General Cycling Discussion - Is it possible to love to ride without all the drama and cliques?

I'll explain.

I love being on my bike. Fast, slow, flat, path, street, gravel, whatever. I love that feeling. You know what I mean.

I don't want to learn the ins and outs of road racing with a team. I don't want to follow this tour or that race or learn the jargon or become a mechanic or have to justify my rack or my helmet or my god-)@#ned choice of shirt or socks or shoes. I don't want to have to embrace a pejorative term just to try to take the power away from the jerks who created it in the first place.

Reading some threads here and in other places, talking to "that type" of jerk*** LBS employees, these things tend to make me feel smaller than a gnat's testicles (do gnats even have testicles?). I feel like I'm not good enough to deign to share cyberspace, much less a roadway, with the bad-ass elite cyclists, etc. Me and my bike should stick to riding up and down my street at 9 miles an hour or something.

But I *love* being on the bike. I truly do. It is all I want to do, 24/7. I wish I weighed less and was in better shape and the weather was 68 & partly cloudy every single day so I could ride from dawn until dusk. I want to feel that all the time, and I don't care what rider moved into what place in some race in Europe or Denver or frigging Timbuktu. I don't want to join a cult of some cyclist or a brand or a certain riding philosophy. I don't want to do any labeling or be labeled. I don't want to be a snob or feel forced to join a clique just to be accepted as a rider. I just want to ride.

Example: I ride pretty much on a bike path, an "MUP" if we're being jargon-y. Couple that with the rack, my street clothes and the quality of my bike, and I am literally the lowest form of life on Bikeforums. Of course there are those who don't judge...loads of good people around this place, and I appreciate every one of you. But the bad can really wear on a person, and today it's wearing on me.

Second example: I broke a bar end yesterday on mile 12 of a 30 mile ride. The epoxy holding the bar to the mount crumbled like dust, so I guess I didn't break it, it was just crappy. I rode to the closest bike shop to try to buy a replacement, and the guy made me feel *this* big for wanting bar ends. "Bar ends? I guess. I mean, nobody uses those anymore. If you feel you need them though, we only have these." Same exact ones I had, turns out. They seemed solid enough, and cheap, so I bought 'em. BUT... Hey jerkface bikeshop guy: they help me. I've gone as far as I can dialing in my seat/stem/bar position, etc. This bike fits as good as it is going to, and bar ends give me a couple other options as to where I can put my hands. Just sell them to me without the frigging judgmental comments, okay?

Add to that the 'tude you get when you don't know certain things, and man...cycling is like hardcore anime fandom or something. Just EXTRAORDINARY levels of judgment and disdain get heaped on new riders.

I'm probably not even expressing this very well. Does anyone understand what I am trying to say (poorly)?

You enjoy riding your bike, that's what it's about. :)

I think that I do.

Bottom line, you have no control over the behavior of others. They're going to think and do whatever they do and you can't change them. You can, however, control your own actions. I think that it's best to just blow off all of the people who upset you. Don't respond in any way. Sometimes that's easier to say than it is to do.

Your doing great.
Ride safe.

do what you want, but it sounds like you want the world to instantly change for you. Get over yourself, ride the way you want and ignore the rest.

Ride a little faster, the chip on your shoulder should fall off.

Well I don't follow pro cycling, to me it is two totally different worlds between watching something and doing it. There are hardly any adults around me who bicycle and the closest bike shop is over 35 miles away (I don't have a lot of peer pressure to be a Lance Armstrong look-a-like). After hardly touching a bike for 8 years, I restarted a few years ago on a Huffy roadbike, wearing regular cloths. Gradually I adopted additional things that made sense to me (a non-dept store roadbike, a helmet, padded bike shorts, a bright shirt). I tried the devices that strap your foot to the pedals (for about a dozen rides) and decided to go with flatform pedals (I've never tried clipless). I just started using some weightlifting half-finger gloves that I found on clearance for $1, and I think I like wearing gloves. I know I would be considered "not-with-it" by some who are more seriously into cycling, but the non-cycling public that see me riding probably think I'm a bicycle geek.

