Touring - I really like this forum!

Not trying to pi** off the roadies here, but you guys on this touring site are awesome. My wife is a roadie and anytime I ask her or her friends for advice the $$$$ just adds up quicker than I can count. Seems like the touring guys are like "run what you got" the point is to get out on the road and have a good time. I am a big proponent of good gear but I hate buying something just for a name. There are alot of good bargains out there for cheap if you look. I try to do everything as cheap as possible, but do it right at the same time, and until I start getting paid to ride I've gotta be cheap. I show up to road rides with my wife on my old friction shifting SR and I am an outcast, even though I can outride over 1/2 of them there on the old steel girl. So I am glad to be here. Thanks for having this place.

ah yes but think what you could do on the latest carbon flying machine who knows maybe you could get paid for riding .

Maybe I look good enough to pose for a picture on one (though I doubt it :)) But as I get older I'm like the turtle and the hare. Just go as fast as I need and don't expend any unnecessary energy, and I get there just fine.

Not trying to pi** off the roadies here, but you guys on this touring site are awesome. My wife is a roadie and anytime I ask her or her friends for advice the $$$$ just adds up quicker than I can count. Seems like the touring guys are like "run what you got" the point is to get out on the road and have a good time. I am a big proponent of good gear but I hate buying something just for a name. There are alot of good bargains out there for cheap if you look. I try to do everything as cheap as possible, but do it right at the same time, and until I start getting paid to ride I've gotta be cheap. I show up to road rides with my wife on my old friction shifting SR and I am an outcast, even though I can outride over 1/2 of them there on the old steel girl. So I am glad to be here. Thanks for having this place.


Clearly you're not doing it right. Next time, show up on this:

http://www.co-motion.com/single_bikes/amerohloff.html

Clearly you're not doing it right. Next time, show up on this:

http://www.co-motion.com/single_bikes/amerohloff.html

I like it!

Hmm...well, roadies don't hang out here. They have those little house arrest anklets to the 41 so they don't leave the porch.

Yes, all types participate in touring with whatever gear is available. One can see a large variety of bikes on tour here (a fun site for those who like to view touring bikes):

http://www.fullyloadedtouring.com/

Touring riders have to learn to adapt, hence we don't need the newest gadgets and crazy expensive materials, except possibly our panniers. I have noticed that touring riders all have a few tricks up their sleeve, plus they tackle a problem when it comes up. Plus we move slower usually so we have a chance to enjoy teh surrounding that we are out there to do. Plus we love bragging rights on our bikes milage LOL so they often are built to last as long as possible.

Clearly you're not doing it right. Next time, show up on this:

http://www.co-motion.com/single_bikes/amerohloff.html

I didn't know a touring bike could be sexy! Now I want one.

It's about just geting outside and enjoying a ride.
I just love being outdoors,it makes me happy.

I show up to road rides with my wife on my old friction shifting SR and I am an outcast, even though I can outride over 1/2 of them there on the old steel girl.

People say that all the time here, but I have never been part of a club that had any such attitude. Have you considered the possibility that you don't go to many rides and therefore the other riders simply don't know you?


Hmm...well, roadies don't hang out here. They have those little house arrest anklets to the 41 so they don't leave the porch.

There's this guy I ride and used to race with - roadie to the core. Well, actually, he raced triathlons, too, for a number of year. Oh, and he just recently got a Surly LHT, and he's planning to do a cross-country ride pretty soon.

Personally, I got into racing after first being into touring and utility cycling. Touring isn't so much on my radar at the moment, but it would be nice to give it another go at some point.

The big problem is the assumption that all those other cyclists are out there looking down on you, and getting a chip on your shoulder because of it. And then people like me get kind of irritated and defensive, because our experience is that roadies are as diverse, friendly and practical a group of people as touring cyclists. They just have some slightly different priorities. A lot of them just love to ride. Like me, they're not just "roadies," they're riders with interest in all kind of riding, for sport and for practical needs. I've been on plenty of group rides with people on a variety of equipment. I've never seen a new person mocked for their bike. Friends might give each other some friendly ribbing, but that's it.

