avatarworf

We get this all the time too! Everyone is amazed by our mirrors.

meanderthal

On a cross-country solo ride, I was asked by a nine-year-old how many years the trip would take me.

Not long thereafter, a boy of about fourteen, who probably left his bike out in the rain all year, asked how many bikes I'd go through making the trip.

divergence

One conversation that has always perplexed me is:(It should be noted here that I'm not on a folder, or on any other kind of unusually small bike. Hell, lately I get the same conversation on my long-wheelbase recumbent.)

At this point, the conversation can go two ways: I can tell the truth......or I can tell a blatantly transparent lie:

Neil_B

Try "No harder than it is on a man." Our parents and grandparents were raised to believe that women don't do certain things.

Neil_B

To a non-cyclist, devoting time and money to cycling means you must be part of the elite. I've had people tell me my 500 dollar Trek Navigator is a top of the line racing bike. I'm still waiting for the question "What is Lance Armstrong REALLY like?"

Muttsta

"Didn't you have a support vehicle?"

"So you must ride in the Tour De France right?"

"Have you met Lance Armstrong?"

gnz

Yes!, major 'eye rollers'. It is funny how most people's only reference to cycling is racing.

staehpj1

Is someone paying you to do that?

And not a question, but when asking directions to something in town and just a few miles away:
"That's to far to ride a bicycle" (pronounced BYE-sick-ul)

IronMac

I try not to give snarky responses to questions; most people are simply ignorant of what's possible and what's conceivable. Everyone's different.

gregw

I got asked several times "So how many sets of tires will you go through on a trip that long?" I don't understand the fascination, but when I say, "just the one set", they look astonished.

Shemp

Keep running, because usually someone has gone and called the cops about the crazy streaking neighbor.

arie

A Dutch policeman when riding on the left side of the road (on a cycling-path) stopped me and said: We're not in England here.
No Sir, I understand. In that case your English is very poor.
Penalty: 30 Euro

Muttsta

I got asked that so many times on my trip as well

hoss10

I too really hate the "how much did your bike cost" question. The answer is a no win. I ride a custom bike which by elite bike standards was really cheap, by average bike standards was sort of expensive but worth it, and by the standards of the non-biking public was the most expensive bike they have ever seen, and really stupid. I have stopped answering the question.

Machka 

I am in the same sort of situation as you are. Mine is also a custom bike ... one of the least expensive of all the custom options I looked at, but definitely more than what a non-cyclist would pay for a bicycle.

I am very vague when I answer that question with answers like "Enough", or "Not that much", or "I got a good deal", or "The price was worth it considering I've put 45,000 kms on it in the past 4 years", or something along those lines, depending on the person asking.

Chris L

I had a taxi driver in Glasgow ask me for directions shortly after I'd arrived in the city. Ummmm, aren't they supposed to know?

I have a lot of people ask me if I get lonely out on the road (all my touring is solo), they don't realise just how difficult it is to get 'lonely' with so many people asking that same question.

I had a guy on a train ask me if I was going to write a book about my experiences (this was after a weekend tour to Mt Buggary).

That said, most of my touring has been in Australia -- meaning that most of the people I've encountered didn't so much ask questions as made comments as though they were self-appointed "experts". These days I just nod and let them get it said. There's really no sense in arguing.

NoReg

Just lie. Asking what something costs, even in that way people do where they are just collecting the data, nothing personal, is still bad maners. People have been killed for what a Rohloff hub costs, not that that is what worries me. I'm not particularly interested in answering the kinds of questions that don't work out. Where the sum total of mind meeting is less than when one started.

If you are riding through hicksville, you may well run into someone who spends 100 days a year sitting in a treestand, hunting and observing deer, and who has a 1000 dollar compound biw. Telling him your bike cost 4 K is still not going to register.

NoReg

I did get asked by some racers, outside of Qquebec,whether I had any chain oil, and then they more or less insisted I buy a bottle we could all use. Ah the fellowship of the road. They were pretty nice actually, though who wouldn't be.

Richbiker

My gf and I were doing a short tour from New York City to Harriman State Park; we stopped in Nyack at a bakery which is a huge hangout scene for cyclists. Many of the cyclists along the route 9W between New York & Nyack can't conceive of a bicycle as anything other than a piece of exercise equipment which can go outside the gym. So this guy sees our rigs loaded up (and interestingly, there were a large number of touring & cyclocross bikes at the bakery that day--way more than normal), and he asks:

"Are you guys training for something?"

The rest of the trip we took turns thinking up clever responses.

Rich

kipibenkipod

Why it was you who needed to buy the oil bottle?

Newspaperguy

I just got back from a short five-day solo tour in southern B.C. People who stopped to talk with me would invariably say, "You've got that thing loaded pretty heavy, don't you." I didn't know how to respond, but I usually said this load was lighter and smaller than in the past. My gear fits into rear panniers and a handlebar bag. My tent, tarp, sleeping pad and rough weather clothing were the only things I didn't have in the bags.

ken cummings

"Do you realize you are entering a war zone?" From a policeman guarding the road going past the site of the annual Tomato Wars (Texas vs Colorado) in Twin Lakes, CO. I got through town quickly to avoid being splattered by flying tomatoes.

stokell

The questions (depending where I am)usually are:

1. Where you from? (ignoring the Canadian flags on each side of my body)
2. Are you raising money for something?
3. How about you throw the bike in the back of the truck, and I'll drive you there? (you must be doing this out of poverty)
4. Are you going on the 401 (insert local super-highway here) with that?

LWaB

Are you doing the ride for 'charidee'?

Newspaperguy

Do any of you have friends or family (not strangers along the way) asking if you're trying to prove a point by cycle touring?