General Cycling Discussion - cycling pronunciation key

Since most of what I learn about cycling comes from print, either web or magazines, I'm lost on some of the pronunciations. I'd like to get some of them clarified before I meet another cyclist somewhere and come off as a total newbie by mis-pronouncing anything. Here's the list so far:

word----------the way I think it should be pronounced
gruppo ----------group-o
peleton ----------pail-e-tahn - the big group of riders, I probably mispelled it, too.
derailleur --------dee-railer

More to come...

PH
:D

Originally posted by purple hayes

word----------the way I think it should be pronounced
gruppo ----------group-o
peleton ----------pail-e-tahn - the big group of riders, I probably mispelled it, too.
derailleur --------dee-railer

:D

Hi Purple Hayes..

I guess you can pronounce it anyway you want to, but I got

Peleton ----------Pel-et-on
Derailler ---------- Dur-rail-i-er

Any other takers?

Rich

I say it this way:

Derailleur -- Dee Rail Your


Here's a couple others:


pneumatic -- New Matt Ick


Campagnolo -- Camp Anne Ollo or simply Campy


Mavic -- MA Veek

Of course if you paid attention in language classes in school that would help;)

Gruppo - That's right - (Italian)
Peleton - Pell-a-tahn - (French)
Derailleur - De-rail-yer - (French)

here's a new one...

Echelon - Esh-a-lon (French) That is is like a pace-line except you are lined up staggered on the road to help fight a crosswind.

Do a search on "cycling terms" in a search engine and you'll learn a lot more about the words that are commonly used in racing and cycling, although I haven't found one that helps in pronounciation.

Correct me if anyone thinks I messed up.

Originally posted by purple hayes

word----------the way I think it should be pronounced
gruppo ----------group-o
peleton ----------pail-e-tahn - the big group of riders, I probably
:D

My understanding was that peleton was supposed to be pronouced with a French from France Accent (as oppsed to Quebecois where I am from) as pe-le-ton.

:beer:

For the collectors of esoterica: Rene Herse

ray-NAY erz

Acutally, this is a pretty helpful thread. I've gotten some funny looks with mispronouciations of Bianchi and Cinelli. I'm still not sure, so somebody please correct me:

Bianchi = be-YON-key
Cinelli = chi-NELLY

andy

Originally posted by aturley
Acutally, this is a pretty helpful thread. I've gotten some funny looks with mispronouciations of Bianchi and Cinelli. I'm still not sure, so somebody please correct me:

Bianchi = be-YON-key
Cinelli = chi-NELLY

andy

I was under the impression (form the small amount of Italian phonetics that I do know) that they were

bee-AHN-kee and chee-NEL-lee respectivly.


Edited because I made stupid mistake.....

Geez, I was waaay off on those. I thought it was bee-on-chee and ka-nelly. LOL

PH
:D

What little Italian I know (which is not much),

CH sounds like C in cat
I sounds like EE in seed.(therefore Bianchi = Be-ahn-kee)

C sounds like CH when followed by E or I (therefore Cinelli = Chi-nelly).

This is taken from an Italian phrase book that I'm boning up on before I go to Italy in June. Wish me luck with the language;)

Well, I did speak Italian fluently when I lived there, so I suggest ...


Campagnolo -- Camp Anne Ollo or simply Campy

Com (as in "dot com") pon (as in "pond") yolo (as in "yo lo" :) ). And over here, it is decidedly Campa, not Campy.

Cheers...Gary

P.S. I edited this after I realized that the phonetics I used were Italian, not English. Tricky business this.

Here's a few more:

Huffy -> Crap. [Krap]
People who drive, but don't bike -> Cagers [Kay-gers]
Morons -> Cagers [Kay-gers]
Encephalic Flatworms -> Cagers [Kay-gers]

HTH. ;)

Originally posted by Matadon
Here's a few more:

Huffy -> Crap. [Krap]
People who drive, but don't bike -> Cagers [Kay-gers]
Morons -> Cagers [Kay-gers]
Encephalic Flatworms -> Cagers [Kay-gers]

HTH. ;)

What nickname do you have for those of us that own and drive motor vehicles and are serious cyclists?

Celeste -- Che LES te?

Serious cyclists who own and drive motor vehicles -- bimodal?

Aluminium ------ Alu min ium

Originally posted by MichaelW
Aluminium ------ Al u min i um

Ah, yes -- two countries divided by a common language!

A bit off topic, but the one that drives me bonkers: orientated. Can one of you Islanders please explain why the extra at syllable is in there? I can deal with aluminium, even though it has an extra letter that appeared from who knows where.

Of course, you do have Real Ale, so all is forgiven. :D

Cheers...Gary

Hehe...

