roccobike

What tom asked.

chipcom 

fred
1) n. a person who spends a lot of money on his bike and clothing, but still can't ride. "What a fred -- too much Lycra and titanium and not enough skill." Synonym for poser. Occasionally called a "barney".
2) n. a person who has a mishmash of old gear, does't care at all about technology or fashion, didn't race or follow racing, etc. Often identified by chainring marks on white calf socks. Used by "serious" roadies to disparage utility cyclists and touring riders, especially after these totally unfashionable "freds" drop the "serious" roadies on hills because the "serious" guys were really posers. This term is from road touring and, according to popular myth, "Fred" was a well-known grumpy old touring rider, who really was named Fred.

I-Like-To-Bike

Far too high tech and complex. Fixed gear is all about simplicity. Anybody who is Seriously Hip knows that!

THIS is very serious fixed gear; makes all us Freds break out in hives when showed up by one of these.

roccobike

Thanks chipcom. BTW how did you know I have chainmarks on my white socks?

chipcom 

Oops, forgot to post the reference:
https://www.bicyclesource.com/you/cul...glossary.shtml

chipcom 

This is what makes me break out in a cold sweat, fear of being dropped overcoming even my ability to control my bowels:



Now this guy is a serious cyclist!

I-Like-To-Bike

You fooled me; I thought for sure it would be concerning adult hipsters serious about fixed gear bikes without brakes in traffic.

tom cotter

Thanks

Dogbait

Brakeless hipsters are everywhere these days. Nice trackstand.



Dogbait

Fred Smedley

Fred has arrived!

cruzMOKS

Hey Chipcom,

Thanks for the link to Bicycle Source.

I remember riding up a steep hill a few months ago, I was breathing really hard. And this 10 year old kid dropped me like I was standing still.

kingsfan4life

enough said

Blackberry

Amen brother. I tried to stay away from this place, but its posts like yours that bring me back into the fold.

I've ridden everywhere from Death Valley to the Italian Alps. As a professional writer and photographer, I've had articles on cycling published in numerous magazines. I own seven biycles. I take at least one bicycling vacation every year. But never, not for a moment, have I considered myself a *serious cyclist* in any sense of the words. For me, it's all about what you've posted above--the joy, the deep contentment, the simple pleasure and the many friendships. On the other hand, when people blow by me like they're shot out of a cannon, I do sometimes feel a momentary twinge of envy.

CrossChain

GrannyGear..........what a cheesehead! Probably rides lugged steel and leaves a dribble of BagBalm down the road. (No, this is not the Flamer Forum-- I'm an old friend of GG's. He actually meant it, experienced it, and is still out there at almost 60 chasing down those True Cycling moments. More likely he needs BrainBalm.)

But he's undoubtedly pleased, Blackberry, that someone shares his notion of cycling. That makes at least two of you guys.

Mojo Slim

Well, we know ILTB is a serious rider and poster. He sure had no trouble coming up with lots of pictures of his bike.

Artkansas 

To me this seems to be one of the friendlier forums, with support for anyone doing anything on a bicycle. And yes, you are a Fred, but that isn't bad. There are two meanings to Fred. 1) an overdressed poser and 2) A fellow who doesn't care about the appearances, but will often kick the butts of "serious cyclists".
Sounds like you're a two. So am I.

Yeah, a lot of people here are into logging their rides with monitors for everything and money to spend. They chatter a lot because there is such a variety of small topics to discuss. But I don't notice that they look down on the others. They have threads about it and I just browse on. There is more joking on this forum than on others. No other forum appears to make a religion of pie

Most of my riding is to work and back. I'm too busy for it to be otherwise. But it's 2.5 miles of hills, and I've been riding for decades, and I ride everywhere I go. So to me, I'm serious. My bike setup hasn't changed in 2 years, so there isn't much to discuss there. It's been dependable, only needing a mild wheel retruing last week and a flat tire several weeks ago.(Not bad for 2 years.) Not much to discuss there.

But I don't feel left out. There is a great variety of experience here, from complete newbies to people who have raced, toured and ridden 10s of thousands of miles.

Most of us who get along, make it a point to make sure that our messages encourage positive response with humor, information and empathy. A few are contentious and argumentative. We can respond to them or not. That's one of the wonders of age, we can pick our battles and not respond to just any old challenge. So just hang loose and I bet you'll get to enjoy this forum more.

rideorglide

From one (relatively) newbie back into biking to another, and a fellow Long Islander to boot. Welcome. Reading your post, something resonated, (and it doesn't make a difference whether you are male or female.)

