I was a punk kid once. Back in '77 during the first and last real daze of the movement . . .
Given this, Im not sure I would put too much/any thought into what an angry young kid has to say about my lifestyle, or anything for that matter :p
Ironically, radical car jihadists always think we are bums and losers for not buying into autocentric lifestyle and holding them up from the more important stuff they do.
Go figure :deadhorse:

Anything that effects people negatively is offensive, whether it's auto traffic that has to wait for someone to get out of their way or the dog walkers who need to keep left on the bike path.

A slightly different perspective from an incident that happened last weekend. It was after work and snowing, I made my usual run through town out to the pub for friday night happy hour with several friends. Typical friday night, and I always ride. When I got there two people in the pub were offended that I rode my bike in snow because they said it was hard enough for drivers to drive an avoid other cars, and I was just being selfish by riding in those conditions by making car drivers have to be extra careful to avoid me.

I was kind of taken aback and thought about it for a while.

1. I had good lights, reflective clothing and the right tires for the conditions, I never slid or felt like I was going to go down. Not my first time riding in snow.
2. I ride like no one can see me anyway, so I had a hard time reconciling that with drivers needing to be extra alert around bicycles.
3. And my final conclusion, if they they feel it is unsafe to drive and share the road then they should have been the ones to stay at home. I like to ride in the snow, I like the quiet sound, the feel because it's so smooth, and the way the world looks from a bicycle seat as the world turns white.

Offensive as in shoot first , ask questions later , ?

...might go to one of those concealed weapons threads, that keep popping up, like Skeet.

What movement was "the movement"?

Some people just makes pointless assumptions to initiate pointless arguments.

I bike commute because I enjoy it. Some have other reasons, but I don't care.

Some go camping because there are campgrounds.

And what were they trying to move? :)

It's an interesting question not really posed here before (which is unusual) and that is one why reason you've gotten so many replies. I think it's wrong to deliberately or callously flaunt wealth in front of those less fortunate. Could the actions of camping or commuting by bike be considered flaunting your wealth? Under certain circumstances maybe, but generally no.

No more so than briskly walking, running or cycling past invalid patients sunning themselves in front of a nursing home.

this is useless thinking, it has no purpose and certainly is not actionable, so why ponder it... ? is anyone going to stop those activities because it might offend anyone? is anyone that would be offended by these activities, really interested in your reasoning?

this is basically a waste of time.

People who bike commute through less affluent areas on nice bikes are purposely offending the folks who live there. However, it would be OK to drive a nice car through there, or wear nice shoes, but a bike is offensive.

It seems naive to think that cycling/camping is solely masochistic. I enjoy commuting by bike because it gives me the fresh air and blood-flow to start my work day well. I also have a car, and drive to work occasionally.

As a driving-cyclist I always keep a bike rack on my car. Sometimes my friends laugh at me for driving around with an empty bike rack on my car, but I'm not alone. I'm always seeing cars and SUVs with empty bike racks on the back. It's kind of a funny picture—cyclists driving all over the place. I find this pretty ironic but it's understandable. What gets me is when one of these bike-racked SUVs cuts me off on the road. It's happened more than once...not leaving enough shoulder space while passing or pulling a right turn in front of me while I'm clearly visible. I want to say to these guys "I thought we were on the same team!" These are the only cyclists that I find offensive.

Bike commuting or camping is offensive to poor people? This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. This is so stupid that I don't even know how to respond to this other than with a giant facepalm.

I like to play "poor" with my Titanium cookset and stove with 900+filled European goose down mummy sleeping bags. Sometimes I add a Kevlar canoe too.

The original statement about camping is about the most ridiculous bit of twisted logic I've ever heard. The same would apply to extending it to bike commuting. It's not worth thinking about. Just enjoy your commute.

This. What I personally find more offensive is that ridiculous Tom's Shoes "One Day Without Shoes" event. First of all, it is NOT hard without shoes. If I'm not on the bike or at the office, I go without shoes almost exclusively. Have for nearly 3 years now. It's a great way to keep feet and legs strong and to feel more "connected" with where you're stepping and all that other new-age jazz. To equate going without shoes for a day to the extreme poverty of 3rd world countries is just ridiculously short-sighted IMHO. Plus it's REALLY not hard at all.