My advice is to not worry about conforming to all the rules of the "elite" bike culture, but to take from it what is useful (and interesting) to you personally.

Is it possible to love to ride without all the drama and cliques?

Yes, focus more on riding and less on the internet circus that is bikeforums.com

As much as your post kind of comes across as a whine-fest, I find myself agreeing with what you are saying, to some extent.

Just as with anything else, there are a lot of tools who ride bikes, but there are some good folks out there, as well. Most everyone has been talked down to in a specialty store at some time or another (not just bike shops).

Enjoy what you love about cycling and ignore the haters.

Smile when you ride.....

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh187/10wheels/vv.jpg

Do you need to a hug? HTFU. do what you want. No one really cares that much.

We like riding.

I don't care how you look.

Cheers!

East Hill

Keepin' it real Stark 23! Good on ya! Keep having fun.

Hang in there. I've gotten grief at the local bike shop for looking for parts that are a generation or two behind the trend. I like to work on bikes. Always have from the time I was 6. If you don't, fine.

The bike that gets ridden most in my collection is my $25.00 Schwinn ATB. Got rear rack & milk crate for muh stuff. Works good with regular street clothes. My road bike & mountain bike have clipless pedals. Different bikes for different rides.

As your ass hardened from riding, so shall your self-esteem. Soon, you shall be looking down at everyone else cuz they are doing it wrong. Works for me.

How do you think most of the "hardcore" cyclists got started in the sport?

A: By ignoring the haters.

Thanks for the advice, folks. I know I was awfully whiny there, and not really expressing what I wanted to without the whine. I guess it was a combination of a few bad experiences over the last few days, me letting them get to me and the damn rain today. Damn you rain!

I will take the good advice and throw out the bad. Ride my ride, right? Who cares if I dress like a moron and use gear the LBS guys think is dumb. Hell they sold it to me, right? So tomorrow the sun will be out, and I will spend the morning cleaning the bike and the afternoon riding it.

10 Wheels, that pic is *awesome* squared. A picture is worth a thousand words indeed.

Thanks for the advice, folks. I know I was awfully whiny there, and not really expressing what I wanted to without the whine. I guess it was a combination of a few bad experiences over the last few days, me letting them get to me and the damn rain today. Damn you rain!

I will take the good advice and throw out the bad. Ride my ride, right? Who cares if I dress like a moron and use gear the LBS guys think is dumb. Hell they sold it to me, right? So tomorrow the sun will be out, and I will spend the morning cleaning the bike and the afternoon riding it.

10 Wheels, that pic is *awesome* squared. A picture is worth a thousand words indeed.

You know most of us started out simply with some bike we just thought we wanted. We didn’t care what we wore or where we went just as long as the bike did what we wanted it to do. Racks or baskets or trailers were either bought or made and we didn’t care what others thought and we didn’t ask.

But the fact that you found this forum indicates you either want more information or more communication from other cyclists. It is there the infection starts. Someone who has been riding for a lot longer than you doing the things you are doing, utility, sport, recreation or whatever will make a suggestion that you try and it works. Maybe your bike breaks down or gets ripped off and you start thinking about another one and you ask one of these people and that suggestion works. Then you decide you want to ride farther, or tour or even Mountain Bike and the N+1 bug gets you.

If you stick around long enough someone newer than you will ask a question you have already had experience with and you will look back and think, “I remember when bike riding was that simple to me.” By then you will have bike shorts and shoes and your favorite tires and saddle.

Maybe you should just ignore this post and think about it in a year or two. Don’t ask how I know.

Ride my ride, right? Who cares if I ...

EXACTLY!!! :thumb:

If someone were to snub my ride, I'd just smile ...

because I can only ride one bike or trike at a time, as I have several of each back at home. :innocent:

Of course it is possible to love riding without the cliques. And having N+1 whatever isn't absolutely necessary. But the shorts make it more comfortble, the shoes make it more efficient, a better bike rides better. I started out just wanting to ride my pos bike to and from work and go on little rides with my gf who got gifted a nice new Trek (i hate her for it sometimes). Now I'm the one wrenching on everything (badly at times, but can't really hurt the Big Blue Roadbeast), getting the clipless shoes, and saving every little bit of money I can for a bike that will be nicer to ride than a steel/aluminum mashup from the 80's. Seriously, any nice new bike will weigh like 10 lbs less than this thing. But, it's gotten me started, and the more you learn, the more you want.

