Originally Posted by
jrickards
There's one fellow who I occasionally see commuting to work, either on a Trek hybrid (narrow tires) or, more recently, on a road bike. He definitely works out, built like a brick poop house and his pedalling style and facial expression looks like he's working out on his bike. Occasionally, we'll be travelling in the same direction (he's always passed me on those occasions) and I will issue a "good morning" or some other pleasant greeting and never get a reply. When we pass in opposite directions, my nod or wave will not get a response. However, I will get greetings, verbal or otherwise, from almost all other cyclists, whether or not I have initiated them: cyclists include members of our local cycling/racing club in their club kit who you would think might ignore mere commuters.
Do you greet others? Do you respond to greetings? Do certain individuals seem to ignore you?
It's variable depending on the circumstances, but mostly I do. I have two special greetings besides a finger or hand wave. My most perfunctory is just to yell out a hearty "Yo," or "Ho" with no expectation of a reply if the other rider declines.
When I have the chance to meet up and speak to a "serious" cyclist," I like to mention about Bikeforums, since I am an avid fan as a self-described serious cyclist myself. These exchanges are often brief, and it's hard to explain BF, and its varied subforums quickly to a total stranger; and the URL of
Bikeforums.net. as a plural, and
.net instead of
.com as the domain name can easily be forgotten.
So I made up some business-type greeting cards as illustrated below to pass out. I keep them with my professional business cards as well. Hence even when in a social or professional circumstance, if I encounter another cyclist, I can inform them about BF. (I myself learned about BF serendipitously from a Cartoonist's Blog
.)
Since taking that photo, I have changed the last sentence to read,
"If you join, send me a message saying hello via My (User) Profile,” and have addded
Fifty-Plus to the list of subforums.