As for riding my bike? I couldn't give 2 flips what other people think about me. Which is pretty obvious given that I regularly go barefoot in public. :D

There's also a distinctly offensive element in the "camping-as-playing-poor" argument in that it seems to make the assumption that anyone who is poor came to be poor because they had no alternative. The comment locolobo13 made about his parents being "hillbillies from the Ozarks and Ouchitas" made me think about this. My family is from West Virginia and as far back as I've been able to trace (1810 census), I had an ancestor living in a cabin in the exact same part of the Appalachians where my grandfather was born. My grandfather used to tell me stories about his Uncle Virgil getting upset when people tried to put his house on the electric grid. You can probably picture it. Would Uncle Virgil be upset to see people camping? No way! He might not understand why you'd pack up and go home on Sunday though he'd probably be glad to see you go, but he certainly wouldn't think you were mocking him. I realize there are a lot of people who are homeless because of circumstances beyond their control, but that doesn't mean they wish they had a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence.

That said, I think the original question is pretty interesting. My wife took a class recently where they had her reflect on inadvertant classism, and it turns out it's everywhere in most of our lives. As I understand it, my choosing to ride a bike to work when I could be driving a shiny new SUV (or zero emission electric car, if that's your preference) isn't classism. My coming on this forum and suggesting to random people that they should try Schwalbe Marathon Supremes definitely is. If I smile and wave at a guy riding his old department store mountain bike to work because it's his only form of transportation, that is probably OK. If I suggest that he oil his chain once in a while, that's probably not OK. If I pull up beside him and say something like "Great day for a ride, huh?" that's a gray area and could be reasonably interpreted either way.

Also, as in the case of the aforementioned hillbillies, there are a lot of subtleties to be considered. For instance, it may be true that the guy riding that squeaky old Hardrock can't afford a car and "has to" ride a bike, but that may very well be the result of a series of free and well-reasoned choices he's made in life. He may be living exactly the way he wants to live, and there's a very good chance that he sees my shiny new bike with all its expensive accessories and thanks God that he isn't locked into the cycle of work and consumerism that so obviously dominates my life. He may not judge me for it, but he certainly doesn't envy my station in life.

Another thing I find offensive is how some people are so car-centric that they automatically associate an adult riding a bike with either poverty, or having fallen on hard times, bad luck, etc. There was that commercial for a title loan service or something like that, where it showed a woman riding/wobbling along on a big-box store bike, saying "you think I WANT to be riding this bike??" with the premise being that this loan money can help you buy those NECESSITIES, like a car. :rolleyes:

It's not a hobby; it's transportation.
I started riding a bike to work because it was quicker and more convenient than driving my car. In places where there is plenty of parking and no traffic jams, a car is all you need. Here, you also need a bike.
It's not a statement; it's practicality.

Paul

I used to bike commute 1.5 hours a day instead of driving .75 hours 4 days a week which meant I saved 3 hours a week, 150 hours a year, and $15,000 - $30,000 worth of time and $2500 in car costs.

It's a lot harder to become wealthy if you turn down free money like that.

That doesn't offend me at all. It's just human stupidity. But I guess it may be more prevalent in other locations. In large cities where lots of people ride I think this is less of a problem, although, I do encounter this from time to time even here.

You are over thinking things. I like to pedal and camp, together. Some people just like to ride, go fast, save gas, be green, what ever. For lots of people outside of the US, biking is a great way to get around. See, Germany with gas $ by the liter and other counties.

Funny I actually started bike commuting a couple years ago out of necessity and then it became a hobby (though it is still a necessity). I decided to go to engineering school when I was 30 years old even though I had a wife and child on the way, giving up one car has been a critical element in making it financially possible. One thing I have been offended by is when people (mainly people in cars) have treated me like I am some kind of an idiot for being on the road on a bicycle. It just happened yesterday, I was in a turning lane, doing everything right, I was well lit, hand signalling my turn etc. and some jerk yelled as he passed by "get the F*** off the road". That is offensive, because I don't really have the option (financially) of getting off the road.