I'm not sure why we pronounce it "Al-u-min-ium" but to me, it just sounds better than "A-loo-min-um". :D

Hehe...just my 2p's

Rich

Originally posted by Matadon
Huffy -> Crap. [Krap]


I take offense to that! My current commuter bike is a Huffy 10-speed. Before it became my commuter bike, it was my racing bike! In the 3 years I have been riding it, I've never had a flat, brake problem, or shifting problem. In fact, no problems at all with it.

Originally posted by kobyj




I take offense to that! My current commuter bike is a Huffy 10-speed. Before it became my commuter bike, it was my racing bike! In the 3 years I have been riding it, I've never had a flat, brake problem, or shifting problem. In fact, no problems at all with it.

Does your LBS have a large pentigram drawn on the floor in the workshop area, with goat's blood and a long silver knife sitting in the tool bin?

Your experience with Huffy is uncommon.

Some of the high-end Huffy bikes aren't complete crap; they use low-end Shimano components (which aren't that bad), and don't fly out of adjustment quite as badly. They are still poorly designed and heavy as hell; and that's just the Huffy high-end. Low- and midrange Huffy bikes use El Cheapo Generico componets that are *always* in need of adjustment, exhibit incredibly poor workmanship, and are ready for the scrap-heap within a few years.

To exacerbate this, Huffy bikes are sold in X-marts, where the employees know as much about cycling as I do about the mating behavior of the sperm whale; namely, they know that a bike has two wheels, pedals, and nominally a chain of some sort; and I'm aware that through some process I don't wish to think about, baby whales are produced. An X-mart employee selling a Huffy won't take the time to properly build the bike, true the wheels, tension the spokes, or re-tune the bike after break-in. Most importantly, they don't know how to fit a person to a bike, which is crucial for any signifigant amount of riding.

This wouldn't normally bother me, but I think one of the many reasons kids stop riding bicycles is that they think of these heavy monstrosities of poor mechanics as all a bicycle can be[1].

[1] Irony Alert: Why is it that most parents will spend $500 on a video game system and a stack of titles, but won't invest $300 in their child's cardiovascular health?

That pesky I has been wandering in and out of the spelling since before Alumin[i]um was isolated as a metal:

http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/aluminium.htm

Excellent "Irony Alert" posting Matadon!

Maybe parents, too preoccupied and/or burnt out with their daily work responsibilities, feel more *comfortable* having their kids sitting in front of a tv versus zipping around the streets on a bike? Little do they realize the negative consequences of too much sitting around watching tv and playing video games, or heck maybe they do...but it just takes too much effort to do anything about it...lame lame lame.

:mad:

Originally posted by karna
Excellent "Irony Alert" posting Matadon!



Maybe parents, too preoccupied and/or burnt out with their daily work responsibilities, feel more *comfortable* having their kids sitting in front of a tv versus zipping around the streets on a bike? Little do they realize the negative consequences of too much sitting around watching tv and playing video games, or heck maybe they do...but it just takes too much effort to do anything about it...lame lame lame.



:mad:

Total agreement here.

I plan on one day, having kids. This is a bit far in the future, as I'm well aware that at the ripe old age of twenty-one, I have a lot of drunkenness, recklessness, and other such things to attend to. Kids can come when I'm older and wiser.

That being said, I'll buy my eventual kids bicycles before I buy them PlayStation-10s, and they'll get to ride their bikes to school (after a certain age), instead of being ferried everywhere in a car. They may be the only non-fat kids at school, and the only ones capable of passing the "revised" fitness test (capable of walking 100m without passing out cold), but it'll be worth it. :D

Originally posted by Matadon


Total agreement here.

I plan on one day, having kids. This is a bit far in the future, as I'm well aware that at the ripe old age of twenty-one, I have a lot of drunkenness, recklessness, and other such things to attend to. Kids can come when I'm older and wiser.

That being said, I'll buy my eventual kids bicycles before I buy them PlayStation-10s, and they'll get to ride their bikes to school (after a certain age), instead of being ferried everywhere in a car. They may be the only non-fat kids at school, and the only ones capable of passing the "revised" fitness test (capable of walking 100m without passing out cold), but it'll be worth it. :D

Good plan, Matadon! I am glad I waited for the kid...she is 6y/o now and we ride the bike together on the driveway and in the park down the street...It's a wonderful way to spend time together....Just the other day, Francesca said: "You love biking so much I bet if you got paid to ride everyday, all the time-you would love your job more than the one you have." (Better insight than I have-instead of law school, I should go for bike messenger!)

ok, enough of my p's and q's...:)...I enjoy reading the ideas of the people on this forum...always enlightening. Still working on writing back (new to e-mail and how to write on these things)

I started each son on a series of used, mediocre bikes, then gave each one a used-but-decent mountain bike at age 13. Son #2, who has lost one bike to theft, knows to use a beater (Magna Glacier Point, the bike he and I love to hate) wherever security is questionable. He wants a new freestyle bike, but I am insisting he sand, paint, and reassemble his old Mongoose Decade, instead. Working on bicycles is a great way to develop one's mechanical skills.

well, this thread has wandered a bit from the topic, but I thought that I could offer that French words are always accented on the last syllable (provided you want to pronounce them French and not in their common English transmogrifications). So, sorry to play teacher here, but you asked...

