This kind of discussion almost always devolves into what a real cyclist is. I had to read the Book bike tribes to discover how divided we can be. I am not sure there is an agreed on definition. I once discovered I wasn’t a real cyclist when I was struggling up a long climb with my new at the time CF road bike. A young guy on a fixie caught me and said real cyclists ride fixed.

Later at a a coffee shop he did grant me the title of roadie. I was secure in that till the racing portion of a club our group once rode with informed me I was just a club rider.

Strava gave me a reprieve for a while till we discovered there were a lot of people that only rode MUPs and didn’t even have a HRM to check.

I have often wondered if Beach cruisers were cyclists or even BMX riders.

It took open open heart surgery to show me the days of KOMs were over and cycling might just be having fun on a bike. Even maybe an E-Bike? Is the beginning of the end electric shifters?