triumph.1

gotta love youthful direspect. I'd just laught and give a thumbs up.

rebel1916

OK, let's get a grip man. Why should anyone who tags along with an existing ride, expect them to wait for him if they can't keep up? These guys do this ride with the intention of training/working at a certain effort and they are supposed to not drop anybody who happens to start the ride with them? That's just silly.

As for the Junior thing, I would say 90% of the folks on bling road bike that I see are over 30, and a sizable majority are over 40. Of course, there are jerks in every age group. I also agree that your mom never gets old!

WNG

"Lighten up Lance! You missed a spot shaving your legs this morning."

Refresco

Try riding a 1980's pink road bike to high-school in a town of hicks and pick-up trucks. When I get buzzed by a truck, I usually just flex my arms and point to show how tough they are.

canyoneagle

It's not uncommon for a clique-oriented riding group to put the hurt on newbies, and dropping is a common thing. If the OP's friend was a regular in the group, then it makes less sense to me, but otherwise, it is more common that not. I don't endorse that kind of stuff, but I've heard of it happening within the more "aggro" groups, and have witnessed it a few times. It is pretty stupid, IMO.

Paramount1973 

I like this one...

rebel1916

I just genuinely don't understand this. If a group of riders is planning on working as hard as possible, why should they have to take an unscheduled easy day because some mook decides to tag along that morning? And I say this as a B ride type guy whou would be way more likely to get dropped rather than do the dropping.

Ancient Mariner

maybe you should just go all Joe Pesci on them. Most people fear psychopaths.

JesusBananas

New sig, thank you.

+500

It's only incredibly ironic that people are complaining about those durn young'uns being disrespectful to the clearly superior generation by making sweeping generalizations about an entire group of people based solely on their age.

mainstreetexile 

There are some awesome responses in this thread


Also:

A classic for any occasion.

canyoneagle

It's the psychology of it that I feel is un-necessary. When a group goes through the extra effort to try to ditch a new person, there's some testosterone at play. I've witnessed this from within the group doing the dropping. The starting pace was noticeably higher then our normal rides, with more attacks early on. I've heard of this in other groups. I guess one approach is to consider it a form of initiation or test for the new person.

There's a difference between what I'm talking about and someone dropping from the group's normal pace.

flash2070

"Nice shorts, are your bras and panties the same material"?
"Where are you headed so fast, to pick up a couple Johns at the bar with those tights"?
"The nail salon is the other way"
"Where are you headed so fast, the ladies room"?

P.S That was a stupid smart*** remark, by those jerks! My cycling buddy and I encountered them all the time! About 15 of them dressed in green and white! We call them the girls! If we see them coming from a far we say to each other.." here comes the girls let's whistle at them! :-)


Flash :-)

conradpdx

Nice Spanx!!!!!



Though I think I'll use "in your Mom/wife/gf for "Where's your helmet?" now.

cyclotoine

"If you're good, I'll let you try it"

-holiday76

"that's what your mom said too, then I shoved it up her seat tube!"

flash2070

Nice tight shorts....let me guess....Victoria secret? :-)

Velognome 

I used to just say "thank you" and smile...but I think I'll add sixtyfivers comment to my quiver

seypat

I was riding the trusty 72' LeJeune last September in a century when I encountered a rude group of roadies. The LeJeune was in full fred mode with fenders, racks and big trunk bag. The course is mostly flat but has about 15 miles around the 60 mark with some hills in it. This ragtag group caught me in the hills but I managed to hang on the back until the 75 mile rest station. We in turn, overtook a 3some in which one was riding a 80' Mercian. At the rest station, the Mercian rider and I were ogling each other's rides and swapping stories. One of the roadie group comes up and exclaims, "you 2 need to get a bike from this century!" Then we hear the guffaws and have to answer the usual questions that come after.

Them's fighting words!

