Feels like a stigma to what I ride..

[mustang1]

I really like flat bar bikes: so easy to ride and no pretensions. Jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, and you're on a roll.

My raison d'etre was riding up a steep and long hill on my carrera low-rent flat bar bike and overtaking all the drop-bar road bikes. THey were in a group. But we all just laughed. They found it hilarious with me in my jeans ridinig a heavy "rubbish" bike and beating them, and I joined in with the laughter.

This pretentiousness comes from one's ego. Drop the ego. If others have ego, that's up to them. I have no ego. Although, that could explain many other problems I have.

 

[Gunk]

I really like flat bar bikes: so easy to ride and no pretensions. Jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, and you're on a roll.

that’s how I ride all my bikes I’ve never seen the need for Lycra

 

[johnnyb47]

To the original poster.
It doesn't matter what bike you ride. If you enjoy your hybrid, you get get out there and enjoy it. I have a fairly decent modern road bike that i use on most rides but I also have an old Peugeot Equipe from the early 80s. that only comes out on special occasions which i absolutely love.
At the end of the day cycling is diverse to suit many different uses, and whether i see a roadie or a Raleigh shopper i will always say hello to the cyclist

 

[alex_cycles]

I ride mostly road bike but sometimes hybrid or gravel bike. I wave at everyone. It annoys me when people don't wave back or say anything. I noticed particularly in lockdown 1 that fewer people were waving back. I took that to mean that there were more 'new' people on the road who were not confident enough to lift their hand off the bars and wave back. Some people said hello. Some people blank you.

It seems rude, but they don't owe me anything so I shouldn't let it bother me. I couldn't give a flying fork what they think of me. I prefer waving to talking as I'm usually working quite hard and won't have much spare breath. Even when I see someone I realise I know, I rarely recognise them until I've gone past, so it's too late for names. No idea how anyone can assess the quality of someone else's bike in the split second pass (nor why they'd care if they could). I can usually tell from a distance if it's drop bar or straight, but if I'm going all-out on the tri-bars, peripheral vision isn't that great.

 

[Rusty Nails]

that’s how I ride all my bikes I’ve never seen the need for Lycra

I'm not going to spend all that money to ride my fancy carbon gravel bike in jeans and trainers.

Nothing less than Aldi lycra for me.

Standards, dear boy, standards.

 

[Drago]

Aldi? You spendthrift! I slip on my budgie smugglers and boot polish my legs black.

 

[KnittyNorah]

Just being on a bike is enough, in the UK, to single us out - at least for that moment - as all being, whatever our age, colour, mode of dress, size, sex or background, part of a very special minority, and no amount of equipment snobbery - or reverse snobbery for that matter - will change that.

 

[kayakerles]

It's easier to look up and wave i.e. lift your hand up off the bars on a hybrid or MTB as you're naturally in that upright position anyway…

That’s a great point, Twilkes!

 

[DCBassman]

at about 15mph, not fast at all.

Yes, it is. Certainly for me. If my overall average breaks double figures, it's time for wild celebrations!

 

[mustang1]

that’s how I ride all my bikes I’ve never seen the need for Lycra

A caveat for me though: I do ride with lycra but when i'm on the hybrd, I'll wear lycra but either baggy shorts or jeans over them. The reason is my jeans tend to get torn up around the saddle area and wearing bike-shorts lowers the amount of wear and tear on the jeans.

 

[sasquath]

Hi I have a road bike and a hybrid bike, most people I see on my rides tend to be on road bikes, I myself ride a road bike most of the time, however I do own a hybrid bike and enjoy riding it and want to ride it more however it feels like theressome sort of stigma is attached to it like being a complete beginner, novice, just an occasional cyclist.

sometimes it just feels nice to be on a flat bar, sit up and have a steady ride.

Also I have noticed other cyclists seem to acknowledge you more when passing on a road bikes but when on a hybrid I think they turn there noses up a bit more and blanc you a bit.

As said many times before : It's all in your head!
And even if not, do you really care what some snob thinks? Enjoy whatever you ride and don't give a toss about what someone you don't even know and probably won't ever see again thinks about your ride.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

There's quite a significant geographical context at play in these perceptions too I think. If you cycle past people on random styles of bikes in a fairly busy town centre where there are loads of bikes then you won't even think about acknowledging any of them for a second, but if you were to pass the exact same random selection of bikes and cyclists randomly dotted along a more remote road, most of us will let on / nod / wave at all of them. People who are not wavers will tend not to wave at any of them. A few may be selective based on type of cyclist they see, but I'd say that's not a significant factor.
Something about the more remote setting seems to lend itself to cyclists being more friendly towards each other, so the feeling of being ignored / not good enough might be a setting thing to an extent.

Touring bikes gets the most attention imho.

Outside of recumbent and tandems and sticking to the 4 or 5 ish more common types, I'd be inclined to agree. When I rode road bikes exclusively I was almost never approached by anyone showing any interest. On a tourer now I often get asked where I'm going, where I've come from, and maybe a little way down the list, what bike it is or what equipment. I asked a policeman for directions recently and he had me stood there for 20 minutes answering his questions about touring bikes, he aspired to give it a go clearly. He was a mountain biker, incidentally.
Gravel bike riders must also get a few questions these days, being very much the "in vogue" thing.

 

[sasquath]

But the truth is, in general probably that most people "roadies" included, don't care either way, or even recognise that there are "sides".

Couldn't agree more.

 

[T4tomo]

Who else gives e bike riders the finger?

Absolutely, unless its cunning drop bar ebike and I don't spot it in time, and then i curse my self for days at having acknowledged there existence, even though I know i will buy one someday when my knees have gone.

I only acknowledge fellow curly bar people and spit on MTBer's.

On a more serious note, more unusual bikes do get more attention and I get more looks / nods / questions at cafe's with my vintage steel than carbon generally. Although I chap did walk past my Bianchi the other day and turn to his partner and say "look, that's the colour bike I want". She seemed more interested in sorted their toddler out though, so I hope he wasn't relying on her buying him one...

 

[Sticky Green]

To the original poster.
It doesn't matter what bike you ride. If you enjoy your hybrid, you get get out there and enjoy it. I have a fairly decent modern road bike that i use on most rides but I also have an old Peugeot Equipe from the early 80s. that only comes out on special occasions which i absolutely love.
At the end of the day cycling is diverse to suit many different uses, and whether i see a roadie or a Raleigh shopper i will always say hello to the cyclist

I had a peugeot equipe back in the middle 80s. I loved that bike and I'm currently looking for a new one to restore. Back then I loved the frame, but would dream of upgrading the wheels and groupset, but couldn't afford it. I now intend to fulfil that dream by restoring an equipe with a campagnolo groupset. Just got to find the bike, not too many about.