grantelmwood

Cyclist, someone who rides a bike for transport or income.
Lance Armstrong Cosplay; someone who rides in circles for exercise or to avoid marital home

JoeyBike

I may be the exception here. If that fellow is "homeless", it may be by choice. I have known a few people in my lifetime who went "homeless" during the mild weather months just to save money. One of them used a road bike as transport and wore a roadie kit (as social camouflage) only owning what was in a backpack. He hung out in coffee shops by day, or local parks. At night he had all sorts of clever places to sleep including the lobby of post offices which are not in local cop jurisdictions and by the time anyone could get a federal marshal called out it would be morning and he'd move on without issue.

My exception as I mentioned is that I RELISH people thinking I am homeless while on long bike tours. It keeps them form robbing me. I'm basically "invisible" to most people (not on the road hopefully!). I try to stay clean enough looking so the cops don't bother me but rough enough to convince the average jerk that I don't have a penny to my name. It takes A LOT OF MONEY to hit the road for 7 months at a time. I'd rather people didn't know that. Also, I was technically homeless. Sure I could have crashed at Mom's place or a friend in an emergency so I always had a safety net, but I gave up my apartment every time. So yeah, I can identify on some level because I knew some pretty hardcore homeless people and have experimented with that myself.

I was never homeless and "broke", and you'd be surprised how many other homeless people are far from broke.

livedarklions

Maybe, but not at all likely in an urban setting. Everybody I've spoken to about being truly homeless in a city has told me just how horrible and unfree that circumstance is. Between dealing with law enforcement, people trying to chase you away, and potentially violent people preying on them and/or stealing the few possessions they have, it's amazing that they can cope.

I really don't want to debate this here, but it leads into too many simplistic blame statements if we perpetuate the myth that these are a bunch of people making weird choices. I'm sure you can find a few, but that's not the real issue.

BTW, pretty interesting you'd rather be thought of as homeless than as a cyclist if I'm reading you correctly. Not saying you're wrong, just find it unusual.

Erzulis Boat 

It's an encampment clean up, and I assumed that it was a volunteer helping the community. What did you "see"? (self righteous tone)

We both know what we see. I do agree that this marginalizes this individual, and is in very poor taste, but this is the internet, for better or for worse.

phughes

As I said, pretentiousness.

livedarklions

Wow, if you're going to get snarky about assumptions (especially when taking on your own "self-righteous tone"), at least check your own. Here's the source of the photo:
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matie...#photo-4312367

Notice that the caption clearly states that he is towing "his belongings", so no he is not some volunteer. He's a homeless man being ejected from the spot where he was living.

OP did not list a source for this photo at the top of the thread, so we did not know it had already been published. For all we knew, it was a photo OP took that day. Part of the major indignity that occurs to people who become homeless is the utter lack of privacy in any meaningful sense of the word. I think it takes a pretty cold heart to chide someone who wanted to respect whatever shred of privacy a homeless person might still have. The OP corrected the misunderstanding about the photo already having been published with the gentleman's name attached (which strongly implies consent), so that should have been the end of it.

daihard 

I truly appreciate your effort to treat our unhoused neighbours as humans. Thank you.

Calsun

When I first started making long distance trips down the California coast the only other people on the roads were what we called then "hobos" who were homeless men trying to survive. A few times I camped with one and would get tips. One fellow I saw over a period of years would have his floor pump tied with twine to the top tube of his bicycle and his belongings would be wrapped in newspaper and attached to the rear rack.

But even as a "cyclist" I would get grief going inside stores or restaurants with my bike shorts and shoes with their metal cleats. Motorists would pass me and give me the finger as I was on "their" road and did not have a right to do so. Many times I have had truckers force me off the road by pulling ahead so their trailers were even with me and then they would move over until I left the highway.

We live in a pseudo-christian culture where those with wealth are presumed to be blessed by god and deserving of their good fortune, and those who are poor must be lazy. The best way for the overclass to stay in power is to divide the working classes so they fight amongst themselves and it works nearly every time.

Erzulis Boat 

Wait a minute! It IS a homeless guy? Who'da thunk.

livedarklions

The photo is just over 10 years ago. I hope things went better for him after. His name is so common as to be google-proof.

PeteHski

That's a pretty decent mtb he has there, especially given it's 10 years ago. Specialized Stumpy FSR with Fox Float forks and probably Deore level groupset. You don't see homeless guys on bikes like that here. That's why I thought it may have been a trick question.

livedarklions

Sometimes people live in nice cars when it's the only substantial thing they own. We don't know how he became homeless. Keep in mind that this is California and the foreclosure collapse of the housing market was still being dealt with. Even that bike was probably quite a bit cheaper than a rent deposit or one month's rent.

