Chris L

Not quite, but I do get the "training for an event" question quite often.

raybo

I ride around San Francisco and Marin Counties on my touring bike with a handlebar-type bag on my front rack and, at least, one pannier on my back rack. It doesn't look like a touring rig but some people must think so because I get a lot of where are you headed. I don't usually want to say that I am headed back home so I pick the next trip I am planning and tell them that I am training for an A to B ride. That usually satisfies them.

It gets much worse when I actually am in the last stages of training and put all four bags on the bike. Then, it seems as if everyone who passes me wants to know where I started the day. Again, at home doesn't seem like the answer they want...

Ray

mtnbk3000

that made me laugh pretty hard

divergence

I get the reverse of that question during centuries. I usually try to ride a couple of centuries each year to help support the local bike clubs that put them on. Often I'll be riding with people I just met on the ride, and they'll ask "What's your favorite training ride?" Most seem to understand my answer that I don't really train; I don't own a car, so I get in lots of biking miles from everyday transportation. A few, though, get really upset at the idea.

One guy proclaimed, in a thundering, authoritative voice, "You CANNOT go from commuting to work, straight to riding a century!"

Since we were about eighy miles into the century at that point, I wasn't sure what he wanted me to tell him. "Sorry, I won't do it again?"

Machka 

As an ultra-distance cyclist, I use century rides as training rides for longer distances. So on my most recent organized century I was asked the same type of question ... and my response was, "This ride."

BlueTwo

Even though my bike is the least expensive in the Kona catalog 450 dollar smoke , ---the modifications only a cyclist would notice---- , The question drives me crazy with its frequency , so I just say now " I don't know ,my boyfriend bought it for me " , the non-cyclist public seem to accept this as the way that the world should work , and moxe on to other topics

Newspaperguy

This one isn't so much of a strange question as a strange behaviour. Last August, on the Trans-Canada Highway east of Revelstoke, B.C., a motorist pulled over, took out his camcorder and started to videotape in my direction. I started to move out of his way so he could have a clear view of the scenery but he motioned for me to move back. That winter, when he showed his vacation videos to his friends, I was there.

I don't really understand this. If this were 40 years earlier, it might be an anomaly but these days, cycle touring has become more common. In summer, there's hardly a day I'm on the road when I don't see at least one other touring cyclist.

staehpj1

Maybe you aren't as nornal looking as you think Are you blindingly handsome, or hilariously funny looking?

paul2

Not a question, but a comment I got many times before doing my first tour. I told people I was going to cycle from San Francisco to San Diego, and they'd comment on what a long distance that was. Then they'd say, "At least it's down hill."

Machka 

Never trust motorists when it comes to the topic of terrain.

We stopped into a sporting goods shop to pick up a couple things on my Australian trip, and asked the guy what the terrain was like coming up. He did give us some good advice about one part ... the road was still closed because of winter conditions ... but then he told us that on the alternate route, we would climb up a big hill (yep, did that), then there would be a long descent (yep, right about that), and that we would basically descend the rest of the way to the town we were aiming for. Not even close!! We went over a mountain range!

Newspaperguy

On a recent short tour, one of the people in one town told me it was all a nice downhill to where I was going. It was only partially true. I first had close to 500 metres of elevation gain Then I had the nice downhill.

staehpj1

We found truck drivers to be a great source of advice. We found it funny when they would say don't hold me to this because it is just a guess, but I think it is about 8.2 miles. Of course they would be right on. They also seemed to know where and how steep the grades were.

Pete

staehpj1

I just thought of another one. "All the way from Oregon to Virginia; wow you will really be in shape when you get there."

Were were always thinking, "I''m not in shape now after 3000 miles, but will be when I get there?"

Machka 

We're getting something similar on our current trip ... we'll name places, and then people will say, "You couldn't possibly have cycled from Japan to London" ... because, of course, Japan is an island and the UK is an island. When we say we made use of an airplane, that seems to disappoint them.

Machka 

One rather amusing event occured when we arrived in Lyon, France about a month ago.

I was wearing my hi-vis yellow vest because it was just a bit cool and I wanted something more than a T-shirt. We got off the train, and parked the bicycles in the train station. I stayed with them, and Rowan went off to get information about train travel to Perpignan.

While I was standing there, a lady came up to me, stared intently, and closely, at my left breast, then with a really puzzled look on her face, she walked off. I looked down to see what she was staring at, and noticed that the name of my hi-vis yellow vest was there ... "Route7".

A few minutes later someone rushed up to me and asked me a hurried question in French. I caught that they were asking for directions to where their platform was, but that was about it. And of course, I didn't know. So I responded, "Je ne parle pas francais", which got an exasperated sigh and rolling of the eyes, and off the person dashed.

A couple more people rushed up to me, looked me up and down, tried to read the logo on my vest, looked puzzled, looked like they wanted to ask something, but walked away slowly.

A few minutes later someone else rushed up to me and asked me something else about a platform and train, and again I responded the same way. This time I got a rather negative and somewhat angry exclamation.

It had begun to dawn on me that they thought I was a train station official, despite the fact that the train station officials were all in orange safety vests, quite different from what I was wearing.

After the last guy who had become rather upset when I wouldn't answer his questions, I took my vest off ... and people left me alone after that. But it did give me a bit of a laugh.

fietsbob

I was in one of the Ardennes forest towns in French Speaking Belgium,
and was asked an Icebreaker Question, "Do You like Elvis"?..

009jim

Funny how the most serious thing in some peoples lives is the state of their personal hygiene.

Compare this to the animal kingdom. How many horses do you see going out of their way to ensure a clean bottom? It's all to do with media and advertising. Some people trust the words coming off their television set as though they were handed down by the Lord himself. "You must have this new deodorant". "Oh yes"..... (hurries off to shop to purchase).

saddlesores

a friend was cycling in southwest texas, wearing the latest gaudy spandex,
and had colored sunscreen on his face. couple locals slowed down in their
pickemup truck, rolled down the winder and axed:

"how come y'all're dressed like a girl?"

saddlesores

older couple in an rv at a rest area in western australia asked me:

"but how do you poo?"

saddlesores

how much did you pay for that bike?

if'n i wanna impress 'em, i say "i paid $500 just or the rear wheel, NOT including the tire."

otherwise: "i dunno, i bought all the parts on ebay and put it together in the garage."

Western Flyer 

When riding down the length of the Columbia River. I was repeatedly asked if I had pontoons or something to float my bike on top of the water.

indyfabz

Heh? In a bar in Andalucia a local drunk asked me if I liked Bruce Springsteen after I told him I lived in Philadelphia. He then broke into song.

raybo

I was riding in southeast Oregon on a record hot day when a woman pulled up next to me, rolled down her window, got my attention, and told me it was 106 degrees. She paused at that point and then said she hoped I had plenty of sunscreen. I was taken aback by a car slowing to bike speed next to me on this desolate road. Staring at her, I thanked her for the information and asked if she had any extra water, though I didn't really need any. She didn't. We continued slowly down the road and she told me that the Brogan Hill summit was just ahead and then it was downhill from there.

Of course, the information about the summit was completely wrong.

Cyclebum

When touring on a DF, I was never asked how much it cost. On the bent, I often get that question. Kinda fun turning it into a quiz. "Guess." The guesses have ranged from $300 to $3000.

"How far do you go a day?" is probably the most frequent question.

pasopia

In Chile I was camping at packed campsite on New Year's Day. In the middle of the night two drunk girls opened up my tent, started to climb inside, and asked if they could sleep in their with me. I took me about an hour to get them to go away.