What is a roadie? Someone on a bicycle wearing a roadie outfit. Or at least that's all you can go off of when you see some random stranger on a biike.

Now, suppose you've never seen a bicycle, and decide to take up bicycling. So you come on some internet forum and ask "What should I use?" And folks will tell you to get a road bike and buy some roadie clothes. In other words, if you spend the money to take up bicycling "right", you'll look like a roadie.

I pass "roadies" all the time on my cruiser bike. What that means is I pass people riding road-type bicycles wearing bicycling-specific clothes. It doesn't mean they know a thing about cycling, or have ever ridden a bike before. It's just pretty meaningless to make assumptions about their intention from the appearance. It's like driving on a highway and assuming everyone in a Corvette must be a Race Car Driver. Not quite.