At 46 I feel a lot more in common here, where dealing with uncooperative joints, a little high blood pressure maybe, a few extra pounds, etc etc, is a lot more familiar of a concept, despite some of our best efforts.

A long, epic ride for me might be a mere 'warm up' in a different thread. I log my HR and whatnot, but it's just a convenient way for me to track some improvements.

My major goal this year will be to get sufficient conditioning where I can make it through my first C+/B- group ride, participate in the Tour De Cure and hopefully make it through 30 miles of tough hills.

My guess is that most of us are here because cycling is a major part of our lifestyle. Something we look forward to doing, when we get some time. Passion, enthusiasm, obsession, lifestyle probably describe what's going on here a little better than 'serious.' I'm guessing many of us simply love to ride, are grateful to be able to do that, and want to share it with a bunch of folk who have a good idea of what it means to be 50 ish and still riding or rediscovering a long-lost love of riding.

Bud Bent

Great points, tivoli1. I remember when I started riding a couple of years ago. I was in terrible shape, and my back so bad I didn't even consider an upright bike, opting for a recumbent, instead. I drew a lot of inspiration from several forums, especially this one. There was always a wide variety of riders here, from racers to beginners, and everything in between. I loved (and still do) reading about accomplishments by 50+ riders, and riding has been so good for my health, I feel obliged to pass on some of the inspiration to the next set of new riders here.

Meanwhile, somewhere along the way, I guess I crossed over into the realm of serious riders. I've been riding a lot lately with one of the best long distance riders in this area. On his fast training days, I can't begin to keep up with him, but on his more moderately paced days, we ride together and talk. On one of our first rides, he seemed a bit surprised at my speed on my recumbent, and was asking about my club rides. I told him I couldn't keep up with the real hammerheads in the club rides, but was fast enough to stay with most of the others. He said, "A lot of riders would consider YOU a hammerhead". I had to smile. I guess I somehow went from a geeky sandal wearing recumbent FOG beginner to a hammerhead. It just goes to show what a little 50+ bf inspiration can do for you.

But hey, to those who just love to ride, and have no ambition to push themselves to get faster, you probably outnumber us hammerheads on this forum, but I think there's room for all of us here, and I enjoy stories from every kind of 50+ rider. Keep them coming.

Jet Travis

True enuuf, muh man. Everytime I'm on some killer century with 10,000 feet of vertical climb, there's always some guy in cutoffs, flipflops and an old mountain bike who comes roaring past me at the five mile mark. By the time I get to the finish, he's had a couple of beers, packed his bike into his old dusty Volvo and disappeared.

I-Like-To-Bike

Thank you, I will take your message to heart.

RockyMtnMerlin

Darn: I came upon this threat a bit late. This is, of course, true. I think that the difference here on the 50+ forum is that most of us, most of the time, don't care if there are those kinda people out cycling around and we don't care if they feel that way about us. Guess that comes with maturity. I ride about 5000 miles a year, have a very nice titanium bike, do some race officiating and am on the planning committee of a stage race for 400 racers. But I don't really consider myself serious about the whole thing. If I were, I would quit dinking beer and lose those last 5-10 lbs so I could ride UPHILL faster. FWIW, I am serious about serious things; like the war in Iraq (but won't burden you with my views).

vger285

Im serious about my one speed when summer gets here!

scottogo

The definitive!
Hooray!

tom cotter

Here's a Fred story about sailing.

Years ago I was serious Hobie racer. Now, when I say serious i don't mean that I was one of the jerks who tossed the rule book in your face every chance he got ,but serious enough. We raced a series of regattas to crown a champion in our region. That person moved on to compete at the national level. it was serious competition. Regattas drew from 50 to 150 boats.

At one of our ocean regattas a guy shows up with what we thought had to be Hobie serial number one. Old, old boat, way too heavy when compared to our new lighter weight boats. His sails were dirty grey and so blown out that the sail numbers had worn off. Which the rule book police were trying to use against him to disqualify him. Class rules were you needed sail numbers on your sails. Not to be denied this FRED of a FRED used duct tape to construct new sail numbers. Nothing in the rule book about that! So the regatta began and as you've already no doubt guessed Fred put a horizon job on us. This guy could sail! This didn't sit well with the rule book crowd who continued to protest his illegal sails. After winning two of the first day's three races Fred withdrew his boat aptly calling us a bunch of jerks. Which even though most of the hundred or so skippers there weren't, enough were, that he had a point.

So Freds exist everywhere. They are not to be under estimated.

As for me, when it comes to bicycling I've got Fred written all over me. And you can't possibly underestimate me. The scale just doesn't go any lower.

Jet Travis

Great and well-told.