Given the tendency among some of the people here to judge someone's commitment to cycling by the quality of the bike, it is a bit of a trick question, but perhaps not the trick you had in mind. No one who isn't homeless would have trailers with that stuff.

staehpj1

Bike touring I have met some homeless or maybe homeless folks.

I met a homeless guy when I was riding the Pacific Coast. He had a nice bike and some so so camping gear. He "identified as homeless", but could have passed as a bike tourist and he kind of is. He bounced around on the coast all year and was a wealth of info. He gave me some tips about stuff like jade hunting near Kirk Creek where he said you could make a few bucks. He warned me to buy all my groceries before getting anywhere near Bandon where he said the prices would shock me. He said he would need to head home for a couple months at some point soon to work for a a while to make a few bucks. Nice guy doing his best to get by.

I also met a guy who was "walking across the US". He at some point had apparently stopped actually trying to acheive that goal and was basically just bouncing from place to place with long stays. I think he had been at a casino campground for a year when I met him. He said the $10 campsite fee was reasonable and the casino food was good and cheap. I had a few meals with him in the casino. He was a nice guy and it is always nice to meet interesting folks on the road He said his daughter managed his mail and made sure his money was there when he needed it. He had all very high end gear all hauled in a double wide baby stroller. I don't remember for sure, but I think he had bee on the road 10 years or so. I'd consider him homeless, but it is a judgement call and I guess he gets to make that call.

I also remember a woman who rolled into camp late, screaming threats of bodily harm to anyone within earshot. The threats were both obscene and violent. She went on loudly most of the night until she passed out. She had a clunky but serviceable bike and similar quality camping gear. I would consider her homeless. I have no idea if she was having a rare episode or if she was routinely psychotic. Apparently the consensus was that she was routinely like that and largely ignored as harmless.

Folks become homeless by choice or because they have problems like mental health, drug addiction or whatever. At a glance you can't tell what their situation is.

livedarklions

I'll agree with the "or whatever" part. There's lots of reasons why people end up homeless. Some of them may be the result of fleeing home situations that are worse, let that sink in. Also, people really do lose jobs and find themselves rapidly running out of money.

Eric F 

Are those the only 2 options?

JoeyBike

When I toured the West Coast there were many homeless people cosplaying as bicycle tourists so they could stay in the state parks. They would leave during the day and go wherever they go, hide much of their belongings in trees, under shrubs in the state park campground. Due to the popularity of the Southern Cali parks there was a ONE DAY maximum stay. Those dudes would just roll back in at dusk and setup camp same park every night. I interacted with dozens of these folks and my sampling was 95% mentally ill and 5% mentally challenged. These folks were so skilled at dumpster diving that they had dairy products like cottage cheese, milk, etc that just went one day past the date, still cold! I was certainly intrigued by the ingenuity. Some got high at night and REALLY crazy but I didn't experience any threatening behavior. I did keep a close eye on my stuff tho.

It was a valuable experience in seeing challenged folks as human beings, not sidewalk furniture. As for how to handle the homeless situation in the USA, i.e., somehow help those particular people, I have no clue. Just another question I'll as God if I ever meet her. What was the plan there?

grantelmwood

This sounds highly fake.
Did they sign a month to month lease?
What did they do with their furniture for those few months a year?
Did they get a new apt and furniture every winter?

smd4

For me, a “cyclist” should also be to perform most routine maintenance himself—cable replacement; bearing replacement; derailleur or brake adjustment, etc. I’ll make an exception for things like wheel building and headset cup replacement.

Not saying all this work needs to be done at home—nothing wrong with taking the bike to the shop— but to me a “cyclist” should be able to do most tasks if necessary.

Polaris OBark

A real cyclist smelts her own ore.

JoeyBike

Speaking for myself, I rented furnished apartments. Had a self-storage unit down the street once. I tried not to have too much stuff so I could work a year and take a year off. Mom's house was a good place to store things a couple of times.

As for my "friend" the homeless roadie, he owned what was on his back in a backpack. Whatever else he accumulated for whatever reason got stored at his sister's house where he also lived during our hottest months. I just remembered that one time his bike either got stolen or wrecked (can't remember) and I gave him my old Nishiki Crit road bike.

He was actually a good conversationalist when on his meds.

BTW, Winter down in NOLA is our good weather. July-September is when he'd hideout at his sister's place. Heat and humidity is brutal.

terrymorse 

A real cyclist forges a new fork at the nearest blacksmith shop. By himself, so he won’t be disqualified from the race.

Eugene Christophe