My opinion on detractors of riding a bicycle - regardless of being a clique-freak or a Granny from the Beverley Hillbillies?

Read my title under my avatar.

If the LBS gives you grief, take your business elsewhere and tell them why.
And stay out of the Advocacy and Safety forum if you don't want drama.

It really sounds to me that you have more issue with your shop than with other riders. Street cloths on bikes are ok if you're comfortable and the seams give you no chaffing issues. Once you start riding more than 20-25 miles per ride there's alot to be said for some Performance Century Shorts. I ride with whomever I choose. I wear what I like.

It is somewhat coming from inside you and I don't mean that in a harsh way. In your second post you say, 'so what if I dress like a moron'. You are guilty of judging yourself harshly in that statement. We all have some of it in us, humans evolved that way. We find things we have in common with others and then exclude others- it doesn't matter what group of people, everyone does it to some extent.

I say, ride it, and avoid forums or consulting the internet about it. Even if they don't drive you nuts, they will make you develop a hate for the whole cycling scene - like a club that you wouldn't want to be in. Just ride and enjoy yourself.

Assuming you are positioned reasonably well on a bike that fits you, you can ignore everything else. Need pointers on something, just go to the library and look at any of the published books on it. Most of what made sense was already written by the mid-1980's anyway. Good ones that come to mind are LeMond's, Richard Ballantine's older editions, and Forester's Effective Cycling.

There is a cycling life that is one of a more simple lifestyle, with rides that are both fun and stimulating, but which give you time to appreciate your environment. Then there is the testosterone-charged world of the performance and competition enthusiasts (who tend to dominate forums, websites and bike shops). Choose what you will, but choose wisely for what matters most to you. There is no law that says you can't just ride solo if you're not a joiner. I'm not, and I prefer to ride as I do. Riding is my meditation time. It's what keeps me sane and alive, because, I really don't need to make my cycling another source of stress.

I agree that forums like this do nothing to help my cycling. And I have to remember not to let them hurt my attitude toward cycling.

I ride with a large social club on the weekends, and we have none of the bizarre and elitist cliqu-ish stuff that (so far) I have found only online. Arguing about what you shouldn't wear? Sorry, I've never seen it in real life. Our club has riders in matching outfits down to the socks, and riders in t-shirts. And nobody seems to care. There are a few that follow racing, but they don't push it down the throats of those who don't.

With that said - I do look online when I need to learn something. Maintenance issues mostly. There are many good web sites like Sheldon Brown, Park Tool, Bicycle Tutor, etc. And when I'm still not sure, I come here and usually find no agreement about the right way to do anything. This helps me to walk into the bike shop and ask intelligent questions, ask for exactly what I need. So I follow the Mechanics forum here pretty well, but the rest of them? Not so much.

Who cares if I dress like a moron and use gear the LBS guys think is dumb.

You should've seen me this afternoon. I rode singletrack in my street clothes: tennis shoes, blue jeans, cotton t-shirt, button-down, Carhardt sport shirt. Right there I probably looked moronic, but it gets worse (or better :thumb:). I rode my errand-running bike instead of my mountain-bike, on singletrack. Picture me in my street clothes riding a rigid Rockhopper set up with rearview mirror, flat pedals, rear rack, and fenders. Oh, and i had a nice, big tail light on the back -- one of those wide, LED lights with five bulbs in it.

And it gets worse (or better :thumb:). Three of the kids that were with me, and myself too, started out overdressed. After the first hill climb, I ended up with three sweatshirts, one windbreaker, and one Carhardt shirt bungee-corded to my rear rack.

I know I looked totally wrong for singletrack.

We had a great time though, so it was all good. Two of the kids had never been on singletrack before. I fear they may be hooked.

