What do your neighbors think?

[ScotteeD]

My neighbors just shake their heads and then take another drag off a cigarette everytime they see me on the bike or loading it into the car.

Are you going riding again? is all they can say.

They just don't understand the commitment that us cyclist have to our sport/hobby.

I will add that my neighbors wife is fond of my bike shorts, judging by the way her eyes wander. :D

Anybody elses neighbors just stare and shake their heads?

[Big_e]

My neighbors are still asleep when I load up on weekend mornings and by the time I return late afternoons, they've already left to their lunches and family get-togethers. The few times they see me, they seem mildy interested. My neighbor next door might like my bicycle hobby since he used to bicycle around the neighborhood with his kids a couple of years back and I gave him my old Huffy to give to his kids when I got my good bike. The neighbor across the street seems to have taken an interest in bicycling shorts too. She's always out watering the grass in the mornings as I load up the bike. :innocent:
Ernest

[jaxgtr]

The minister of my church lives across the street and I know his wife will turn or walk inside until I leave as I am wearing spandex shorts. I laugh.

[Thedoad]

My neighbors think it is cool and wave and ask how rides went when they see me coming in/going out for my commute or on weekends. Some ask where I am going and offer to drive me at night but I tell them not to worry. I'll be fine. Knock on wood.

[freeagent1970]

I ride in my parents small town and you would not beleive the people that hong and tell me to get off the street and on the sidewalk when im riding right next to the curb..back woods folks

[wayne pattee]

Last winter I jumped on my "winter bike" to run to the store and the neighbor lady was getting into her car and said to me "are you insane"?
I smiled and said "probably".

[mkadam68]

The looks on their faces when they find out I'm coming home from completing 100-miles in one day on a bike? Priceless. :D

[10 Wheels]

After riding 3,000 my neighbor Says, Wow you Look Great!

[flip18436572]

Some think I am nuts and others understand my lifestyle change and encourage me. I live in a small town, so I am sure I am talked about in good and bad ways quite often. Life goes on, and they can either embrace my change or fight it. I really don't care. I have in-laws that think I am completely nuts, when I ride my bike 14 miles to a family dinner. I am trying to create a bike trail on an old railroad bed, but an uncle of my wife bit my head off at a family dinner as it is a waste of time and money, and will cause trash to pile up in his yard. I lost the fight.

[George]

Since I started riding 2 years (almost) ago and 35# lighter, most of my neighbors, bought there own bikes.:D

[noteon]

Not only do my neighbors think it's cool (especially my taking my kids to preschool in a trailer), but I think I convinced the local UPS guy to get a folding bike and commute to work.

[atomship47]

i don't ask. they don't tell.

if it does happen to come up in a conversation, i get the "you're crazy" when i tell them where i rode to (i try not to tell them specifically how far.....most non-cyclists just don't get it). otoh, my family thinks its cool to brag about how far i ride. i try to tell them that, for a cyclist who doesn't compete, i ride a moderate number of miles every year (i'm on pace for about 5k miles this year).

[Mr. Beanz]

I'm actually kind of shy when it comes to rolling out the door. I feel like as if everyone is looking at me like I'm some kind of big kid on the bike (which I am!:D). But when I return, I feel so good I feel like doing the two arm salute used in the TDF at the finish line!:P

When my neighbor sees the bikes loaded onto my truck he comments on how he's like to ride. When asking about price of the bikes, his jaw drops when I tell him my wife's bike is a $3k roadie. Most people around here that don't ride think anything over $100 is CRRRRAAAAAAAZY:D

Once on the way home, I was trying to quietly slip back into the hood. A lady down the way saw me then raised her arms in the air and shouted," YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAH!" That was good feeling!:p

[nachomc]

I get a few looks. I don't care, I can't blame them. Some dork in spandex would make me look too. Luckily for me, one of my neighbors has become a good friend and is in to cycling, so I have a buddy on the street to make me stand out a little less :D

[Tom Stormcrowe]

I get looks, and questions now with gas prices going up......

[Da Tinker]

Like I care...

[racethenation]

Most of my neighbors just wave, but one of them stopped me yesterday to ask me how far I usually ride. She had seen me a about 4 miles from our house and wanted to know if I usually rode that far. When I told her that I usually ride 12-16 miles and sometimes as much as 30, she laughed, and then she relaized that I was serious. She just started shaking her head.:rolleyes:

[coasting]

I got whistled at.

[kenseth03]

My neighbor asked me "How much did that bike cost you?" When I told him he just said that I was crazy! He gave me the standard "I could get a bike for $100 at Wal-Mart" answer! I tried to explain the difference to him but he just didn't get it.
My neighbors are supportive of the riding, but they don't get the cycling clothing!

[CliftonGK1]

My upstairs neighbour (only one I really talk to) is pricing bikes so he can start riding to work. He said he felt like he ought to after finding out that I commute 30 miles r/t, and he only works 4 miles away. :)

[Richard_Rides]

All my neighbors are fat. They peek at me through the curtains, silently hoping I'll fail and cursing the fact that I'm showing results. My success threatens them in psychological ways too perverse to comprehend. They mouth pleasantries to me in person but with each pound I lose, they become a little more resentful...

I'm crushing souls, on a daily basis...

[kenseth03]

All my neighbors are fat. They peek at me through the curtains, silently hoping I'll fail and cursing the fact that I'm showing results. My success threatens them in psychological ways too perverse to comprehend. They mouth pleasantries to me in person but with each pound I lose, they become a little more resentful...

