Oft-heard cycling phrases that get on your nerves

[Flick of the Elbow]

Just reading a review from roadcc -"There's nothing wrong with the Fizik Ardea saddle or the own-brand stem and bars but they feel a bit pedestrian" How the hell can a saddle and bars feel pedestrian ? Especially if there's nothing wrong with them ?

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Just reading a review from roadcc -"There's nothing wrong with the Fizik Ardea saddle or the own-brand stem and bars but they feel a bit pedestrian" How the hell can a saddle and bars feel pedestrian ? Especially if there's nothing wrong with them ?

Yeah indeed.
My pet hate version of that one is: "this frame climbs better than that one but the other one there in the corner is much more responsive."

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Don't you people carry a bit of kitchen roll in yer jersey pocket.

It is a weapon, not a convenience. To be used against wheelsuckers, bicycle journalists, utterers of above phrases and anyone wearing Assos.

 

[outlash]

It's interesting how an awful lot of these are inventions of the media and marketeers. Obviously these people have to make a living but a little bit more honesty would go a long way wouldn't it...


Tony.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Just reading a review from roadcc -"There's nothing wrong with the Fizik Ardea saddle or the own-brand stem and bars but they feel a bit pedestrian" How the hell can a saddle and bars feel pedestrian ? Especially if there's nothing wrong with them ?

Perfectly good usage:

adjective: pedestrian

1. 1.
   lacking inspiration or excitement; dull.
   "disenchantment with their pedestrian lives"
   synonyms: dull, plodding, boring, tedious, monotonous, uneventful, unremarkable, tiresome, wearisome, uninspired, uncreative, unimaginative, unexciting, uninteresting, lifeless, dry;
   unvarying, unvaried, repetitive, repetitious, routine, commonplace, average, workaday;
   ordinary, everyday, unoriginal, derivative, mediocre, run-of-the-mill, flat, prosaic, matter-of-fact, turgid, stodgy, mundane, humdrum;
   informalOK, so-so, bog-standard, vanilla, plain vanilla, nothing to write home about, not so hot, not up to much;
   informalcommon or garden;
   informalhalf-pie
   "the cup final was a pedestrian affair"
   antonyms: inspired, exciting

 

[Dan B]

How the hell can a saddle and bars feel pedestrian ?

Are they striped black and white, with orange flashing globes at each end?

 

[youngoldbloke]

^^^^^^

 

[Jody]

Rotors. We are in the UK and they are called discs. As in disc brakes.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Rotors. We are in the UK and they are called discs. As in disc brakes.

YES yes yes yes yes. Besides, even there they are not called rotor brakes.

 

[Dogtrousers]

"It's not a race"

Not so much annoying as puzzling. There seems to be a great desire to point out things that aren't races, and activities that aren't racing. I wonder why this is. Perhaps it is some kind of folk memory echoing from the pre-war days when road racing in Britain was banned - effectively by the cyclists' own organisation - time triallists were a secret society and the very idea of racing was not respectable?

It's not a race, you know.

 

[youngoldbloke]

"It's not a race"

Not so much annoying as puzzling. There seems to be a great desire to point out things that aren't races, and activities that aren't racing. I wonder why this is. Perhaps it is some kind of folk memory echoing from the pre-war days when road racing in Britain was banned - effectively by the cyclists' own organisation - time triallists were a secret society and the very idea of racing was not respectable?

It's not a race, you know.

But don't road races still need permissions? Would Wiggle get permission for a 1000 rider road race?

 

[Dogtrousers]

But don't road races still need permissions? Would Wiggle get permission for a 1000 rider road race?

I think road races have always needed permission.Before the war (approx) it was never even sought. I imagine Wiggle would need to get permission for any 1,000 rider event, even though "it's not a race you know", so the details of the paperwork required for that permission may differ.

I'm just curious why this particular fine distinction is always so assiduously made. As if the whole idea of racing were somehow infra dig. When I was a runner I used to participate in organised events and this fine distinction was never made on the equivalent internet groups. At least not that I remember. Whether an event was strictly a race or a fun run or whatever never bothered me, as the fast people had all gone home when I finished. I'm wondering whether there is a "non-racing" folk memory of sorts floating around cycling in the UK. I could be totally wrong, it may be a daft idea - just thinking aloud really.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Racing on the public highway is an offence. I don't know how it relates to cycles, but I wouldn't be surprised if the whole 'vehicle/not a motorised vehicle' thing didn't add some confusion to it all. So I expect as such a big thing is made of it that different permissions are needed to hold an actual race than to hold an event that doesn't involve racing. I have a vague recollection that there's also a requirement for a race to be sanctioned by the national body at some level while an event doesn't need to be. It definitely used to be for cars that you could hold a point to point event (basically a tarmac rally) without needing permission providing you weren't timing the competitors for speed. So they would set a course and remind everyone that they had to keep to a 30mph average (or whatever) and then add in problems, normally finding out your route, that had to be solved during your driving time (meaning that suddenly a 30mph average was a much tougher ask) this was legal because they weren't, by the letter of the law, racing.

 

[Tim Hall]

"It's not a race"

Not so much annoying as puzzling. There seems to be a great desire to point out things that aren't races, and activities that aren't racing. I wonder why this is. Perhaps it is some kind of folk memory echoing from the pre-war days when road racing in Britain was banned - effectively by the cyclists' own organisation - time triallists were a secret society and the very idea of racing was not respectable?

It's not a race, you know.

On an audax some years back, we were dithering at a junction. Was it left at triangle, or left further on? The instructions were unclear. A pair of riders who Knew The Way came zooming past. With a cry of "it's not a race, honest" one of the informal group I was in shot off to try and grab a wheel.

 

[Spoked Wheels]

It is a weapon, not a convenience. To be used against wheelsuckers, bicycle journalists, utterers of above phrases and anyone wearing Assos.

Do you have a problem with people wearing Assos?