CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Are "Real Cyclists" the enemy?

(169 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by arne_saknussen
  • Latest reply from ruggtomcat

1…56

  1. kaputnik
    Moderator

    wearing full 1997 Lampre team kit

    Someone very briefly rode a Wilier Lampre Triestina team bike into my work. He must have moved offices though as he dissapeared not long after we had the inevitable "bit expensive for a commuting bike, no?" conversation.

    There's only a couple of people (myself included) who wear "cycling jerseys" to work. Fluo raincoats are de rigeur. I detest cycling in any form of raincoat, fluo or not. I did take my Paramo smock on my tour with me, but only ever needed to wear the thing on one occasion when it was pouring with rain and I had to put the tent up then walk to a pub for dinner. Never needed to cycle in the thing, which is good as it's much too heavyweight for such purposes, being a double layer of fabric.

    I briefly got into Munroing before getting more serious into cycling. Got up to 24 I think then realised that we'd done everything within reasonable day-trip driving distance of Edinburgh and they began requiring overnight stops. As I don't drive, I could never do my share of the driving so it wasn't fare on my grudging walking companion. Some time I'll do some more Munros, but I intend to cycle to them. Maybe then I'll get to wear the Paramo a bit more.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. Arellcat
    Moderator

    I used to cycle everywhere in practicalchic - flowing hair, t-shirt, casual jacket, jeans. By the time I was doing 12-24 miles' commuting every day (and sometimes getting rained on, such that my jeans were still damp by going home time) I bought some fancy lycra shorts and tights and found I went faster and I didn't wear holes in my jeans all the time, and consequently spent much less buying new jeans and much more buying bicycle parts.

    I have also ridden my Brompton in full-on cyclist get-ups, so feel duty bound to go as fast as possible on those occasions.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. cb
    Member

    "Got up to 24 I think then realised that we'd done everything within reasonable day-trip driving distance of Edinburgh and they began requiring overnight stops."

    A true Munro bagger would think little of driving three hours each way for a new hill.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. Smudge
    Member

    Train and MTB Munro bagging? (Having put no thought into the practicalities or otherwise this is just a random thought, apologies if it's nonsense!)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. Uberuce
    Member

    You mean use MTB's to go up a very large hill? What sorcery is this? Everyone knows MTBs are for wounding my engineering sensibilities by being grossly inefficient for road use, and for putting off new cyclists for the same reason.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. Smudge
    Member

    I was thinking more of using them to get near the bottom of some very large hills, but the principle is good ;-)

    I actually think that mtb's are partially responsible for some of the resurgence in cycling we are seeing (I am thinking of ten to twenty years ago here). Before MTB's there were kids bikes, "old" bikes and racers, kids bikes for kids, old bikes were untrendy and racers were uncomfortable and only used by "real" cyclists anyway (in the eyes of the average person)
    MTB's gave people a "cool" way to have a relatively sensible riding position and be seen on a bike, with tarmac tyres (and mudguards and a bell, and lights, and a rack...) a lot of them are actually pretty reasonable machines for negotiating Edinburghs cart tracks, erm "roads" Especially given they came equipped with low enough gears to let "average" people get up the hills!

    Ok we could argue all day about the "best" bike for roads round town, but a slick tyred hardtail mtb isn't actually that bad a choice. (Full suspension knobbly tyred BSO's however, are another story!)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. Baldcyclist
    Member

    Last time I was up Ben Lomond there was a group of young folks carrying their bikes up the mountain on their shoulders!

    The did look like they were having fun on the way down.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. fimm
    Member

    Btw, Hello Fimm (waves), do you by any chance commute via Haymarket? I recollect being slightly surprised to notice a Brompton rider appear one night as a road warrior a little while ago! ;-)
    Yes, I commute via Haymarket. Black Bromton with front bag, currently long black coat with comedy hi-vis waistcoat if it is dark enough, or yellow and black Giant road bike, and I usually wear triathlon club coat (purple and black with white bits) and rucksack. If I have the road bike, I normally do the whole thing in both directions, but sometimes I only cycle to work and take the train back.

    Another Munro bagger here (150+ and counting) - yes, you can go up a hill in summer in most kinds of clothes, but you might not be as comfortable as if you had more suitable kit, and come winter you are taking much greater risks if you don't have the gear and the knowledge.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    "
    The did look like they were having fun on the way down.
    "

    As long as they were obeying the Highway Country Code...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. steveo
    Member

    When we were riding/walking through the Cairngorms last year, there were a number of people who rode from the car park along the fire/access roads (nearly 10 miles) to the start of the proper walking where the paths became very difficult to pass by bike. When they'd gone far enough they'd chain the bikes together and stick 'em in the heather a little off the path.

    None of these were "good" bikes but there were robust enough for the fire road and cheap enough to be left, plus 30 miles from the nearest habitation they were probably safe enough.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. cb
    Member

    Lots of hill walkers take use bikes to get to the foot of the hill, it's pretty rare to see bikes up a hill.

    Big remote areas like the Cairngorms, Tarf and Tilt and Ben Alder where there are some pretty good access tracks will see lots of bikes.

