To follow up on Roody's right-on observation, the only known population differentiating cyclists based on appearance, and looking down on the "blingless", is the smug group that thinks their own "blingy" appearance and/or equipment marks them as a cut above the rest.

Well my experience is a little different. When I'm biking on empty side streets at night, I don't care what I wear. But when going to work, I have a bright orange jersey, bag, and my 19LED taillight on day and night. For some reason, cars seem to give me more room than when I'm not like that.

Reason? Well, like it or not, it's just reality, appearance matters. They see me much quicker, I'm recognizable much quicker, I look like I'm going faster or able to go faster so they sometimes actually let me keep the lane w/o honking or anything. It's just the way the world works, cyclists and drivers alike, sometimes only have milliseconds to judge.
If you were walking down a dark street in a dangerous neighborhood with your kids, between having someone who works as a butcher come out of an old car with blood all over their clothes and someone with a suit and tie and a brief case stepping out of a car to put change in the meter, you have to admit, 99% of people would hold their kids just a bit tighter initially in the first scenario.

I'm not saying that people who go around on cheap mtb's and jeans (which I do on my slow weekend rides) DESERVE any less respect. I'm saying that based how drivers treat me, I DESERVE the same respect but I don't get it if I don't dress the part, not because of MY prejudices, but the drivers'. And if that's the case, then I will do what it takes to play the part for MY own visibility and safety. If I were a serial killer and the police are looking for a certain profile, you bet i'd try not to fit that profile.

I 95% of the time am "dressed up" for my rides. In this neck of the woods, I am usually treated with respect by most drivers. On 2 lane roads I will often wave them on to pass me and I often get a friendly wave. The only exception is usually the person with the Kids First, Environmental or Arts license plate. They for some reason feel its their responsibility to drive right next to me or tell me to get off the road.

Lights and visibility are not the issue; an apparant antipathy/contempt for those who don't meet the "bling" standards is.

I don't question that visibility/conspicuity matters when cycling in traffic. I don't really believe that is the subject of the thread. An argument could be made (a weak one, IMO) for gaudily patterned jerseys as a visibility issue but our cycling comrades on this thread are discussing the lack of respect given (supposedly by motorists) to those who don't dress/look or cycle like themselves. My take is that they are assigning their own prejudices to motorists.

Well, you could be right, but I still think that I'm taking advantage of "what works in practice" to make me a little bit safer.

And what's wrong with a little bling? What's wrong with dressing up? I just don't like the dark, depressing grunge look 24/7. Does wanting to dress up make me a Class-conscious Capitalist Monster?

I don't know if many of you are aware of this, but we Americans are like the worst dressers in the world. For some reason, we are collectively afraid of wearing anything more dressy than a t-shirt. I don't understand it, and I don't like it. I don't want to look like a slob, in any situtation, and not on my bike, either.

There is nothing wrong with a little or a lot of "Bling".

There IS something wrong with looking down on those who eschew the alleged advantages of the "Professional Cyclist Look." Even worse are those so-called cyclist advocates who make excuses for motorists who demonstrate lack of respect or common courtesty, as long as it is directed at those cyclists who don't fit the profile of the "professional looking cyclist" (AKA the self-proclaimed serious/real or true cyclist).

Quite understadable and admirable.

If you dress like a "professional cyclist" when off your bike in public places, I suggest you don't ask too many non-cyclists what you do look like. You may not like the answer.

I don't tend to do that when I wear a bathing suit either... yet that suit fits the function I want it to when I swim.

Perhaps the real issue IS that you are noticed when you wear the "bling" and really isn't that the desired result on the road... simply to be seen.

I don't look down on any cyclist! Where did I ever say I looked down on any cyclist because of how I prefer to dress?

Let me repeat for the third time... I absolutely don't look down on casual dressers, but I do take advantage of the fact that the public views athletically attired cyclists in a favorable way, and gives me a little bit more space.

I don't give a rat's ass what the public thinks about what I wear when off the bike in public places. But I have a hint of what about half of the populace thinks... I was getting together with a female friend for coffee, and I was unable to cycle, so I drove my car and was wearing street clothes, and she said, "Darn! I was hoping to see you in your bike clothes!"

If the men take offense, I don't care, because I don't go that way. If some of the men like what they see, I can't fundamentally help them, but I'm glad to give them a little bit of visual entertainment.

Understandable that there are some people easily offended because the public doesn't give them the respect they deserve. But what is it called when I used to get honked at 10 times each way in city traffic and now it's 10 times a week if I'm lucky?
Been 2 years now and the pattern stays.
It seems to be, no matter what anyone says, YOU'RE the one who is angry and offended for everyone else. Perhaps you are the one with the problem, not us. Like I said, if drivers respect people who look a certain way, fair or not (this is life), wouldn't you try to match the profile that gets the most respect from drivers? Or are you saying that drivers respect people equally no matter what they look like? (Which seems to be the 'its a fair world' after school special mentality that you're taking the side of).

Re-Read messages #2, #3,#4, and #5 of this thread. My comments about cyclists who write of their superior status (or more worthy appearance) due to their "Bling" were not directed at your comments.

I did re-read these posts, I don't interpret that they think that they're better than other cyclists, sorry, this whole thread hit some giant insecurity spot in your psyche, and now you're barfing and leaking all over the place.

