I always thought a "fred" in cycling was similar to surfing terms like "hodad" "barnie" "kook" . These were the guys who wanted to be surfers and dressed like surfers, hung out at the beach, had a really nice surfboard but either didn't surf at all or really sucked at surfing. In southern California these guys only surfed in the summer (if at all). They drove around with boards on or in their car so everyone could see.
In 7th grade I was just learning to surf and my parents bought me a brand new awesome surf board. I went to the beach and a group of "real" surfers started hassling me about sucking and being a poser and not being able to surf.
Every sub culture has this theme.