You should see the looks my fourteen year old son and I get when we show up to our club ride on his hybrid and my folding bike. I think it's comical and he's too oblivious to even notice.

Ok so i had a confrontation with a fred the other day and this is how it went as i rolled past a stop sign:

Fred: Hey! Stop sign buddy!
Me: Blow me

And thats how i deal with freds

I love your sig line BTW, it reminds of one of the lines in Austin Powers Goldmember: "There are two things I hate...Intolerence for someone else's culture.......and the Dutch!" or something like that!
Chris

I will always take a Fred over people on Zipp wheels who are not pros.

I think you'd be right.

A True Fred is actually to be respected. They can fix about anything bike related w/ some wire, duct tape, etc. In the meantime, the typical sub-fred/poseur is at the mercy of the LBS's wrench and PBK's (Pro Bike Kit) shipping times. And while the typical sub-fred/poseur is cowering in their basement on their trainer and waiting for the 1st sunny, 70 degree day before putting their $5k "racing" machine on the tarmac, the True Fred is out there slogging it out night and day, rain or snow on a 30 pound fully fendered and panniered road bike, hybrid, or MTB. And while not doing this at the greatest speed, a true Fred on the typical sub-fred/poseur's bike would be fast. True Freds rock, and all the while they don't give a flying F*** either way.

In the meantime, there's enough grey area between True Fred and Road Nazi to encompass about 95+% of the cyclists on BF, myself included.

use you illusion, george.

who?

pot. kettle. black. biker7.

of what?

you tell me, my septuagenarian stalker.

give it time, you're looking pretty good for one one at the moment.

and i frankly don't give a flying puck what you think gramps.

there you go again, bringing up 'little guys', you old pervert.

I guess I am one of those people. Just bought a bike with full DA and Zipp wheels for $900 (The value of the wheels).

Ann Landers could not have said it any better. Thank you Pcad!!

So with this logic there are varying degrees of fred. the more expensive the bike the greater degree of fred. or it Fred to the nth power.

"If you step across this line in my mud forest, you little punk, well I'll...I'll...I'll get on my old MTB and..."

Interesting; is there a little bit of Fred in everyone? Although, it may indeed be latent. I'm not so quick to assume a linear relationship. I suspect that the likelihood of being a Fred or sub-Fred is indeed a joint distribution. There may be interaction effects such that one is not a Fred even when owning and riding a $10K+ bike.

Going to go for my ride now...while out there, I'll think about the makeup of f(Fred).

Wikipedia's, and therefore the correct, take and definition on a Fred. Apparently there are regional differences in who is considered a Fred.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_(bicycling)

I rode with in a group on Sunday morning, and in this group was a guy in ~35 on a might fine looking Moots, all DA, with KsyriumSLs on there. "Dang," I say to him, "that is a great looking bike. How often do you race?" "I've never raced before," he replies. I, and everyone else in the group, including the 55 year old, proceeded to leave him in the dust when we reach the hills in Pedernales state park. It didnt bother me one iota that he dropped so much money for all that unnecessarily high end equipment, that's his money to waste. And the way he dressed (plain black lycra shorts, plane color jersey) didn't imply Fred of either sort.

Name calling is so droll. I know you have trouble controling your rage for being pint sized. Knowing you lack basic cognitive skills, for the record, your new handle of little bittie...is a double entendre. Bit as in a small particle or in your case little fella and bitter which is a function of you being small. The perfect confluence. I do want you to know I reserve the right to substitute "the fly" when occasions permit as you fly around almost undetected due to your minature stature (status) and then invariably bite somebody.

How many times have you been banned again? Isn't that your badge of courage little bittie?

I would venture to guess that, on the average, Fred's have more finanical clout, better political contacts, and better public negotiations and activism skills than the average road Nazi. Support these guys. They are the ones that can best promote cycling, bike routes, and bikes lanes.

I was part of the Denver Washington Park bike wars in the late 1980's. Through public activism, demonstrations, and meetings, we got the recreation department to ban cars and create a 2.4 mile continuous closed loop around the park. Thus the origin of the daily 6 pm Wash Park midlife crisis criterium.

I was a 32-year-old lawyer Fred then riding a then new 1989 Trek 660. I'm now a 52-year-old lawyer Fred in Scottsdale, AZ taking on the City to move the horsey people and RV's out of the West World loop and opening it up to cyclists. I still have the 1989 Trek and now have a mixed stable of steel and titanium crit, TT, track, and Tri bikes I have rebuilt and modified.

As one of my former Fortune 50 senior executives said about me to my predecessor, "Get out of the way, watch him, and learn something."

Fred's do indeed rule! They are your champions.

where as your "hoping" someone gets hit by a bus reveals that you are nothing more than a twisted and bitter old puck.

Without hope little bittie, you have even less then what you are which ain't much.

Whatcha talkin' about Willis? Judging by Phreadcad's expression, it is very possible that he was surprised when a group doing 10mph faster than him suddenly caught him and started riding by...

This is why I wear the XL wicking T-shirts from mega-lo-mart..... I Know I'd look like a human bratwurst dressed like that.

Now I am really confused. I am one kind of Fred when I am on my 1974 steel bike and another kind of Fred when I am on my CF bike?
Does that make me bifredar?

Where the f does that leave me? I don't have a $2k racing bike or Disco kit, nor do I ride on bike paths very often? OMFG I am NOTHING!

Actually, those guys with the Zipp wheels are most likely Freds also. They just don't realize it.

I know a couple guys I ride with occasionally in the Summer that would react in a manor that might cause you to re-think your Fred Greeting. I'm not saying they would cause you physical harm, they would just make it real interesting for you when entering or exiting the United States or possibly getting pulled over by your local law enforcement officer.

He/she does seem to follow you around...I think it likes you, my precious!