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Prejudice against touring cyclists

Old 12-16-14, 11:18 PM
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Originally Posted by indyfabz
Troll?
mmm ... don't think so. But I do think this is someone from outside of the cultural mainstream of most people on this site. And I think that they come from a culture which values conformity more and idealizes exceptionality less than many of the rest of us.

And I think that family and friends giving critique in that context are likely trying to use the tools they have to guide choumichou into better life choices - which means, in such a social context, that they want choumichou's life to look a bit more like theirs.

Just because people are different from what may be our normal experience does not mean they are trolls out to provoke us. It may simply mean that they are different.

Since I value (not idealize) exceptionality, I think that is a good thing. And interesting.

... Of course, all this is speculation. Choumichou would have to confirm or deny my surmises.

so ... perhaps it is I who an the troll - after all, this post could simply be meant to provoke a response ...
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Old 12-16-14, 11:45 PM
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I suspect choumichou has lost interest, doesn't care, or is busy elsewhere.
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Old 12-18-14, 07:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Doug64
Actually, I always feel like I'm treated better when I arrive by bike than when traveling in a car.

I've never heard any of these comments; just the opposite, with folks being kind, curious and helpful. We've been invited to stay at peoples' homes, and dragged home by cyclists for lunch or dinner. We had a motel owner offer to do our laundry and apologizing for not having it folded when we came to pick it up. A group of people leaving church one Sunday morning as we were riding through a small Nebraska town stopped to talk to us, and wondered if it was OK with us if they said a prayer for our safety............................

We tend to stay off the popular bike routes, such as the ACA routes, so a loaded bike tourer is still a novelty in many of the places we ride through. The bike is a great ice breaker, and we meet some great people. On a recent tour my wife was talking to a father and son who stopped to visit as I fixed a flat tire. The father did not speak English so the son was acting as an interpreter. When the father asked why we choose to travel by bike my wife said," to meet people like you". When his son told him what she said, his eyes lit up complemented with a wonderful smile. That is what bike touring is all about.

We've had so many people help us that we made this card to give as a "thank you".


A young English speaking woman at a museum in The Netherlands made a comment as I walked by in my bike shorts; "you have very nice legs". She got a little embarrassed when I replied "thank you" in English. Made my day My wife was laughing so hard I thought she was going to cry.

There are people who totally get why you tour on a bike and understand; then there are people who really don't have a clue, and wonder why you'd rather ride a bike than go on a cruise. You can tell after about 30 seconds what type you are talking to. I think the folks making the type of remarks the OP is referring to are the clueless type, and does it really matter.

PS. We are also not likely to be mistaken for a homeless people because we wear helmets.
+1
Please tour through South Dakota sometime.
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Old 12-20-14, 05:37 PM
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Originally Posted by SparkyGA
Same here. My family is my biggest critique. I ignore their comments but send them postcards of pretty places around the world.

My sisters BF (who I exceedingly dislike since the day I met him) sent me a lovely message awhile back calling me a dirty hobo cyclist who is a burden on society.... Funny pay my taxes, educated and have a sweet job that allows me to do as please. I just live life out of 2 panniers instead of having a more normal life.

Woman who like cycle tourists? Easy. Look for women that care more about you than your material possessions or titles attached to you name. Also take girls on bicycle riding dates; if they reject that idea, don't go on a date with them.
Funny about the "burden on society" thing. On my last tour I had stopped in the parking lot of a car dealership. It was closing time & the owner came out to begin his (car) drive home. He asked me some of the usual questions: where was I going, where was I staying at night & so on.
After 5 min of banter about those matters, he asked why I was taking my journey (from NC to NY to care for my mother over the winter) by bicycle instead of car. I explained that I was trying to reduce my CO2 footprint, since I believe global warming is real & will hurt many people. He really gave me a long lecture, about global warming being a scam / hoax & about cars being so necessary for civilized living. It was pretty funny but yet pitiable as well. He seemed to have been selling cars for decades, & the thought of the environmental damage of all those sales must have been too much for him to stomach.
Some folks have a strange opinion about who is the "burden on society."
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Old 12-20-14, 06:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Machka
This is why I guessed, correctly, that he was young.

When you get a bit older you stop caring what other people think of what you do, and you start living your own life. You come to the realisation that other people really don't care what you do and that everyone has lives of their own which they are much more concerned about.
That's a good reminder. Maybe you've heard of the "happiness curve." In surveys, many of the very young report being happy because they have fewer responsibilities & more freedom; many of the elderly report being happy because (hopefully) they've learned not to sweat the small stuff & not to care too much about what others think of them. Those in the intermediate age group, though, sometimes lack those benefits.

