indyfabz

fify


I have toys. Just got back from riding one of them for two weeks in Montana and Idaho. I have just never had to work 60 hrs./week to afford my toys.

kbarch

I voted "most of the time" because most of the miles (and virtually all of the elevation) I accumulate are on a road bike, on group rides, sportives, and solo rides I tell myself I should go on to maintain my cycling bona fides. However, most of my individual rides are very short rides on a Citibike, anywhere from 2-5 times a day during the work week. I've also have a fixed gear bike that I like to take out now and then, and recently picked up a cross bike, which I take out a little more often. I've raced, but have never been serious enough to shave. Yet...

Reynolds 

50% commuting
25% road
25% dirt roads (MTB)

Machka 

Almost all my rides are on road bicycles, although we will ride a mountain bike or folding bicycle once in a while.

All my rides are for fun, fitness, and training for randonneuring events or hill climbing challenges of some sort.

mstateglfr 

Hrm...

40% road riding.
50% paved path riding.
10% mtb trail riding.

That 40% and 50% are all on drop bar bikes- and the 40% is sometimes on paved road and sometimes on gravel road.

OmegaWolf

30% commuting
30% mtb
40% road
10% of road riding is in kit and clipless.

Eyedrop

I like to consider myself pretty serious. I do have a MTB, and used to ride motorcycles alot. So there is some diversity peppered in. But 95% of the time its the road bike.

I do ride the MTB maybe 2 or 3 times a month. It helps keep things interesting, and I like how its really developing more neuromuscular and anaerobic power, which is my two main weaknesses on the road. I can TT and hill climb well. But put me in a crit and expect me to respond to huge attack after attack, and i fail miserably.

Even though the MTB can be more thrilling and fun filled than road sometimes, the fact is I get a much more dialed workout in on the road bike. And its just way faster and more efficient. I can ride out my front door and go all the way to NYC if I wanted to. Doing that on the MTB would be absolutely ridiculous. Although the MTB is loads of fun, the road just has this element of seriousness about it which is addicting. All my best performances were on the road. With the MTB, your kind of at the mercy of the trail. It just can be very erratic..

Pretty much all of my riding is training or local group rides. Only race maybe 5 times a year...

nycphotography

I train in the winter. Check.
Sometimes indoors. Check.
I wear kit on the trainer. Check.
I commute in decent weather. Check.
I usually commute on my race bike because riding a slow bike sucks. Check.
I do park races. Check.
I do big road races. Check.
My race bike has a Quarq. Check
My backup race bike has a Qaurq. Check.
My cross bike has a SRM. Check.
My trainer has a power meter. Check.
My fun rides are team rides and have training value. Check.
I wear full kit when commuting. Check.
Sometimes even team kit like on wed when we do a team ride after work. Check.
I do own a mountain bike. Haven't touched it in years. Check.
I do own a cross bike. Which I'll probbaly race this fall. But cross is a bunch of tuned up roadies w/ no bike skills. Check.

Looks like I'm pretty much a roadie. lolz

wipekitty

Most of my annual miles are road cycling. You know: out in the country, alone or with a group, trying to suffer as much as possible on climbs, insisting that my spandex outfit be called "kit". I don't train for races because I have no interest in racing (though endurance events are interesting). I train to become a faster and more efficient rider capable of riding longer distances, because getting better at something is rewarding, and because the more efficient I get, the more I need to get a rush.

I also ride for transportation: commuting, errands, and so on. Commuting and most errands are done on a fixed gear road bike during the non-snowy months; I wear normal clothes for these rides (though sometimes with cycling shorts underneath). Commuting and errands are done on a winter bike (old MTB with wide studded tires) during the snowy months.

I have pretty much no interest in mountain biking, though gravel grinding seems promising (mainly because many of our roads are not paved). I also "road cycle" during the winter, though on a MTB, since the roads are covered in snow and ice. I guess...I'm not an extremely serious road cyclist, I just really like being on roads and going as fast as conditions permit.

John00

I wear Lycra and cleats, ride 40-50 miles every other day. Just by myself, no particular training program.

caloso

Same.

kbarch

Impression after 78 votes: Very interesting! Didn't expect "virtually all the time" to have such a clear majority (expected "most of the time" to dominate) or the distribution to have such a nice curve.

kbarch

Now, your profile says you have "lots" of bikes. Which reminds me of another poll I've been meaning to do....

redfooj

i hate anybody who calls it 'kit'; does that qualify me?

