Originally Posted by
WestMass
...... I know that we all, in this forum, enjoy riding our bikes from place to place - but how do we look, collectively, to folks who riding a bicycle is their only option.
I am not totally convinced that everyone at the forums cycles. I wouldn't assume all cycling activists ride a bicycle. Even the once pro-racer local bike shop owner... no longer cycles. Many bicycle lovers are restorers and/or collectors yet may never find time to ride. injured cyclist seem to like to keep in touch on the forums as well. I do think we.... all share a collective love of the bicycles.
We cyclists here at the forums are a divided group. BMX'ers, mountain cyclists. racers, and roadies, and alternate transportation save-the-Earth'ers .... and sub-groups of those groups.
(no offense intended to any group)
Originally Posted by
WestMass
.....Part of the reason I thought about it was because I don't know that I generally categorize bicycle hobbyist/enthusiast commuters and people who can not afford a car or who have a DUI or whatever in the same category - and I felt a little guilty separating them. I ride through some fairly impoverished areas and occasionally see people on cheapo, old bicycles, kids' bikes, bmxes, etc. who are under-dressed for the weather, and I wonder how ******-y I look to them with my "fancy" lights, helmet, cycling jacket, and panniers.
Thoughts?
[There are] Nearly a billion bicycles on this planet and I've read that of those in use... more than half are push bicycles. Meaning that the bicycle is used as a means to transport water, wood, feed, and/or food. Push bikes are NOT ridden... they are loaded up and pushed along roadsides and rural paths.
Seeing poor people riding "cheap-o bicycles" is a sign of just how wealthy a country we live in.
Of the people I've spoke with.... most do not have a high opinion of old men (like myself) who spend their leisure time tying up the roadways with what they consider a slow moving hobby. I don't ask what they think of my tights! I think that on average the "poor people of cheap-o bicycles" dislike hobby cyclists the most.