Gratuitously offered psyche "analysis" from Internet strangers about strangers should always be given the appropriate consideration. Now I know what "serious" cyclists know - I guess I need to get some skin tight spandex to attract the hotties and ward off motorists who disrespect those who ride a bicycle sans serious-cyclist-approved "bling".

You wear what you want, no one is stopping you.

But just remember this... your town has roughly 27,000 people in it. From my point of view, you don't even HAVE any traffic.

I bike commute 25 miles one-way into work in possibly the most bike unfriendly city in the USA, Houston TX, whose metroplex has like 4,000,000 people.

We have some of the worst traffic in the USA.

I think I've earned the right to comment on what I think works to keep me safe in traffic, OK? If I thought dressing up in muskrat skins would make me safer on the road, I'd do it. Because I just want to get home in one piece everyday, and I would ignore the PETA activists who would be coming after me because I was a muskrat-hater.

Pretty interesting assumptions you're making there... While my shorts are skin tight; the jersey I mentioned in the opening post is not. I have always worn shorts since the 70's and the days of wool shorts... they simply prevent unwanted chaffing. So skin tight shorts never brought on positive reactions from motorists...

As far as the Jersey, it is not skin tight... no where close... I bought XXL just to avoide the skin tight thing. Yet the motorists' attitude seemed to change none the less.

So what the motorists (and other cyclists) saw were a biking jersey (not skin tight) and a drop bar bike (from the 80's), and yet I got positive reactions from both. Up until this change, I rarely got waves from other cyclists, and frankly, never from a motorist... well, except the "hoots" from girls many many many years ago.

LOL... the entire population of the entire state of Iowa is just 2.9 million... Houston, the city, is listed as just over 2 million... of course, that is not counting the surrounding areas. What a difference in perspective.

Yes it is. And you are certainly entitled to your beliefs on the effects of your own self-image on motorists. I doubt such beliefs/stereotypes are related to location, and are far more likely the result of a willingness of some smug cyclists to assume that motorists practice the same stereotyping/generalizing about lowlife cyclists based on the appearance of their cycling "kit".

BTW, ever been out of town? Or bicycled regularly anywhere else in the world other than your own backyard? I have; Philadelphia - 25 years biking, Europe (mostly Germany) 10 years, Midwest 9 years rural, Easten Oregon rural 2 years. My impression is that motorists don't give a dang how cyclists are dressed or what type of bicycle is being used (except perhaps for "what's dat" recumbants) when cyclists are in their proximity; only is the cyclist in front of them or not.

Sorry, you now have people post from across the whole country disagreeing with you. None of us are being smug about dressing the part, we're just saying that a lot of motorists are prejudiced and better safe than sorry. Not once did I put down anyone who wasn't dressed "like a pro."
So you made a few wrong assumptions about our intentions, there's no need to put down anyone for not having "traveled the world" like you have.
I do agree with you, there are a lot of smug bikers out there along with drivers and everyone else who like to put down people, but there's not what we're doing. And also, there are a lot of people who are smug and look down on people who dress in tight shorts and jerseys, it goes both ways.

Just for comparison:

New York City (released 11/21/02) 8,008,278
Bronx 1,332,650
Brooklyn 2,465,326
Manhattan 1,537,195
Queens 2,229,379
Staten Island 443,728

I live in brooklyn.
That is f**ked up, no wonder we don't have room for grass.

Muskrat skins for sale

Wrong guy... I have biked regularly in Texas, toured across the US from CA to TX and down the west coast from San Francisco to the tip of Baja. Biked in Spain. Been in far more places and have seen how the world is. Yeah, I've been out of town. I'm nearly 50... Been riding since elementary school... commuting actually. On and off... I get tired of it from time to time. Usually a change of job or some stupid auto event puts me off for a bit. Never really had a chance to commute rural though... all of my commuting experience is city. Never lived anywhere where just 27,000 people live.

My impression is that out in the country things may be a bit different... in the city, folks do strange things to make impressions... Drive 8MPG Hummers because they are status symbols, drive expensive Porsches, again for the status (where are you gonna open up a Porsche in the city). Anyway, maybe you get the idea... good chance the fickle lives lived in the city are judged the same way.

In the past I never gave a sh*t... I am a practical person... which is why I always liked cotton. I just recently bought my first jersey... and holy toledo... it was as if I clicked a switch. But hey... maybe it's just a city thing... lotta folks drive 4WD vehicles here that never see dirt. Go figure.

Don't see too many folks wearing expensive Italian loafers in the country now do you? Must not matter there.

Gotta go check into those Muskrat skins... Hear they're the next big thing...

What I want to know is where does all the ***** go with that many people?

Correct - wrong guy.

kf5nd writes as if cycling experience in Houston or a big city is somehow a special qualification to accurately quess about the effect of cyclists' appearance on motorists' opinions, and more importantly their reactions. Posters of Messages #2 thru #5 write of their own negative impressions of cyclists who don't look like themselves and "see" those prejudices acted out in others. I don't find these self-centered "observations" very convincing and again I'll be more convinced about motorists' opinions, when motorists are quoted about their special "respect" for the "Professional Cyclist Look" AKA "blinginess."

It stinks around here...

ME ME ME I'll take a dozen !