Originally Posted by
cooker
You can drive a car to work and not have any interest in cars except what you need to know to use one, so in that case you would not be a car hobbiest. However, if you also read car magazines, tinker with or customize your car for fun, go to car shows, and post on a car forum you might be a car hobbyist.
By that analogy I think many of us are both transportational cyclists and bike hobbyists.
I took issue with this notion that one is either a 'professional' (works in a bike related profession, racing, wrenching, etc), or a hobbyist. I thought the car analogy was apt. A car, bike, hammer or chain saw are just tools. One can use those tools as part of their profession, or their hobby...or they can just use them to do the job they were intended to do...in the case if bikes, simple transportation.
I agree, many of us here are users AND hobbyists AND even professionals (in some cases), but this notion that we can only be pros or hobbyists is just plain silly. I've been riding bikes for transportation since I was just a little troll *******...it didn't become a hobby until this century.
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