But yeah, show up feeling defensive, to a group that you don't ride with much, and you might not get a lot of conversation. If you go to a party with a lot of strangers, do you expect them to just come up and start talking to you? Or do you expect that a good social experience will require some reaching out on your part? Think about it. There are a lot of posts on BF from people who are really defensive about what or how they ride, who then show up to group rides and come home complaining about how everyone wasn't gathering around to shake their hand and congratulate them for riding what and how they do. It's kind of odd.

What I'm trying to say is that riding is fun. Turf wars between different "kinds" of riders are NOT fun, and often don't make sense. The divisions are largely imaginary.

A couple of weeks ago, I went for a ride with someone whose approach to cycling is quite different from my own.

His bike is worth twice as much as mine and it's considerably lighter. That alone makes him a bit faster. He also rides for speed while I pace myself for endurance. And I carry a pump, a spare tube, tire patches and tools, while he carries none of those things. Riding together was fun, but I'd get frustrated if I tried to ride his way all the time, and he'd get frustrated trying to ride my way all the time.

Right now, his goal is to become a fast recreational rider and mine is to tour more. Those are two different directions. Still, we can and should learn from each other. And we can both share a love of the wheel, even though we have have different approaches to cycling.

Kumbaya!

Actually when I was out touring, some of the guys I met who most got into what I was doing where the roadies. Not so much the super hot ones who seemed to have a lot on their minds, but others would visit for a bit and pull off into the distance. Still they didn't see that much country. They would only show on the horizon in the suburbs, while I got the best rides between the town. And I was out there for weeks, while they were squeezing in a few hours.

"even though I can outride over 1/2 of them there on the old steel girl."

http://www.bikespecialties.com/site/peloton2.html

What I'm trying to say is that riding is fun. Turf wars between different "kinds" of riders are NOT fun, and often don't make sense. The divisions are largely imaginary.

It was just tongue in cheek. Like I said my wife is a roadie (we get along pretty good). I just find it humorous the extent they will go to get every last millisecond of speed. I don't let myself be an outcast, I have fun no matter who I'm with. And they don't treat me as an outcast in the sense of looking down on me. They just like to rib me about my hunk of iron. They are good people and I enjoy riding with them.

Seems like the touring guys are like "run what you got" the point is to get out on the road and have a good time. - I like free

Yeah, we're a pretty easy bunch that likes to have a good time.

The big problem is the assumption that all those other cyclists are out there looking down on you, and getting a chip on your shoulder because of it. And then people like me get kind of irritated and defensive, because our experience is that roadies are as diverse, friendly and practical a group of people as touring cyclists. - grolby

Gee whiz, grolby, somebody touch a nerve there? I'm the first to admit that we can all be guilty of overgeneralizing, but sometimes there's a kernel of truth in there. Besides touring, I also go for faster paced rides on a carbon road frame, so being a roadie is not unfamiliar territory. It wasn't too long ago that I moved here and made my first appearance at a show and go ride with a bunch of roadies. It was a little early and there were only two others present when I showed up. Far from behaving like an outcast, I went right up to those two, smiled and said hello, that I was looking forward to the ride. Neither so much as said hello to me, or even acknowledged my presence, and started talking between each other. Hello, am I invisible? Sadly, this is only the most extreme example, not the only such experience I've had.

Also, I was once the president of a bicycle club which tried to cater to a variety of interests. Every month my club held an orientation road ride. The purpose of the ride was to get new people interested in becoming members and being active participants. We made it a point to personally greet each new rider and make introductions and to generally feel out the potential new members' cycling preferences. Oddly enough, very few roadies in the club ever bothered to show up for this important event. I guess it was beneath them.

Okay, I'm done because I don't want to risk hijacking this thread into something other than what the OP intended.

I'm with you, I like free. I'm also not interested in super lightweight, several-thousand-dollar bikes. My old MTB works just fine, off-road, on-road, or wherever. That said, I have nothing against roadies, or anyone else, for just preferring the way they ride over the way I ride. It's their business, their choice.

