holytrousers

That's a nice attitude, if only one could keep it towards everyday situations...
I had a similar lesson while heading to school. I was midway through a very bike-unfriendly highway at 20km/h with still 25km to travel and wasn't really motivated to try harder : headwind, terrible air, boring cars everywhere etc.
Then appears a cyclist out of nowhere and passes me without further notice. Nice carbon fiber road bike, helmet (rarity in Tunisia), fancy dreadlocks.. I got furious. I thought : "What the hell does he think he is doing. Why so arrogant ? He could have waved at least !" and tried to catch him. I would have appreciated some company, so i did my best to catch him up but 30km/h was his cruise speed and that was my limit. As i realized that, i tried to find some nice excuses: "whatever, i already did 25km so he wasn't that better than me" .. or : "his bike is much lighter than mine, i have to ride this old piece of junk..". of course it didn't help to feel better so i kept trying for about 15km while he kept slowly moving away.
In the end i realized that the guys' uncivilized ways weren't the problem. He ran the red lights and that's when i knew he won. It was my self-esteem that was put on trial.. I didn't know what was on his mind, so how could i judge him anyway. He might have had a fight, didn't sleep well, or better, he might have been late for an important meeting.
There was a nice feeling of humbleness mixed with a healthy need to rest. I also learned that being tired (and slow) is most of the time not a physical thing, but a consequence of failing to find meaning in harder pedaling.

FlMTNdude

phile

subscribed cause this thread is entertaining.

also semi related, about 2 years ago was riding to work on a biek that at that point had 2 weeks of life left in it before catastrophic failure. this was a dutch style city bike so bulky step-through, coaster brakes, single speed. ended up waiting for green light with a temp, it became an unofficial race without a word begin said , suddenly while passing an older woman (50's to early 60's) she somehow got involved to. so for the nixt mile and half it was 2 younger guys and an older lady racing through on old dutch city bikes. it was hilarious, and this lady kept up with us and even took the lead a few times.

indyfabz

On Sunday I was questioned by a salmon. He and his buddy were riding towards me on a busy street that had a shoulder for a short bit. Not knowing what they would do, I pulled all the way right tot he curb and stopped. "You couldn't have moved over so I could pass?" Can you believe that? He expected ME to pull left, closer to traffic, so he didn't have to. "You couldn't ride on the correct right side of the street?" was my response. He yelled something inaudible and I told him to grow a pair.

What's wrong with some people? Are they really so selfish and self-centered that they would ride illegally and then take issue with someone who is taking defensive measure to protect their own safety? If "I am always right even when I am wrong!" is the new normal, which I believe it is, the human race is doomed.

friday1970

I ride with the Detroit Randonneurs for some of their "shorter" rides. It's amazing how these guys that are 20+ years older than me are able to put up such quick paces and keep it there for 120+ miles. Many of them in the upper 50's and in their 60's. I'm no where near their level, and probably never will be.

Phil_gretz

someone decides that the contest is "too hard" and gives up. That person is the vanquished. The one who perseveres is the victor. It's the size of the fight in the dog, after all...

Skipjacks

Wasn't that like...the entire point of the thread?

eja_ bottecchia

eja_ bottecchia

Skipjacks

That's awesome. Not just that you got dropped by a little old lady, but that you've got a great attitude about it!

In my experience the guy who looks like the super serious cyclist is rarely the best biker out there.

The rider wearing flip flops and a baseball cap who rides everyday is the one you're never going to catch.

phile

well it was hilarious cause at first me and temp guy started racing each other spontaneously and somehow lil old lady joined the fray it was essentially 3 doofuses racing each other on bike path and cutting intersections and sidewallks to gain position for about a mile and a half and no one said a word it just happened. we were basically switching lead position every few seconds. to this date still best work commute i've ever had

eja_ bottecchia

eja_ bottecchia

Notso_fastLane

Pretty sure it causes some kind of rift in the space-time continuum.

At that point, they either get stuck in a time loop talking about both, or Kirk shows with phasers set to kill. I know what I hope for.

Skipjacks

That is not a universal constant.

I believe you, but where you live makes a big difference.