Anyway, ride the bike, have fun, wear whatever you like. My experience is that most bikers will respect that your out there riding. Ignore the few that give you attitude.

Don't worry, even though you may feel out of place, you'll still be much cooler than any recumbent rider! :P

Frankly I'm SHOCKED!!












I didn't know they raced in Timbuktu...

Bike riding was never simple for me; it always seemed like I was missing important things I could do to make it suck less.

Then I got an xtracycle, and that stopped being true. ;)

Had an awesome ride today to cap off the week. Two, actually, 5 miles in the morning and 23 miles in the late afternoon. I smiled my face off the whole time...except for the cramps in mile 21. But even that passed.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/48461/bike_06-06-09_lock12.jpg

Tomorrow looks like another beautiful day. May just have to ice my knee and get out there again. :thumb:

Bike riding was never simple for me; it always seemed like I was missing important things I could do to make it suck less.

Then I got an xtracycle, and that stopped being true. ;)

Had to Google that. Pretty cool. Room for cargo, groceries, dead bodies, whatever you need to carry. :)

I wonder if I helped trigger the OP's outpouring of frustration. He posted to the Clydesdale/Athena forum about his bike, and I wrote that a poster to the Touring Forum rode a Schwinn Sidewinder from the East Coast to Texas.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/poorguyonabike

I added that as low-end bikes go the Sidewinder is not bad. This was in response to the OP's deprecation of his ride.

My apologies to the OP. I certainly didn't mean to 'dis' his bike, and I'm sorry my post came across that way. If he ever finds himself in suburban Philadelphia, I'd be happy to meet him for a ride.

BTW, I just had bar-ends installed yesterday, and my shop thinks they are great.

There's always a harder way to do anything. While you don't have to pay any attention to the groups, clubs, cliques or whatever, it does make sense to follow time-proven advice. I mean, sure, you can ride across the continent on any bike, in any clothes, in any riding position... but it certainly might make your adventure harder than it has to be.

I use my xtracycle for everything. I wear my Carhart shorts or pants depending on the weather,t-shirt,surplus bdu shirt and steel toe work shoes.

The only bike specific clothing that I own:
my helmet,
lighted reflective vest,
gloves and dork bands.

Just ride your bike, your way.

BTW that is me and mine in my avatar

I ride for fun, relaxation, and exercise. I read the forums to learn more about technique, maintenance, health, etc. Based on what I read there are a few guys that would be fun to ride with and a bunch that would ruin my day. The bad apples may be decent in person, but you can't tell by the stuff they post.

Luckily there are a few LBS in the area so I can afford to be choosy. There's one that is really well-stocked, great layout, lot's of interesting stuff. The staff turned me off so badly on my one visit there that I will never go back. I'd go there if it was the only alternative and I needed something, but that's the only reason.

Biking is an individual sport. Enjoy it the way YOU want to enjoy it. Nice people turn into jerks on the Internet. Never take any of their negative comments personally and I guarantee you'll be happier.

BTW, I agree with everything in the OP.

The answer is no.

I wonder if I helped trigger the OP's outpouring of frustration. He posted to the Clydesdale/Athena forum about his bike, and I wrote that a poster to the Touring Forum rode a Schwinn Sidewinder from the East Coast to Texas.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/poorguyonabike

I added that as low-end bikes go the Sidewinder is not bad. This was in response to the OP's deprecation of his ride.

My apologies to the OP. I certainly didn't mean to 'dis' his bike, and I'm sorry my post came across that way. If he ever finds himself in suburban Philadelphia, I'd be happy to meet him for a ride.

BTW, I just had bar-ends installed yesterday, and my shop thinks they are great.

Oh no, please don't think it was that comment. Not at all. In fact, you made you look at my clunker in a new light. I'm considering an "in for a penny, in for a pound" strategy with the Sidewinder. I'm thinking of taking it to a guy I talked to an a good little LBS and looking at new drivetrain options. Just something more reliable and maybe a little speedier if possible. He told me it could be a waste of money, but he also said he would take a look and gimme a straight answer. I had a good feeling about the guy, so we'll see.

