No more hippies and explorers?

[Racing roadkill]

The nobbers shout louder, so they appear to be a greater percentage than they actually are. I'm just stopping for a coffee, on an imperial ton ride, I've been passing all sorts of cyclists so far, only one was a nobber, and he very nearly ended up as a 'Roadkill's sticker'. The prat pulled straight in front of me from a side road. It's a shame that the tourist cyclists, the mud pluggers, and the social bimblers are getting sidelined ( to an extent ) by the gel swallowing / CADENCE POWWWWWERRRRR, look at my Rapha / FPKW, brigade. The media need to shine a light into other corners, and stop concentrating on the nobbers so much.

 

[Hill Wimp]

I'm a cyclist end of.

I have to agree with most of you. What actually annoys me about this article is the writer has not bothered to do his homework. To me he has just sat down and spewed out what's in his mind and sent it in.

I like good journalism, i don't care where it's broadcast or written, i just want the journalist to have researched his subject.

Lets face it he certainly hasn't bothered to visit CC and see the huge variety of cyclists on here and CC is a very easy find on Google.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The nobbers shout louder, so they appear to be a greater percentage than they actually are..

Actually I reckon it's because there is a bigger profit margin to be made from the high end stuff, so branding and advertising are all about ensnaring these mythical beasts. It's not the nobbers who shout louder. It's the nobber-hunters, charging around halooing in search of a nobber to make some money from.

So if, like Mr Marriage, you don't actually do any cycling, you could get the impression that this is the only kind of cyclist left. Of course, once you actually go out on your bike, join a ride, join a club, or just tootle around, you realise this is not the case.

 

[steveindenmark]

"I don't like being looked down on". No one's looking down on you, mate. No one's even looking at you.

Of course they are looking at me

 

[Globalti]

Agreed with a couple of other posts above; there are just as many eccentrics bumbling around on an odd assortment of bikes. It's just that many of the "new" cyclists are roadie-obsessed. With good reason too because the bikes are great to ride and the gear is excellent. And yes.... there's a feeling that the writer is unhappy because he is no longer seen as an oddity.

My neighbour has taken up road riding as a way of getting fit. On a ride on Sunday he claimed that he is still not enjoying cycling. He started using Strava from day 1 of his new pursuit; I wonder if he needs to slow down and take some time to enjoy the environment and the craic?

 

[Dogtrousers]

No one's looking down on you @steveindenmark Looking askance at you ... maybe. Staring at you in disbelief ... possibly.

 

[jonny jeez]

I have touring cyclists coming by my house all summer. I jump out and grab them and they have coffee and cake on my terrace. They talk about the kit, the journey, the bikes. But they dont talk about Strava.

Ive never looked at Strava. If I had to think about racing I would get rid of my bikes. There are still a lot of us who dont mind wearing t shirts and shorts when riding a bike. But if people want to race, thats fine by me. Ive never been looked down by racing cyclists because I dont have the right gear or a helmet. At the top of Sa Collabra, in Majorca, with my Koga World Traveller and 4 panniers, I was a local hero/nutter for 5 minutes. The racing guys couldnt believe I had made it to the top.

I dont care what you ride as long as you ride and dont ask me to race you.

Mind you, I do have a full Carbon, Di2, Ultegra road bike in the loft. It has never been out on the road. It will look great with panniers on it

I use strava every time I cycle. I don't race, don't plan to and expect I never shall.

Why do you feel you have to be interested in racing, to use strava?

 

[steveindenmark]

From the article

"And the chat is about bikes and times, Strava segments".

 

[Fab Foodie]

I empathised with the article when I read it this morning.
Certainly cycling has moved on, some is good, some is OK (maybe a bit is bad). BUT then we have an event like the Abingdon Cycle Festival last Sunday and you realise that actually it's mostly good these days. BUT the majority of press, magazines and meedja stories focus their attention where the money is and that is the pseudo-racing sportive strava peeps so that part of cycling is heavily promoted and the more individualistic and mundane does not. Plenty people tour and Audax on any given weekend but that barely gets mentioned. A few people still manage to do silly events on dubious equipment but that's rarely heard about. Much of the adventuring has pretty much been done. Add to the fact that modern travel kit is fantastic, reliable and readily available, then anyone and everyone is having their own adventures in their own way. That leaves the minority angle and I agree, it was good to be in the minority, the outsider, the rebel without a clue, crazy people that did 'crazy things' on dodgy bicycles, but on reflection I'd much prefer to live in a world where more people rode bicycles than didn't and we have access to kit that 'just works'. I guess its progress!

 

[Bollo]

I just ........ don't care.

 

[mjr]

I just ........ don't care.

No, it's "I just....... don't know."

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Tbg6C_dLk

 

[Fab Foodie]

I just ........ don't care.

Stop sitting on the fence ....

 

[Fab Foodie]

For balance here is the Evans Windsor Sportive the day before ....

Dammit I wasn't the only Brompton rider either :-(

Btw .... As I don't wear or even own a helmet, I couldn't enter :-)

 

[Aravis]

In the late 1980s there was a big increase in the number of people cycling. Almost exclusively the newbies were riding mountain bikes, then considered new and sexy. If you went to a bike shop you would have struggled to find anything else. I remember reading an article which I think summed up the prevailing attitude at the time: There may still be a few diehard traditionalists around, shaking their fillings loose on 10-speed tourers. Probably not an exact quote, but it well illustrates how I was often made to feel. Had I written an article on the state of recreational cycling at the time I would probably have sounded very much like the guy from the Guardian.

If more people are cycling that can't be anything other than good, can it? I don't feel the issues the writer mentions; when I go out nowadays I encounter all types, and most of them nod or wave. I couldn't look much less like a pseudo racer, and if anyone thinks I'm not worthy of a wave I can smile to myself knowing that when they look at their Strava flybys, they'll find that my ride was almost certainly bigger than theirs. I thought the writer's swipe at Strava seemed particularly misplaced; I've only recently started using it, and it adds a lot of fun whilst detracting nothing. If people use it in what is for them an unhelpful way, that is not Strava's fault.

 

[Dec66]

Why do you feel you have to be interested in racing, to use strava?

Precisely. If I wanted to race (which I don't as I'm too old, too slow, and too tight to buy the sort of bike required), I'd get a racing licence and do it. I'd know how I did by the results board; first, last, or somewhere in between. I don't need Strava to tell me that, and indeed it can't.

But while I'm out putting the hard yards in, it's nice to know where you can improve, and indeed if you are improving, which is where Strava and their ilk come in.

If I'm pootling about with the kids, or on holiday, the Strava stays off.