ok heres my 2 cents.....

I ride MTB and Road and have found that the attitudes have been practicly polar opposite. ( i train on road for MTB races)

as a newbie on a MTB , i had a decent bike, my friend was riding his GF's no suspension wal-mart ( Big W) special. we would ride in a national park near my place for him to get a feel of things and work out if he wanted to invest the money. everytime we came across other riders they would be overly friendly , offering advice on trails, whats good, whats not , or if they were in a hurry even a quick gday, hows it goin? no on ever made metion or put him down the pink beastie that he was riding.

About 3 - 4 months ago i bit the bullet and spent the hard earned on a roadie to do some training on. Not a bad bike, not a great one. a Lemond Tourmalet. I started riding round the general area and was just absolutley shocked and appauled at the attitudes of alot of riders. Generally ill ride alone, and stick well left in the gutter to stay out of ppls roads. when i rid ei have specific training goals in mind, and im not looking for raw speed.

So lets see, since then been called about every name under the sun, been told off about my bike, been told off for wearing a bright cycling top ( i ride at night) , earing normal shorts instead bike shorts, using mtb clipless instead of road cleats, been minding my own busines and had a group come past and tell me off for going too slow ( id jsut come off an interval...) , and ive seen plenty of other guys hassled for no good reason at all. like i go riding for fun, and it really just makes it crap.

so now screwem. ive had it. changing my riding to early morning, going to do more indoor work etc. if thats the attitude of what road riders are like in sydney then they can keep their sport. god forbid the slagging youd getif you turned up for a road race or a group ride as a newbie