cyclist Section

It's good to know that im a cyclist though

Simon

 

[cannondale boy]

Problem with all cyclists is that you will have the good the bad and the ugly. You will have a cyclist that will obey the rules of the road, you will have the carbon cyclist who is kitted out but still runs the red light. Last but not least you will have the nutter cyclist, who jumps on to pavements, rides without any lights in the dark, and rides with soft tyres that havent been looked at since the day the bike was bought. It's the bad and the ugly that make us cyclists a bad name.

 

[col]

So are you a POB?

As I said, if you cycle, you're a cyclist. This POB business is tribal defensive nonsense.

Why would i be a pob?I tried to answer a question,and POB is something i heard used on here,never heard it before i came on here.
But then you seem to just want to be awkward.
If we cycle we are cyclists? good deduction

 

[BentMikey]

no helmet,

And this bit is outrageous!!! What does wearing a helmet do for your cycling credibility? Some people choose to, and some people don't.

 

[Dave5N]

Thank God for that ! ... I have a mountain bike so i joined an MTB forum but i dont really do all the hardcore downhill - XC - Enduro's etc etc so i dont really feel like i fit in very well so i joined Bike Radar as they have lots of different catergories of cycling and guess what ? same thing, i dont commute to work - i dont do road racing or touring i dont have a recumbant ? so i come to cycle chat (which incidentally is a very good read) but again i dont really know what category i fit into ? I ride some forest tracks - i ride around the lanes in our lovely Devon countryside and sometimes i ride into the local town and watch the POB's - Chavs or whatever else you might call them ride their BMX Bikes and Trials Bikes and they are massively entertaining

Maybe i should campaign for a Leisure Cyclist Section

It's good to know that im a cyclist though

Simon

Good point - a lot of these lads have bike handling skills most of us could only dream of.

 

[Dave5N]

I hate all this POB stuff. It boils down to: "you're not like me, I look down on you, I'll label you because that helps me dehumanise you and continue to reinforce my fragile sense of superiority".

Lazy stereotypes.

 

[gbb]

POB...its simple enough to me.
Generally, a person who has no interest in cycling, other than the need to get from A to B on two wheels....without much regard for their own safety, or anyone elses.
Importantly, because they have no interest, they are more likely to have no lights and are less likely to obey the rules of the road.

These are only generalisations, but most of us will find some truth in them.

What bothers some of us...myself included, is that these are the very kind of cyclists that infuriate drivers and pedestrians....and we all suffer as a result. Thats why the term is used in a derogatory way by some....because they damage our image.

Like every walk in life, there are good and bad.

Its just a generalisation. We all do it..all the time. Sometimes we get proven wrong, but not often.

 

[tdr1nka]

Until I read the cc notice on abbreviations I always read POB as 'prat on bike', close enough I think?
To me POB's range from a 10 rider pellaton of local hoodie yoof, stinking of Weed, in the dark, cycling up the Old Kent Rd on the wrong side of the road and straight at me, to a fixie rider, with the 'name' bag, shorts, shoes and sunnies, talking on a mobile while negotiating the Goldsmiths one way system, going west on the A2.
I met the guy coming up on a right hand turn, dawdling on his phone in the middle of the road while I was being pursued(ish) by a skip lorry that was going to make me into a nice emblem on it's grill if I had to slow or stop.

So I shout to the cyclist to 'look out' and zip past him to which he stops dead, reciprecates my overture in the vulgar and stands in the road carrying on his call!
And then stuck behind this guy is the skip lorry who gives him a damn good blast of it's horns scaring the cyclist half to death and making him get on the pavement.

Prats On Bikes for me, it's non discriminating to boot!

T x

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

What do we call POBs then?

 

[bonj2]

Anyone riding a bike is a cyclist. I don't like POB because it's snobbery, pure and simple. There are just good cyclists and irresponsible ones, and everything in between.

I agree. The problem I have with the term 'pob' is that it's only been invented because some cyclists don't want to call such people 'cyclists' despite the fact that they are, simply because they want to distance themselves from them and not think of themselves as part of the same demographic.

 

[gambatte]

POB? snobbery? Not for me.

For me POB is an insulting terminology. But sometimes we need an insulting term. Its not snobbery. The guy who was riding along the pavement in the dark, unlit, on his phone who dropped off the kerb, without looking half a bike length infront of my cars wing - POB

I'm kind of with tdr1nka its not pedestrian, but my definition rhymes with the alternative for Richard...

 

[gbb]

I agree. The problem I have with the term 'pob' is that it's only been invented because some cyclists don't want to call such people 'cyclists' despite the fact that they are, simply because they want to distance themselves from them and not think of themselves as part of the same demographic.

But Bonj, some will work on the following principle. If you consider yourself a serious cyclist and want to be recognised as such, its natural to want to
dissacociate disassociate disassociate distance yourself from the opposite...ie POBs.

If you (we) didnt call them pobs, it would just be something else...the point would be the same.

 

[gambatte]

I don't want to set myself up in some 'elite' bracket. I'm someone who cycles. I enjoy cycling. I wouldn't say I'm 'a cyclist' 'cos I'm so much more than that.

As I said, when I use POB, the accent is much more on the 'P' than the other 2 letters.

 

[Will1985]

Thanks guys - there wasn't an intention to define some posters; I've just been looking for answers to my own questions and seeing if there are any similar views....and it appears that there are across several posts. Like a lot of people, I first heard the term on C+ last year, but increasingly find myself using it when I suddenly come across unlit cyclists with poor road sense.

In some senses, this isn't one for commuting as louts on MTBs and BMXs hanging around in packs has been mentioned, but I didn't feel it was soapbox material either.

About the helmet BentMikey - perhaps I should have put "badly fitted helmet (optional)"!!

 

[col]

I hate all this POB stuff. It boils down to: "you're not like me, I look down on you, I'll label you because that helps me dehumanise you and continue to reinforce my fragile sense of superiority".

Lazy stereotypes.

Here here ya pob? the minority are just dangerous ignorant crap cyclists,is that better?