Hi to all who might remember me!! Been off the bike for far too long, boring reasons, but been trying hard to make time and get back out there . Today , nice relaxing run out n about , just enjoying my bike and the light drizzle ! It's so much better than tv or work !!! However, Lycra clad roadies still refuse to acknowledge my existence on the road ! MTb comuterbtypes and old blokes and blokesses on old uprights have cheery waves or hellos but not the tdf brigade !! Obviously very large brush with tar here but its not nice ,harrumph !! It's good however to have a sore backside, aching legs and helmet hair again !!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure
Never change !!!
(35 posts)-
Posted 7 years ago #
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Haha, yeah alas it's true. The sporty racer types often only acknowledge others in similar attire, preferably with nice sporty bikes. It's a club / respect thing going on possibly.
(Usual qualifications and exceptions apply of course. We're all human beans on the one planet after all).
Anyway no need to worry. At least you are enjoying cycling again!
Posted 7 years ago # -
Try waving at mountain bikers when you are in Lycra. You get the same (non) result. It's tribal.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Some racer Lycra lads don't even wave back at other racer Lycra lads
Posted 7 years ago # -
Welcome back.
Missed you (genuinely).
Very useful having your road user input.
You still in the same job?
Posted 7 years ago # -
The thing about this tribal thing, though, is that you can change tribes. When I'm in MAMIL mode, I wave at everyone, and the roadies wave back. When I'm in utility cycling mode I wave at everyone and the roadies ignore me.
Of course, it's only appropriate to wave at people when you're outside the city limits (or at least in a rural area)
Posted 7 years ago # -
Chdot, thanks and yes still there, burning diesel at an unfeasable amount while eating yorkies, escaping the law, and running moonshine across several states with my good friend the bandit !! Hope all s well on here, saw a few posts I was going to comment on but just kept quiet ! One still awaiting police finality, involved fatality on Dumbarton road, was very impressed by apparent balanced comments on here. Can't publicly discuss though ! Wasn't me !
ScottPosted 7 years ago # -
Ah greenroofer , clearly I am falling foul of those specific rules, i.e. Outside the city limits!! For I am clearly a redneck country bumpkin who actually talks to cows and sheep !! While ,
your onner, it is no excuse surely mitigating watsits ?
ScottPosted 7 years ago # -
I attempt to say hello to people at the lights very often - usually I find something cool about their bikes. With roadies I often sense I am just an annoyance trying to befriend the cool kids, but I wonder if perhaps they are in deep concentration.
I bumped into Stickman the other day and had a very pleasant exchange before we recognised each other - that was pleasingly affirming of CCE etiquette.
Nice to see you back posting - I echo chdot's comments about your specialist input.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Thank you algo. Possibly my least successful attempt at comms is on the A9, I wave at cyclists on the sustrans path crossing the drumochter, or drumochder pass, I am in my truck and give a wave and thumbs up to many who stop at the top, understandably for a breather, looks of confusion and derision ensue !! :)
Posted 7 years ago # -
@ splitshift, ah yes the A9.
Any update on this?
Posted 7 years ago # -
I still drive it 3 days a week roughly, stupid overtakes are definitely more prevelant, a truck will sit happily at approx 50, a large powerful car can easily drop a gear and overtake easily when safe, BUT the small engined economy type cars, have much harder job at 50 ishmph. Drop a gear in a small engined car and the noise changes but the speed doesn't really, it takes much longer for them to gain enough speed to get past, I have to brake , let them in and re accelerate up to 50 , only to find the car doing 50as well !!!!! Still it did get in front of the lorry which is absolutely neede !! It's not just cars, law abiding truckers are much harder to overtake by the cowboy outfits ! Truckers arnt infallible either, I pulled out of a layby on the A9, could see a truck coming up behind, bout quarter of a mile away, I was heavy going up a hill, he caught me fairly quickly, sat on my back bumper flashing his many extra lights, his twin stacks bellowing smoke( real proper trucker !!!! ) I had impeded his journey, I pulled into next lay by to let him past, he came in too to explain how much of an idiot I was !! I am not a confrontational type of person , but my weapon was ready , I explained that this was a dual carriageway section and he could have passed anytime ! Head down shaking the old guy apologised and kind off slinked off !!
Hey we're all perfect ?Posted 7 years ago # -
Welcome back splitshift
I guess half the problem on the roads is that cars, trucks, etc. can't easily communicate with one another. Flashing lights, horn not a great way to say something. How many times have you wanted to say "sorry mate, I misjudged your speed there"?
Like you say no one's perfect, mistakes get made. The important thing is that minor mistakes should not lead to bad stuff happening...
Bring back CB radio for trucks?
Posted 7 years ago # -
When you wave to someone, & they wave back (or vice versa), you feel a bit better about the world.
But if they don't wave back ... does it really matter in the big scheme of things? You don't think less of yourself, I doubt they think less of you, and you really shouldn't think less of them.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Sadly there seems a growing bias on this forum against 'lycra' wearing people who happen to ride 'racing' bikes.