I'm crushing souls, on a daily basis...

Then I say, keep on crushing souls!:thumb:

[Condorita]

I don't go riding in my neighborhood, and I can't remember when I ever had my bike out of the van while at home.

[v1k1ng1001]

Back in PA, I lived near my dental hygienist who is an attractive older divorced woman. One day I ran into her on my bike while she was walking her dogs and we chatted for a few minutes. She looked at me like a raw piece of meat.

Right before I left town I stopped in for a check/up cleaning. She was dressed to the nines and shamelessly flirted with me the entire time. My favorite part of the exchange was:

Her: "Oh, have you seen Knocked Up? It's this movie about a bunch of young single guys who go out and try to find women to sleep with."

Me: "No, but it sounds like a typical graduate student weekend."

Her: "Is that true? Because I thought it was very cute. I would have taken any of them home with me."

[Spartan112]

I work/live on the campus of a prep school, most of my neighbors are very fit/athletic types (lots of college athletes) and they are all very impressed with what I've done to myself over the past year, I even get some positive comments regarding the lycra.

[PAJ3Cub]

I guess I'm lucky....I don't care what people think about me, especially if it has nothing to do with them and it has something to do personally for me. I never think less (or more) of anyone. Why should I worry if someone thinks differently of me. Enjoy life.

Best,
Brian

[donnamb]

Enough of my neighbors ride that no one looks twice.

[AndrewCO]

My immediate neighbors are both of a similar age to me. However, they are arrogant (#@&$(*@#&@$.... I typically hear "Oh &$#@, fatty is trying to be healthy" when I do see them.

[Ranger63]

I've got a 38 year old next door neighbor who's wife finally shamed him into getting back into shape by telling him" the guy next door (me) is in better shape than you've been sence we married"
The neighbors who are my age (65) are out of breath walking down to the mailbox.
If you think shouldering a cycle out the drive or onto the rack gets strange looks, try shouldering a kayak onto the roof rack while in a wetsuit, on a january day.:p

[donnamb]

My immediate neighbors are both of a similar age to me. However, they are arrogant (#@&$(*@#&@$.... I typically hear "Oh &$#@, fatty is trying to be healthy" when I do see them.
That is just disgusting. :notamused: What miserable excuses for human beings.

[v1k1ng1001]

try shouldering a kayak onto the roof rack while in a wetsuit, on a january day.:p

:beer: Kayaking rocks.

[starla]

I will add that my neighbors wife is fond of my bike shorts, judging by the way her eyes wander. :D



pixplsthx

kbye

[Harry Stone]

One of the benefits of getting older is not caring so much about what idiots think of you.

[Scummer]

There he goes again, riding his bike instead of cutting the grass :innocent:

[evblazer]

I got a little robot mower that tends to the grass so I have more time to ride and avoid getting in trouble with the locals for an unkept yard.
The neighbor with full view of my driveway and home entrance/exit put their house up for sale a few months ago and it hasn't sold. After reading this thread and thinking back to all the potential buyers I run into when I'm leaving on my bike or coming home after shopping with a loaded down xtracycle and I wonder if it is me :o

[lil brown bat]

If you think shouldering a cycle out the drive or onto the rack gets strange looks, try shouldering a kayak onto the roof rack while in a wetsuit, on a january day.:p

The only response it would get around here would be, "Wow, what's running?" I live in a whitewater town.

I think that a lot of people who are making a lifestyle change are quite self-conscious. Either they don't want to be noticed, and so tend to magnify every reaction (or non-reaction)...or they do want to be noticed ("Look at me! I'm riding my bike!!! I'm different than you couch potatoes!!!"), and so behave in ways that generate a reaction. If I got a reaction from my neighbors, it would be the kid next door (a downhill MTB racer) wanting to check out the ride, the old guy behind me challenging me to a race, or the six-year-old on the other side wanting to go for a ride.

[neilfein]

My downstairs neighbor thinks it's pretty cool; I tell him when I'll be away on tour. My other neighbors are actually friendlier, mostly because I'm outside much more since I started riding. I get a lot of friendly folks waving at me now.

[Pinyon]

The "Outdoor Lifestyle" is pretty common here. I don't get weird looks or anything like that. Even the neighbor that is a motor-only sport guy (multi-vehicle man: jet-ski, trail motorcycle, ski boat, jeep, RV for camping...), just waves. Sometimes they will ask me where I'm riding to, or something, and then they DO give me the "you are crazy" look. The neighbors with children sometimes say something about "well...you will regret not having children someday". Which is weird. Not just because we are unable to have kids, but because I see couples all over town every single day riding with their kids on training rides (usually dragging the kid in a trailer towing one of those kiddie-bike things).

I Do get weird looks when I'm more than 15-20 miles out on the prairie or up in the mountains (we live right on the edge). For the most part, the people from here are polite, though. They think that you are crazy, but they are polite. The only people that seem to have serious issues with it, are transplants from other places where men don't ride bicycles after they get their first driver's licence, and where it is socially acceptable to be deliberately rude and/or hostile to people that you don't know.

[lil brown bat]

Pinyon, my bro lives out your way -- Berthoud -- and I'd say cyclists are a common part of the landscape there. I always get a kick out of coming down the canyon from a day of skiing at Windora in late March and meeting bikers going up.

[Mattys]

My neighbors see my 300 parked in the driveway and know why I ride to work..no questions..besides I have a little community pressure..my immediate neighbor races weekly and trains for 2 Tris a summer, hes a big encouragemnet.