So I size up the roadie group. They were a ragtag bunch. Then I look at what we have left to the finish. Flat and windy. Perfect! I wait and go out with them. Then after about a mile, I tell them I'm going to TT to the finish and see what kind of time I can manage. I tell them I will pull them the whole way but they have to keep up. So I take off and of course, they give chase. One by one they gradually fall off the back unable to keep up the pace. With 10 miles left I still have one beanpole left in the draft. We come out of the tree lined protected land and hit the bare coastal land and the wind! Now, I'm a 5'8" 195lb freight train type so the wind does not affect me too much. Can't say the same for the beanpole. When we hit the wind, I went to the drops and the beanpole could not respond. I broke his draft and he was toast! He faded quickly and was gone. I stood up at 4 miles left and was by myself. I kept the pace up until the finish. Then I refueled, rehydrated, and switched out my t-shirt for a different size. I loaded up the bike and left. On the road out I passed the Mercian trio finishing and gave them a honk and a thumbs up. About a minute behind them came the group of roadies that I dropped. They had blown up so bad that they had been overtaken by the Mercian trio who were just riding casually. I gave them a honk and a wave as well. Needless to say, they did not return the wave.

repechage

That is the way to respond. I hope the LeJeune was on a roof rack just so they knew who was waving at them. LeJeune's are most often Red, a color known to be faster too.

Velognome 

My son, catches Roadies on his Miyata 100 and asks if he can bum a smoke.


Been too long without pictures

bikingshearer 

Seypat, that sounds like what some of us of a certain age would recognize as a Maynard Herschon "big 'ring" story - a story of giving someone an on-the-road smack-down that usually contains that phrase "and then I shifted into the big 'ring . . . ."

I can't remember ever getting razzed like that by cyclists, even a group of Lance wannabes - and I get passed by such on a fairly regular basis. (Of course, I get passed by nearly everyone on a fairly regular basis.) It is far more likely to be me giving someone some guff, although it is never that kind. Sometimes, if I see someone out on high-end lugged steel, I'll say something like: "When are you going to get a real bike instead of junk from that fly-by-night operator?" The initial reaction varies, but as soon as they look over and see that I am smiling and of the lugged steel tribe, it always gets a good chuckle and a pleasant conversation. Depending on our relative speeds, the chat my last a few seconds or many miles, but it ied a good ice breaker - which is the point.

gaucho777 

"Your mom" comments are always effective, or just laugh it off:

RobbieTunes

Yep, because the people that wise off don't get it, anyway (unless he knew you, then you owe him....)
Some comebacks, all with a chagrined smile:

"I'm too cheap to buy speed."
"When you grow up, you can get a grown-up bike, too."
"What are you compensating for, again?"
"You'll get laid more often with wine than Red Bull."
"Wow, nice ride; my bike costs less than your front wheel."
"Como esta, carbon mafia!"

Usually I just smile. Around here, they're runners, too, part of the tri-yup crowd. They usually know me and just wave.
Away from here, I've truly never had anyone really give me anything but a wave before, even the carbon commandos.

Then again, I'm often with a 25-year-old tri-chick, the daughter of a friend.
The poor lads are quite often trying to avoid running over their tongues.

If we stop, and the conversation gets around to their times (with triathletes, it always does), I just ask them their PR's.
They'll give me the times, paces, etc. I mention that it's nice they run at a "social pace," without any real pain involved.

There's a benefit to being old and fat. But there's also a benefit to having once been young and very fast.

TimmyT 

This happens to me every now and then. I work at a place that is on one of the main cycling routes out of New York City. The best thing you can do to any other cyclist to have them stfu is to drop them.

I can do this on any bike I own, but it's easier on a bike with skinny tires. I usually commute on a Univega touring bike, but if it's a skinny tire day, the odds are pretty good that I can drop another rider regardless of what they are riding. I've only been dropped twice that there was no way I was going to keep up with the roadie --- one time, it was a really nice guy who was about double my age and looked like santa claus.

There are a lot of usable insults in this thread ... the one about crayons is pretty good.

Of course, this thread needs more photos......

caloso

I wouldn't get too worked up about the friend getting dropped. There are plenty of no-drop rides that have a cue sheet, an agreed-upon pace, and regroup spots. And there are plenty of rides where it's just "as soon as we get out of town someone's gonna drill it, hold on if you can, and if not make sure you have a flat kit and know your way home." The key is to make sure you know which kind you're on when you leave the shop.