I do get amused by those who seem to look down their noses at those who ride something different than themselves. I have a friend, an old roommate, who refused to road-ride with me because she was ashamed to be seen with me on my MTB. She has a very expensive carbon road bike, but I don't remember the brand right now. This was not an assumption on my part, she actually came right out and said it. It only makes me laugh, in the same way I laughed at Andre Agassi when he said, "Image is everything."

But roadies don't have a corner on that kind of attitude. I have another friend, a tourer like me, who rides a bike similar to mine, who refused to tour with another couple of friends of mine because "they're roadies." And take a look around outside of the cycling world - that kind of attitude is everywhere. Motorcyclists, RVers, and, of course, car enthusiasts. Some people, apparently, need something tangible to make them feel superior to others. It never fails to amuse me.

Not sure if I agree with the OP's "cheap" thing, in the way phrased. Get the best you can afford, and use it for 30 years. Maybe it was another way of complementing people who don't fall for the latest and greatest just because some d-bag in a color-coordinated full kit says you need it.

Not sure about the OP, but for me it comes down to individual components. Some you can easily get by with "cheap." Others, quality is paramount. I've got an inexpensive bike. It's built like a tank, has carried me over many thousands of miles, and I don't see any need to replace it. I just replace components as they wear out. But I've got quality panniers (Ortliebs). Tried going the cheap route initially but the resulting trouble wasn't worth it. I had a cheap computer that I just replaced with a Cateye. The cheap one's display would black out in direct sunlight. Used to ride and tour on cheap tires. Too many problems. Now I ride on Schwalbes and love them. The additional mileage I get out of them actually makes them not as expensive as they might seem. It always seems to be a trial and error with me. Slow learner, I guess.

People say that all the time here, but I have never been part of a club that had any such attitude. Have you considered the possibility that you don't go to many rides and therefore the other riders simply don't know you?



There's this guy I ride and used to race with - roadie to the core. Well, actually, he raced triathlons, too, for a number of year. Oh, and he just recently got a Surly LHT, and he's planning to do a cross-country ride pretty soon.

Personally, I got into racing after first being into touring and utility cycling. Touring isn't so much on my radar at the moment, but it would be nice to give it another go at some point.

The big problem is the assumption that all those other cyclists are out there looking down on you, and getting a chip on your shoulder because of it. And then people like me get kind of irritated and defensive, because our experience is that roadies are as diverse, friendly and practical a group of people as touring cyclists. They just have some slightly different priorities. A lot of them just love to ride. Like me, they're not just "roadies," they're riders with interest in all kind of riding, for sport and for practical needs. I've been on plenty of group rides with people on a variety of equipment. I've never seen a new person mocked for their bike. Friends might give each other some friendly ribbing, but that's it.

But yeah, show up feeling defensive, to a group that you don't ride with much, and you might not get a lot of conversation. If you go to a party with a lot of strangers, do you expect them to just come up and start talking to you? Or do you expect that a good social experience will require some reaching out on your part? Think about it. There are a lot of posts on BF from people who are really defensive about what or how they ride, who then show up to group rides and come home complaining about how everyone wasn't gathering around to shake their hand and congratulate them for riding what and how they do. It's kind of odd.

What I'm trying to say is that riding is fun. Turf wars between different "kinds" of riders are NOT fun, and often don't make sense. The divisions are largely imaginary.

Excellent post. I ride a road bike, sometimes a mountain bike, and used to only do triathlons before that (except for intermittent commuting when possible). I'm kind of fascinated by the whole idea of touring and hope to do some short trips in the next year or so. I think what many of the long time tourers might not realize is that even though they have their ideas about what touring should be, there is a whole world of cyclists out there who might also be interested in figuring out how to incorporate touring into their cycling experiences in a way that makes sense to them and the way they like to ride.

My wife is a roadie and anytime I ask her or her friends for advice the $$$$ just adds up quicker than I can count. .

the roadies I knew in the early 80's rode too much to be wealthy enough to buy top end stuff. Seems to me the difference is between people who ride and people who buy. I've been both and there's both types in all groups.