CliffordK

The problem is that none of the above really applies to me. I suppose I'm neither serious nor not serious

Most of my riding is either commuting or errands. I don't have a single regular commute. However, my shortest one-way commute is about 5 miles, and the typical round-trip commute is 20 to 40 miles. But, I would still have to classify single rides up to 200 miles as being commuting

I used toe clips for most of my life, but rapidly changed to cleats/clipless a couple of years ago. Now all my bikes use the SPD clipless pedals. I've had cycling specific jackets for decades, and am finally getting cycling specific shorts/tights, but don't have any kind of "kit", and am equally comfortable riding in jeans or my minimal cycling gear.

About 5K - 6K miles last year, and probably similar again this year.

Anyway, most of my riding is on a road bike. Even a folder that operates like a road bike. And panniers go on the road bike.

And some of the riding is fast, quite a bit isn't. Or perhaps the average speed will vary significantly within a ride.

These kinds of polls may automatically bias the answers. Certainly posting under "Road Cycling" could create a bias over what you might find in "General Cycling". But, in my case, since there is no answer that fits or matches my riding, then the whole question gets skipped.

kbarch

Oh, you just didn't like the way I described the options. That's a fair criticism, but sounds like you could have easily chosen "occasionally."

As for bias, well, the whole point was to gauge how serious the participants here are about the type of bikes and approaches to riding that this sub-forum is supposed to be about. I have no interest in how serious about road cycling people who don't participate here may be.

As far as confirmations go, so far the poll has disproved what I suspected instead. I suspected that most participants were only slightly more interested in "serious" road bikes and approaches to riding than other types, and that this forum is busy because it just happens to attract an enthusiastic contingent of general-purpose cyclists. It may get a lot of traffic on that account, but it's good to know that we're not ALL dabblers, and that there are plenty of folks who OUGHT to know what they're talking about here.

kbarch

Well, it disqualifies you from claiming to take this stuff seriously "virtually all the time."
But seriously, what DO you call it - when you want to refer to cycling-specific attire as a whole? "Garb?" "That stuff?" "Cycling-specific attire?" Or do you just dislike identifying or giving meaning to the category or ensemble?

Maelochs

QUOTE=kbarch;19703874]Impression after 78 votes: Very interesting! Didn't expect "virtually all the time" to have such a clear majority (expected "most of the time" to dominate) or the distribution to have such a nice curve.[/QUOTE]

If I go to a volleyball site and ask "Who here likes volleyball?"


As CliffordK notes also, it is very self-selecting: the options lead only those with easy affirmatives to reply. CliffordK does (I think) 100 percent of his riding on the road .... but doesn't feel like he fits. So 78 percent of 100 who responded ... which might only be 50 percent of those who read the question.

As for the "How many bikes do you own?" question ... post pictures.

I don't know why, since objectively they all look alike, but I like looking at pictures of people's bikes.

San Pedro

I guess I'm virtually all the time a roadie. No Lycra on 5mph rides with the kids, and no training regiment besides going as far as I can manage on my commutes. Mostly slow down on the few free rides I have. Lots of good views around here or I get lost.

ph0rk

Well, it is the road cycling forum. If you'd have put it in general you'd have different results.

kbarch

Maybe your post crossed with my reply to @CliffordK....

Yes, it is self-selecting. That was kind of the point: to quantify expressed points of view within this forum.

Meanwhile, I think there's a huge difference between saying one prefers something above others to saying one likes it, which is why, even as enthusiastic as participants may be, "virtually all the time" does NOT account for more of the responses than the remaining ones combined. I rather expected "most of the time" to be the prevailing response, and "occasionally" to be nearly as common as "virtually all the time." Maybe it would have been if I'd worded things differently, right?

redfooj

Cycling clothing...because that already is quite specific and without ambiguity

Except when I forewarn people in the office im about to change (for structured workout, not commuting!) then it's "belly and booty spandex"

jon c. 

I ride entirely in road and always in lycra, save for a cotton tee shirt on occasional shorter evening rides. But all for pleasure. No training and no stats involved.

Maelochs

Yes.

I have no issues with this or any other "poll" here. it provides whatever information it provides.

TMonk

See my "bikes" description. Also some commuting.