patentcad

I have reason to believe there is something to this story:


I know a little about that term. In the late seventies and early eighties I was the service manager at a very cool bike shop on main street in Huntington Beach, a couple of blocks inland from the pier. The shop was called Two Wheel Transit Authority, and back then, even though we were not a mega store we were really the coolest shop around (really in the world). Mr. Shimano visited our shop to check us out because of our reputation, and susequently sent a couple of Shimano engineers to live with us for a couple of months to see how we did things. Greg LeMond used to come and hang at the shop when he was still a junior and lapping the pack in the senior races they allowed him to enter. Then, after he won his first tour, we scheduled meet and greets at the shop with Greg to sign autographs and shake hands. The Race Across America was started by one of our customers. Also a geeky guy who thought he was going to break the world record for riding his bike across the U.S. while riding an $89.95 Pep Boys bike. After we saw how serious he was we helped him get good gear and damn if he didn't shatter the existing record. John Howard of the original Hawaiian Triathelon fame, and road racer was a regular at the shop

So, you can imagine that when you open the doors to retail customers, anyone and everyone can come through the door. We had our share of overweight, middle aged guys who liked to spend money on gear, but didn't put a lot of miles on their bikes. Hey, we liked those customers for the reasons you stated in your post! Anyway, right off the side of our service area we had an employee break room with a couch and chairs, lockers, icebox, bathroom, and a big chalkboard. My head mechanic at the time, Doug Martin drew a cartoon likeness of one of our customers on the blackboard one day. The customer was a guy we jokingly referred to as Mr. Patch because he mostly went to organized rides to get the sew-on patch for his wife to sew onto his shorts and jerseys. When he suited up he was covered with patches. He was middle-age, overweight, and loved his cool bike. The cartoon stayed up on the board for months and months and we sarcastically added elements to complete Mr. Patch's portrait.

I had hired a high school kid named Bill Bee to train in the shop. He was smart and quick witted and sarcastic and we liked him. He fit in with the service area banter that was pretty much constant. One day he was looking at the Mr. Patch drawing and he said, "He's a cave man, he's a Fred (Flintstone)". We started using the term sarcastically in the shop for the customers that had cool gear, but hardly ever rode, and also for the guys who have a strange ability to destroy gear while riding low miles.

The folks that worked in that service area went on to have major positions in the bike industry. Our sales floor manger ended up being the head of Interbike. Those guys ended up working high up with some of the major industry players.

One is way up in management in Specialized. I worked with Chis King when they were here in Shasta Lake. It is a long list of bike industry folks who were initiated into the Fred term.

The fred moniker obviously went with all of us who worked there and it grew legs of its own.

Velo Vol 

Citation, please.

RUOkie

meh

patentcad

Velo Vol 

You copy and pasted an email forward, didn't you?

chasm54

Sorry, you Americans were late on the scene, as ever. Long before the eighties the term "Fred" was in use in the UK, not for a useless cyclist with expensive gear but for a strong cyclist with unfashionable clothing/equipment. The sort of old, bearded guy in sandals on a steel bike who can effortlessly ride you off his wheel. But as usual, the term lost something in transatlantic translation.

patentcad

You don't really think I would ever reveal my sources do you?

RUOkie

Velo Vol 

5* thread

ls01

but your name is Pete?

DaveWC

Doing some genealogy?

Nachoman

I see some potential here.

OldsCOOL

When we were teens and someone farted they would say, "Fred's out!!".

.....that's all I got to say about tha-aat.