Hence:

Peloton --- Pe lo TON (TON = nasal and short) --- Note the spelling! It's not Peleton.

Derailleur --- De rye YER

Echelon --- Esh e LON (like TON)

Vélo --- Vay LOW

All the "e" in the pronunciation parts are kinda like an "uh" (as in "pe-culiar" not an "ee").

A bientôt,
Jamie

SRAM?
:confused:

Since I speaka no French Does Motobecane have a different pronunciation than it looks to me in English?

English as spoken in Engliand ? (Queens/Oxford/BBC English)
or American English, as spoken by a few million occupants of one of our former colonies ?

Tomato = Toe Mar Toe
Potato = Po Tay Toe
Fender = Mudguard

As I am a colonist, it was the colonial version.

But since you brought it up, there are some of us who have never forgiven you lot for losing the war. We won, and then gave up all the best bits - pubs, Real Ale, ... Fie!

And on a completely off-topic note, tonight the Time Team is in Greenwich. I can't wait to see what they will be doing.

Cheers...Gary

Mmmm, I wounder if it's a repeat, they came and dug up a Roman villa in Greenwich park about 2 years ago, but I think they may have been back last summer digging up the grounds of the Royal Naval College before it was handed over to Greenwich University.

They would have been looking for the Palace of Plenctia, a massive Tudor Palace, birthplace of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. which was built over the site of an earlier palace, and before that a Viking fortification built on Roman foundations.
Wrens masterpiece now stands on the site.

Expect some confusion as they try and date stuff, as the site will have been heavily disturbed over the last 2,000 years

If Motobecane is French, it probably is actually Motobécane (but I am not sure about this). If so it would be pronounced (in French, by way of English phonetics):

Mo to bay KAHN (where the cane comes out like kinda like Gengis Kahn). In any case, it's not "cane" as in sugar cane.

If there is no accent over the "e" in French then it is Mo to be KAHN (where the "be" is again like "pe-culiar" and not "bee."

Cheers,
Jamie

It is, and it is.

Cheers...Gary

There IS an accent in Motobécane. The name derives from the company's original focus, which was motorcycles and pedal-powered cycles. Moto is for motorcycles, obviously, and "bécane" is a once-common French idiom for bicycle.

Thanks,If I'm gonna ride one I should at least say it correctly.

Gitane? I've heard it a couple of different ways.

In Quebecois French, at any rate, it would be...

zhee-TAN

[Gypsy... in case you were wondering...]

I'll take a whack at these, if you're into imports from the other side of the Eurasian continent, most of which is rebranded by the time we see it:

nitto -> nee - TOH
sugino -> su - gi - NOH
sakae -> sa - ka - EH

Once, I was told Giant was actually a French company, hence the correct pronounciation was:
gee - aunt (hard g, as in go)

Which reminds me of another, for taking pictures of your bikes:
nikon -> nee - kon (which will get you nothing but funny looks at the camera shop).

Somebody help me with this one... what is the correct pronounciation of "Giro", as in "d'Italia." (I've heard 'em all, which is right?)

In Italian: 'jee-ro', with a slightly rolled 'r' in 'ro'. In Dutch, it is akin to clearing ones' throat. Perhaps that is why the Belgian version is called Flemish. ;)

Cheers...Gary

Here's a general reference for Italian pronounciations:
http://yarchive.net/bike/italian.html

You say tomato, I say tomato.
You say potato, I say potato.
Tomato, tomato, potato, potato -
It doesn't make much difference when you're reading this post.
:roflmao:

BTW, Gitane would be pronounced 'zhi-TAH-nuh'. In languages derived from Latin (eg French, Italian, Spanish), 'c' and 'g' are soft before 'e' and 'i', and hard before 'a', 'o' and 'u'. In French, soft 'g' is 'zh'; in Italian it's like our 'j' as in jam. In Italian, soft 'c' is like our 'ch' as in 'child'; in French it's like a soft 's', as in 'city'. But in Spanish 'ch' is the same as in 'child', and for a soft 'c' (eg in 'Barcelona'), you lithp. (But not in Mexico, I believe.) Sometimes it's confusing.:rolleyes:

Much better in Germanic languages (:mad: ) where the sounds always stay the same.

Ciao (that's 'chow')
Beaver