CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
I'm sure I've heard/read a few times over the last year or two that cycling is "the new golf".
Corporate advertising guff of course.
But some evidence in favour this week in the form of a bona-fide pro footballer on our club run. Or maybe it just means that cycling is "the new blowing loads of cash on the geegees"?
Nice lad, don't think I'm giving too much away if I say he plays for a well-known north-west of England club whose glory days are firmly in the past.
Does he have a 'background' in cycling, or did he just go into a shop with £5k?
Accrington Stanley?
Phoenixed you know -
There was a piece on Today yesterday. if you see what I mean, about people spending on cycling accessories and how they always have done.
Apparently you can now get clothes which can be worn on or off a bike.
A number of professional sportsmen are waking up to the fact that cycling gets them a lot fitter than their primary sport. Matt Prior, Mark Webber come to mind as examples.
chdot I get the impression he has cycled since he was a nipper. You might not be far off on the price of the bike but it's a very classy, well-considered machine, not the blingy, off-the-peg, pro-team replica I was half-expecting when the club sec told me he was coming along.
PS I get the impression the list of F1 drivers who aren't into cycling is shorter than the list of those that are. Virtual "club runs" heading out of Monaco all the time during the off season.
Lee Dixon is of course the highest profile footballer/cyclist due to his presenting role on GCN. But he's retired from the footie.
Much glorious-er than Accrington Stanley. Though only in the football sense of course as nothing matches http://www.naden.de/blog/bbvideo-bbpress-video-plugin -->
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Blackpool?
Bolton?
I could be cruel and suggest Liverpool....
Liverpool?
Seems to be 'easy' to spend quite a lot -
The poor exchange rate has pushed the cost of (mainly imported) bikes up for the past few years. Not so noticeable at the lower end of the market, but at the 'performance' end...
Now that summer is here, I'm noticing more expensive bikes out and about.
Cycling will only become the new golf when businessmen start doing deals on clubruns. Perhaps they already are ?
I'm sure I've read Sirallen LordSugaaar does business whilst out on some of his long rides round Florida and the continent.
@Charterhall They are. We've had a couple of cycling events at work. Pretty small scale so far, and I suspect self-selecting to a greater degree than golf, but it could grow.
I recently wrote this in an email about changing 'corporate' attitudes to cycling -
"
These days large companies are not only more aware of 'corporate social responsibility' but also that their employees like living in 'nice places' and that 'active travellers' - particularly cyclists - tend to be healthier, more alert at work and have fewer sick days.
"
Long way to go though.
"Cycling will only become the new golf when businessmen start doing deals on clubruns. Perhaps they already are ?"
Well according to this Economist article from earlier this year...
MD of Brother UK is mad into his cycling, a fairly recent (<5yrs) convert.
I know he has had Graeme Obree and other cyclists giving motivational speeches at Brother. Brother also do some cycling sponsorship, provide service cars, and a paralympic athlete which is due to him (all good).
He also openly tweets about road cyclists being a 'powerful demographic' due to background and employment status of many (what? really? Are you that far up your....?).
@Bhachgen, maybe in Londonshire. Not sure that most Scots businesses take such an enlightened view, though it depends on the sector. I think 'challenge rides' and charidee rides are very socially acceptable. Cycling for everyday transport, on the other hand...
I've recently seen quite a lot of middle aged or older men who appear not to be regular cyclists (not a criticism, just an observation based on car driver shaped tummies stretching the lycra!*) but have *all* the gear and mid range to exotic road bikes. They certainly fit the golf target market..