You did NOT set off my whining! I promise. In fact I seek out your posts to re-affirm the fact that most people around here have a healthy, fun and infectious attitude about riding. You do good work 'round these parts! ;)

We sell bar ends. If it makes the bike more comfortable for the person, and they'll ride the bike more, who could complain about that?

BTW: I bookmarked "Made of Awesome", cuz it's full of awesome.

Many bike shops focus on bikes for people interested in racing or serious mountain biking. Which makes good business sense; there is is a lot more profit to be made from a $4000 bike than from a $500 bike...and the person who buys the $4000 bike is also more likely to sell it in a couple of years and buy a new $4000 bike.

The person who buys the $500 bike may come in for a rack. :)

But...if you're not interested in that type of riding, those bikes are wrong for you, and the LBS employee who doesn't understand this is wrong, too.

As you bike more and figure out more what works for you and what doesn't, you'll be more confident in the choices you've made, and bike shop employees who suggest things clearly inappropriate for your needs won't come off as arrogant, but as uninformed.

Oh no, please don't think it was that comment. Not at all. In fact, you made you look at my clunker in a new light. I'm considering an "in for a penny, in for a pound" strategy with the Sidewinder. I'm thinking of taking it to a guy I talked to an a good little LBS and looking at new drivetrain options. Just something more reliable and maybe a little speedier if possible. He told me it could be a waste of money, but he also said he would take a look and gimme a straight answer. I had a good feeling about the guy, so we'll see.

You did NOT set off my whining! I promise. In fact I seek out your posts to re-affirm the fact that most people around here have a healthy, fun and infectious attitude about riding. You do good work 'round these parts! ;)

Good. Now that I'm in the clear, come back to the Clyde forum and post about your rides! :)

Ride your bike... smile... repeat.

to answer the thread title, not in portland.

Ride your bike... smile... repeat.

Just ride! In any hobby,sport,passtime- there are always tools in the group. I am really into photography: some others "judge" your skill by the camera you carry? Freaking Anne Lebowicz could make the Pope look good with a disposable Wallmart camera for 4 bucks while some schmuck with the $3,000 nikon/cannon and 3 lenses and a bag of tricks f's it up...

ride your bike, live your life and worry not about others-

Everyone starts somewhere and not many folks here are getting paid to ride a bike so don't take it so seriously.

Ride

Smile when you ride.....

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh187/10wheels/vv.jpg

That's an outstanding picture! :thumb: Yes you can ride without drama, but it's a lot easier if you spend more time riding and less time on line. And even easier when you can do more of your own repair work and find a LBS that you're comfortable with. There are some out there that want to sell you that second bike and won't look down on your first.

Dude, just ride your bike and don't worry so much about meaningless horsepucky. ;)

Had to Google that. Pretty cool. Room for cargo, groceries, dead bodies, whatever you need to carry. :)

Just how many dead hookers CAN you fit on an xtracycle?

Just how many dead hookers CAN you fit on an xtracycle?

Depends. A couple/three in their natural state, but if you own a Blendtec (http://www.willitblend.com/), then you can fit as many as you can stack large Rubbermaid containers full of thick red goo.

Easier to get into the sewer drain too. Bonus.

Blendtec (http://www.willitblend.com/)

:eek::eek::eek:

"....but will it blend?" my new canned reply to every new piece of technology that comes into the R&D lab from now on LOL!

Some humor/perspective: same attitudes grew up in the late 80-90s in windsurfing, you either had the latest and best carbon stuff, custom boards, could do monkey jibes and surf killer waves, did excursions to the Gorge or the North Shore, or you were simply a poser. It killed the sport, all the retail stores are here closed, the cliques collasped. The current fades and fashion in biking seems similar and very weird & looney. and to some extent driven by corporate marketing, Just think long term and enjoy your sport... and smile while your riding.

You can be like me and ride the same bike so long(32 years) that it came back in fashion,LOL!
Don't pay any attention to them,just go out and enjoy yourself,that's what it's all about.