Originally Posted by telenick
More to the point, it really seems to be a geo-demographic issue than anything else. In some towns, walking into a bar after a ride with spandex shorts, coolmax jersey, cycling shoes and a bad, bad case of helmet hair is very common place. In other places, you'll get the stink eye.
I remember the first time I went to Moab to mountain bike was 18 years ago. It was back in the day of rigid forks and slack mountain bike geometry.
After a ride we went to a little bar just north of Eddie McStiffs for a post ride brew. There was this local guy in the bar ;probably a uranium miner since that was the chief industry in Moab. He immediately got nasty and asked us if we were one of those nut jobs who wear a peanut shell on our head and ride bikes on the slickrock.
Nowdays, we peanut shell wearing nut jobs
ARE the industry in Moab. Impressions of cyclists in Moab have certainly changed over the last 20 years. I hope that is the case with people's impressions elsewhere too.