As far as homeless people being offended by me as I pass by, I don't really know much about that. I guess I do mostly commute on an old bike and I wear basic street clothes (sweat pants) so I don't look rich, but I also don't look homeless because my bike has lights and I wear a helmet. I have found many of them to be friendly and courteous as I ride by each day, they often smile or say hello and I do the same. I have actually found that many of them are more worried about offending others than they are worried about being offended. Sometimes they apologize needlessly if they inadvertently cause me to have to slow down or something.

Commonly people are worried that bike commuting presents an image of being down and out, unable to afford the basic conveniences such as a car. Which is the opposite of OP's concern.

After about 5 years of bike commuting I was pretty sure that it does present an image of someone struggling to get by, at least to a lot of people, and that I didn't care at all about it one way or another.

I'm also pretty sure that few people aside from cycling enthusiasts and bike thieves either know or care that you're riding a relatively expensive bike. A bike is a bike and a "good" one costs $250, or so I hear from time to time, so I wouldn't be concerned much about the random stranger thinking that you're flaunting your wealth with your headlights and panniers and carbon. Like as not they think you spent $300 and feel sorry for you.

Weather applied to camping, bike commuting, or anything else, this assumption that it is offensive to do so if you means to do otherwise is ridiculous.

I suppose by this logic I should do the most expensive, wasteful, and environmentally unfriendly things I can just because I may be able to afford them?

I guess instead of bike commuting I should drive a Hummer and pay for a reserved parking spot. Intead of camping to bein nature I should stay at the four seasons, demand my linens be washed daily, or maybe get a big huge RV so I can watch TV while "camping".

I camp as a way to detach from technology and enjoy the outdoors - it is often a "basecamp" for other activities in the woods for me.

I bike commute for many reasons, including exercise, enjoyment, limiting my carbon footprint, avoiding traffic congesting, and saving money over driving or mass transit.

Except for a very elite group, we all have limited financial resources and choose to spend our money in different ways. For some one way to save money may be to use a bike instead of car to get around some of the time, for others camping might offer an inexpensive and very enjoyable way to spend vacation.

When I'm not riding my bike, I'm generally wearing an old T-shirt and jeans. Depending on the weather, I may also be wearing my favorite hoodie, which is old and tattered. To top it off, I have long hair and a big bushy beard and my hair is usually quite oily. That is, I tend to look like many homeless men. It's not uncommon when I'm walking around downtown or riding public transportation for a homeless man to assume that I am also homeless, at least there are clues that come up in conversation that seem to me to be based on such an assumption. I don't rush to correct them, but I don't hide the reality of my life either. Typically when it becomes clear that I have a stable place to live, that isn't a problem. Notice, however, that this comes up because I'm having a conversation with them. My experience with homeless people is that they are just like anybody else (though perhaps they don't hide their eccentricities as well). I used to think that homeless people talked to me because they thought I was also homeless. Over time, I've come to notice that they talk to pretty much everyone and I just end up in more conversations with homeless people than most others do because I listen. (Note that the correlation between mental illness and homelessness is well documented and I accept it as correct, but mentally ill people, for the most part, value acceptance and social interaction just as much as anyone else, possibly much more.)

When I ride to work, it is because I am essentially a desk jockey with my job. Riding is the antidote to our modern lifestyle which almost coerces people into being extremely sedentary. It is a way for me to incorporate the outdoors and exercise into my daily routine. I must go to work, so I may as well do so in the best, most efficient and productive fashion.

What do I find offensive? I find the prospect of my arteries clogging and hardening prematurely due to an extremely sedentary lifestyle to be offensive. Also, I don't care to spend needlessly at the gas pump.

It seems like no matter what we do in the 21st century we are always offending someone. I do what I think is right and don't much care what others think.

I don't see where bicycle commuting is any more a hobby than commuting by bus or car or whatever. It's a mode of transportation.

Your second paragraph is good man..

The guys commonly seen around here riding horrific MTB's, not because they want to, but because they HAVE to, could care less about me, even if they happen to notice.

As an aside, this is one of the most thought provoking threads I have seen. Also the opinions of posters (that vary widely) are a great read. Well done OP.