I ride with a club and compete but I also commute and ride a bike every day for fun. This is the one place I don't expect to get judged simply by what I wear and what I ride.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Sadly there seems a growing bias on this forum against 'lycra' wearing people who happen to ride 'racing' bikes.
I feel this too, sometimes. Like you, I am both a utility and a sports cyclist (however you want to interpret that categorisation - in my case it is triathlon that I take part in).
I'm sure it is not intentional, but it can get annoying - and the stereotype of the grumpy lycra-clad roadie snob is as accurate as that of the red-light-jumping cyclist...
Posted 7 years ago # -
"the stereotype of the grumpy lycra-clad roadie snob is as accurate as that of the red-light-jumping cyclist..."
Good analogy.
I think on one level 'roadies' are even more of out group than 'utility' ones so sometimes feel they are a persecuted minority!
Posted 7 years ago # -
"Sadly there seems a growing bias on this forum against 'lycra' wearing people who happen to ride 'racing' bikes."
I don't think that's really the case (hope not).
There are occasional observational comments on (stereotype) roadies.
But many more on 'taxi driver' and other road users generally.
Posted 7 years ago # -
I have been known to lycra up and ride bikes with drop handle bars (whether these are 'sporty' is another question). I have noticed that this does change how people behave towards me, compared to when I'm cycling a more upright bike in civvies.
Other lycra clad types will nod or put a hand up (not exactly a wave) if we pass going opposite directions on a stretch of road (other than in the city centre, where everyone is too busy watching out for HGVs, taxis etc. to bother with cheeriness).
When I'm in civvies on an old clunker or cargo-tastic steed I sense I'm not part of the lycra set (ie. a cyclist) but just a bloke on a bike.
I will wave or smile at folk as appropriate regardless of steed / attire, but the reciprocation varies accordingly.
Humans are social creatures and we instinctively reach out to others we perceive to have something in common. We also sometimes try to distinguish ourselves from other groups. So it's hardly surprising to observe different behaviours based on attire and vehicle type...
Posted 7 years ago # -
I wear lycra on a sunday ride. I have a sort of lycra top on today in bright orange. I detect absolutely no bias against lycra wearers like myself, merely some banter.
obviously if someone is a little grumpy that day they may percieve such banter as Over The Line Smokey. I make no comment on which tribe is the grumpiest :-)
I had a friendly wave off lycra roadie I see on my commute today.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"But many more on 'taxi driver' and other road users generally."
And could possibly extend that to dog owners, private-school parents, Tory voters, UKIP voters, people from Morningside (well, perhaps not that one - maybe stereotypical Morningside types)
I am only some of these (actually only one) but sometimes wonder how some people from some of these other categories might feel if dipping their toes into CCE (probably only selected threads to be fair).
Posted 7 years ago # -
"probably only selected threads to be fair"
That's alright then...
Posted 7 years ago # -
@cb, don't forget the New Town types, golfers and Christmas tree sellers.
Other bêtes noires are available...
Posted 7 years ago # -
Oh we're SO judgemental!
Posted 7 years ago # -
I know it shouldn't bother me, but it does burn when you say hello to someone or put a hand up in greeting and the other person doesn't return the gesture. I think that's just human nature. Our local roadies will always say hello to me as they zip past me (in fact that's normally the first I hear of them - click, click, click of gears, hello, hello, hello, click, click, click and they're gone) and it always brightens my day. If someone on a bike doesn't say hello, I'm teaching myself to think well, they were probably concentrating on their cadence or something, rather than that they thought I looked like a bag lady on a bike, but it takes a little effort. But I realise this is largely my problem, not theirs.
I was startled to see a youngish lad on a road bike apparently checking my legs out as he passed, until I realised he was looking at my SON dynamo
Posted 7 years ago # -
It's only human to form groups and to have entry tests to those groups.
No need not to be nice to all and sundry though. I dispensed loud 'alright lads?' and 'aye aye's to all the roadies and downhillers and utes that I met on my Borders ride.
I have my own arcane tribe: Commuter bikepackers who can change Marathon Plus tyres without tyre levers. Anyone care to join?
Posted 7 years ago # -
Define "tyre lever". Are, for example, screwdrivers allowed, or is it bare hands only?
Posted 7 years ago # -
"I was startled to see a youngish lad on a road bike apparently checking my legs out as he passed, until I realised he was looking at my SON dynamo"
That anecdote made my day. :-)
Posted 7 years ago # -
Interesting link here featuring a stereotypical Morningside Tory (and doubtless former private school parent):
http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/scotland/edinburgh/
This is about accent and how one pronounces words rather than the body language referred to above in the thread...
Posted 7 years ago # -
@Frenchy
No screwdrivers, no spoon handles. Just the twelve fingers God gave us.
Posted 7 years ago #
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