But around here, the guy dressed like Lance Armstrong is usually playing dress up. And the guy riding the used Wal Mart bike to his job as a dishwasher because that's his only transportation can out run anyone while wearing jeans and carrying a back pack. (I've been dropped more than once by this kind of rider on my commute)

That's not always the case, but I find it's the case more often than not in this area. Biking is not a super common hobby here. It's not like some cities where everyone rides

And on the rail trail I ride most I see guys with all the fancy bikes and gear in the parking lot when I show up....I go ride 20-30-or 50 miles...come back to the car and the same guys are sitting in the same place. The bikes haven't moved. It's like skiing, where you can ski down the slopes 3 times and pass the same snowboarder sitting in the same spot (usually right in the middle of the trail) all 3 times.

We also have a glut of people who join the local pretentious gym just to get the membership card they can show people, but never actually go to the gym. It's a whole thing. Mother in law used to work there. The business model specifically planned for something like 40% actual usable of the gym.

Baltimore suburbs are a weird place.

Now go 30 miles south to Washington DC and none of this applies. It's a super bike happy city where people know what they are doing and the guy dressed like Lance Armstrong can probably give Lance Armstrong a run for his money for a few miles (without steroids).

But Baltimore...nope.

It's amazing how much a difference 30 miles makes.

indyfabz

It's a chronic problem at that particular location that has been discussed on the Facebook page of at least one large, local club. I am going to raise it again this evening. People come off a bike trail and have to take to the streets for several miles to get to the next trail. Instead of *gasp* stopping where the trail ends, waiting for walk signal at a crosswalk and getting in the street there, where there is a left hand turn lane that they can take to reach where they are going long before the traffic behind them gets the green again, they ride the sidewalk and pop into the street going the wrong way until they can cross over to the right side. (Some people simply stay on the sidewalk). It's a heavily used bike corridor. Nearly every time I am riding back into the city I encounter salmon at the location. It gets even more dangerous when you have groups of people heading towards each other.

I was amazed that someone so in the wrong would ***** at me for protecting myself and them by taking steps to avoid a collision. (When I was 12 or so I was riding my skateboard on the wrong side of the street. My friend Joanna was riding her bike correctly, coming towards me. We both turned at the last second to avoid each other. She turned left. I turned right. We collided. I ended up with a broken arm. I had a crush on her sister, but it got me nowhere.) Then again, he did have aero bars and a carbon bike. Someone with a custom ti bike like mine would never have done something like that.

burnthesheep

I don't crit, I RR and do TT and am dabbling in mid distance duathlon/tri at the moment..........but check out the difference in these two videos. Sure, I can't imagine any of those crossfitters dabbling in bike racing to predict it as a part of the CF games. As the CF games have surprise events. But, the speed difference here is astonishing to see between some "elite fitness" gurus and some actual bike racers.

Crossfitters trying to crit:

Heres a vegan racing a crit, but not a crossfitter:

TimothyH

They don't allow meat eaters in their crit?

What happens if they find out that one of the vegans was eating meat? Is there a beef jerky blood test for performance enhancing meats?

Oh, and "We are going to yell at you."


-Tim-

Koyote

In my neck of the woods, there's a rider who looks pretty unassuming: wears jeans, cheap MTB shoes, sometimes has a Bluetooth speaker clipped to his beltloop playing music while we ride. He's usually on a dirty old SS bike. He's got a cool nickname.

First time I laid eyes on him, I figured he was a wickedly strong rider; I was right.

phile

oh man that right there cracked me up

dennis336

Nice story and great attitude and response to the situation. The only tragedy is, with him always ahead of you, neither you - nor he - had the opportunity to wave.

indyfabz

In Lancaster, Chester and Berks Counties in PA it's the unassuming Amish and Mennonite kids you need to respect. Some of them will drop you like a bad habit--if they were to ever pick up bad habits--while wearing those stiff, black jeans and work boots. I remember struggling to draft a local teen girl who found herself in the midst of a charity ride one Saturday morning. She was wearing a dress and bonnet while riding an old Raleigh with a rack and milk crate on the back. She had mirrors on both sides of her bars and...wait for it...a rear Campy disc wheel she likely picked up at the T-Town swap meet.

burnthesheep

Now, this guy is real and is a legend.........

TimothyH

This sounds so sexy. Bet she smelled great too.

I might have to make a trip up there, see if she has an older sister.


-Tim-

indyfabz

Like freshly churned butter.

I would tell you what an old riding buddy once quipped about the Amish and women, but I fear doing so would get me in trouble.