*not only is it not a criticism, I'm positively pleased to see it, good for them (physically and in the encouragement sense) and good for the city environment and good for me as more cyclists equals more awareness and thus safety and influence :-)
In the dark mud-encrusted world of mountain biking we talk of 'all the gear and no idea'. I'll put my stereotype hat on and suggest some entitled kid with wealthy parents decides they fancy a bike and get a top of the line downhill rig, which they then proceed to ride in a manner that would embarrass a granny going to fetch milk on a Brompton, all while acting like the trails and everyone on them were created just to yield to them. Adjusting my sterotyping hat, I will note that I have actually seen this exact type of person enough times, best place to look is a trail center. It's a somewhat different kettle of fish than road biking in that you can much more easily irritate your fellow cyclists on a trail compared to the road, and the chances of severe injury from acting over-confident are much greater. Plus the mtb world likes to appear friendly and accessible (in theory) so acting like a twat is frowned upon no matter what you ride. I'll say as much as while people acting like spoiled rich kids are rare on expensive bikes, it's virtually impossible to find someone on a battered and bodged together mtb that you couldn't get on with.
As Smudge notes though, it's still people on bikes, and outside of entitled idiots on trails I'm happy to see it.
Can I just say (and I speak with some authority) that it's perfectly possible to be a middle aged or older man with a "car driver shaped" tummy "stretching the lycra!" and be a regular cyclist (with no shortage of "gear").
which they then proceed to ride in a manner that would embarrass a granny going to fetch milk on a Brompton,
At least the granny on a Brompton is unlikely to have damaged the planet by driving somewhere to ride her bike.
Using a bike to increase car journeys is an odd idea but perhaps it does fit with the new golf meme.
@Instographyy lol, yup, I am not without sin in that department either :-))
However it is rather a question of scale, and I stand by my earlier Holmsian conclusion that the gentlemen I observed the other day were very unlikely to currently be regular cyclists, though I hope they become the same and enjoy it as much as I do :-)
(And the slimming effects!)
It's a different culture perhaps but there's plenty of the car driver tummy types in all the gear on French roads. The deep tans tend to indicate severe regularity of cycling.
Cycling may be healthy exercise but it does not necessarily make you slimmer. Cakeage, energy drinks, etc. rather mitigate against this. So hopping on a bike regulatly will not get rid of middle aged spread. I should know, didn't do it for me.
The only thing that really helps excess weight loss is calorie restriction, which can be done in various ways but essentially involves eating less. Alas this is not usually compatible with tackling Cat 5 climbs on a regular basis...
"Cycling may be healthy exercise but it does not necessarily make you slimmer. Cakeage, energy drinks, etc. rather mitigate against this."
But surely if you ate the same amount of cakes without the cycling then you'd put on more weight?
EDIT: So yes, sorry, re-reading. Cycling doesn't necessarily make you slimmer, not cycling would make you bigger. Read first Anth, read first.
I hope they enjoy it enough to go out regularly too but I have met a few people who go in for the "all the gear and no idea" thing and give up and go on to the next thing quite quickly. Bit of a shame but I suppose at least they tried and there are bound to be some who stick to it.
On the subject of rider age and shape, I read an amusing article in a cycling magazine where the writer went cycling with Stephen Roche. The accompanying photo said it all with the whippety young rider, looking like he was about to have a heart attack while trailing in the wake of the older, rounder and effortlessly fast Mr Roche!
The trick is not to wear ridiculously tight tops and thus preserve some decorum. But it's not easy to get tops that fit everywhere else but don't accentuate the tum.
I suggest the guys take up diving with the British Sub-Aqua Club.
Forget the glamorous image of tropical diving!
Take the average middle-aged, middle-class (diving isn't cheap) British guy, wrap them in extra layers for warmth, encase them in neoprene and soak them for a hour or so.
One very quickly comes to accept one's shape...
;-)
Cycling in form fitting clothes will thus seem perfectly normal and acceptable.
If you're comfortable and it works for you, then "whatever you ride"...
Robert
Lol, but Mr R, my semi dry is so well fitting it's actually slimming! ;-)
Got to agree tho, drysuits make the average diver look like a somewhat bedraggled telly-tubby :-o
Still some of the best diving in the world mind you, and waaaay better than the med!
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