Last edited by hartlean; 12-20-14 at 06:23 PM. Reason: adding clarity.
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Old 12-21-14, 07:13 AM
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Originally Posted by Machka
I suspect choumichou has lost interest, doesn't care, or is busy elsewhere.
That makes me think that just maybe auldgeunquers is correct and the OP isn't a troll. His strange comments may have been the result of cultural differences, a language barrier, and perhaps a young and maybe immature point of view.

Choumichou could have easily continued to wind folks up here if he/she wanted to.
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Old 12-21-14, 08:18 PM
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Originally Posted by staehpj1
That makes me think that just maybe auldgeunquers is correct and the OP isn't a troll. His strange comments may have been the result of cultural differences, a language barrier, and perhaps a young and maybe immature point of view.

Choumichou could have easily continued to wind folks up here if he/she wanted to.
I imagine some folks thought I was a troll; perhaps they still do. I sense great cultural differences between myself and most others here; I have been criticized for excess wordage which might be overcompensating for a perceived language barrier; I also tend to be immature, although in a friendly sort of way. Is there a club for trolls? I looked at Trollheim; I didn't understand the attraction. Probably I'm just an old guy with not enough to do.
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Old 12-21-14, 09:04 PM
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Originally Posted by staehpj1
That makes me think that just maybe auldgeunquers is correct and the OP isn't a troll. His strange comments may have been the result of cultural differences, a language barrier, and perhaps a young and maybe immature point of view.

Choumichou could have easily continued to wind folks up here if he/she wanted to.
Since I'm being quoted here, let me just point out that I did not call choumichou a troll.
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Old 01-31-15, 03:30 PM
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I rode a Surly LHT from Key West, Fl up to the Great Lakes and west to California then back home to New Mexico a few years ago. I was on the road for a little over 7 months and stealth camped in a tent each night. Yes, it can be done but the ease with which you can do it depends on the US region you find yourself in at any given moment. The east coast and eastern woodlands extending west to central Missouri were the easiest. Lots of unfenced woods at the side of the road in which to hide. The Midwest extending to New Mexico was the most difficult. No woodlands to hide in and extremely rare is a piece of property that doesn't have a barbed wire fence around it. Do not climb fences to camp. Only camp on land that is not fenced. Otherwise, if you are caught, you lose all deniability of knowing you were on private property. I was told to "move along" by cops three or four times at the early stages of my trip before I wised up to the fact that any "citizen" driving by who happens to see you from the road camping is going to pull out a cell phone and call the cops. We live in a culture of do-gooder anonymous snitches. So make sure no one sees you leaving the shoulder of the road to enter the treeline and go deep enough into the trees that your tent can't be seen from the road. Once I entered the Midwest and cattle country it became virtually impossible to find unfenced land or woods. Your entire day is basically limited to pedaling down a ribbon of blacktop road between two never-ending barbed wire fences. To deal with this I would pedal up to the local city hall building of whatever small town or village I had entered at the end of the day, telling them who I was and what I was doing, and asking to pitch for the night in their local municipal park. They always said yes and were very nice about it. Once I had made it across the Midwest and into BLM country, I went back to stealth camping. When asking for permission to camp in a small town's community park, always ask at city hall. Never ask at the local police station. City Hall's contain politicians and they are more prone to welcoming you. Cops reside at police stations and their first instinct is to say no to anything that falls outside their limited scope of life experience. Plus, cops just like to say no to prove their manhood. But by far and away, my biggest piece of advice for commando camping is to think like a hunted animal. Because in a culture as socially backwards as ours, the infinite layers of law enforcement won't make the slightest distinction between you and a homeless person and we all know how the homeless are treated in our country. I was riding a $4,500 custom bike with $2,500 worth of state-of-the-art camping gear and dressed in cycling clothes. No matter. The cops, especially in the dixieland south, stopped me and ran my driver's license on a regular basis. On one particular day in Georgia I was stopped five times by local police in various towns. In southern Alabama I was surrounded on the side of the highway by five police cars and cops with drawn weapons and accused of committing a **** that had just happened as I was cycling through their town. In Arkansas I found myself in a vicious fist-fight with an Ozark hillbilly in front of a convenience store for no other reason than he thought I was a homeless man and jumped on me for fun. In Kansas I was repeatedly refused entry into a certain chain of grocery stores for being "indecently dressed". I was wearing standard cycling clothes. Having said all this, most days were fairly good days and some were sublime. But anyone attempting a long bicycle trip in America should be wise to the fact that in large part cross-country cycling is a European thing and the average American has never seen such a creature much less comprehends why you would want to do such a thing. The familiar explanation for them? You must be a homeless person. So do what I did and TAKE IT AS A PERSONAL CHALLENGE NOT TO LIVE THE LIFE OF A HERD ANIMAL AND STEALTH CAMP UNTIL YOU'RE TOO DAMN OLD TO DO IT ANYMORE.
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Old 01-31-15, 03:36 PM
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