    For many though, "the long walk in" is an enjoyable part of the experience.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. Smudge
    Member

    @Fimm, ahh hello, yes I recognise you now. I'm the short bald bloke with the black surly Long Haul Trucker, normally wearing a grey altura night vision jacket. :-)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. Dave
    Member

    We've skipped a good chunk of the 30km round trip in to some of the Cairngorm hills by biking it. Very practical and we do just lock them together awkwardly and stash in the heather :)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. Tom
    Member

    Hi fimm, that's a good total. I've bagged 64 and it was the old mountain bike that I bought to reach the more remote ones that got me back into cycling. For the first few years I cycled wearing hill-walking kit - boots, Troll tights, Goretex jacket.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. fimm
    Member

    @Smudge hmmm you'll be one of several "men with bikes" around, then.

    My friend has a Surly Long Haul Trucker, she reckons it's a 'proper boy magent' (her words not mine) - I'll have to look more carefully at the bikes in future...

    @Dave, yes, I've biked in towards Culra bothy (on a bike that was too big, with a 65L rucksack on my back, ouch).

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    My favourite Munro recently (I've only got 20 or so, not really a bagger, just happened tohave walked up a few) was one of those on the edge of the Cuillin.

    Liked it because we hadn't actually intended to walk to the top at all, but we kept saying, "Let's just walk to that bit". Before we knew it we were in a corrie, looking up and thinking "The top's just there, we might as well." Probabyl still 1000 feet to go, and the cloud came in when we were at the top, so we missed out on a view of the rest of the Cuillin, but them's the breaks (I reckon the view of it from Bla Bheinn is the best anyway - or down in Elgol). Mist descended as we came down - visibility down to about 10 metres at most. Compass, map, phone GPS served us well. And was glad I had waterproof walking kit as the ist was 'clingy'.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  17. Smudge
    Member

    @Fimm lol, that'll teach me :-)) I'm actually incognito today with a white Charge Duster MTB and was on a black dahon folder earlier in the week(!) Hope to be back on the Surly next week though B-).
    I haven't found it to be a "boy magnet" ;-) but it has certainly sparked the odd conversation and I did have a lady hillwalker compliment it last week when I jumped off at Linlithgow station.

    Must be a boy thing, bike spotting ;-))

    Posted 13 years ago #

  18. Uberuce
    Member

    @Smudge: I actually think that mtb's are partially responsible for some of the resurgence in cycling we are seeing (I am thinking of ten to twenty years ago here). Before MTB's there were kids bikes, "old" bikes and racers

    Yarp: my sister got her racer in 1988 but by the time my twin and I reached the same age in 1990, the MTB craze had come in and her bike was at cordoroy levels of uncool.

    My respectable highminded gripe with the MTB, which I keep forgetting to emphasise is secondary to my agreement with the No matter what you ride, as long as you do motto is this: either because they're dipping their toe in the water as an adult, but more likely because they're a teenager of non-cycling parents who don't get why 'cheap' is worse value than 'moderately priced' on a bike, most people's first bike is going to be a little bit BSO. A bicycle shaped object shaped bike, now that I think of it.

    I harbour the theory that since there's more to get horribly wrong on a bouncer with knobbly tyres than on a hybrid, cyclocross or road bike, the horrible riding experience will turn so many prospective cyclists off that a few weeks or months after their purchase and first ride there will be less folk keeping it up than there would if the MTB craze had never happened and had instead been a cyclocross or road racing craze.

    We're in a fixed gear craze, which I won't describe as a track cycling craze since it's more about the hipsters* and homebrewing stylish old racers than it is about carbon and goatsepeed. I'd imagine the sod-this rate is fairly high, but it usually takes less effort to turn a fixie into singlespeed than a bouncer into a tarmac-runner. In fact I can use myself as an example here; I got so fed up of downhills on the Genesis that I flipped it to single when I was taking the winter studlies off.

    *he said, hoping no-one would notice he excluded himself

    The less highminded gripes are the aforementioned engineering aesthetic, and the fact I have such poor balance that I could never be any good at mountain biking and am jealous, but not really jealous since those bikes are sour anyway.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  19. ruggtomcat
    Member

    I think the magnitude of change in perception due to clothing is overstated, in a very confirmation bias kinda way.

    The wearing of helmets does make cycling seem more dangerous, but not as much as being sandwiched between three busses and a taxi. I am broadly in agreement with the sentiment 'when roads are safer people will no longer use safety gear, and not using safety gear doesn't make roads safer. We need safe infrastructure, and then mass participation will follow (along with normal clothes).'

    I think this whole debate may stem from the fact that changes to infrastructure seem hard if not impossible to bring about whereas changes in clothing can be done easily. However I think this is putting the cart before the horse, to mix my transport metaphors slightly.

    Worrying about what you fellow cyclist is wearing seems silly and inconsequential when placed next to the shocking fact that cycle lanes are legal parking spaces at weekends. What would encourage cycling more, knowing that you have a car free route to wherever you want to go or knowing you can wear normal clothes (but still have to mix with multi-tonne traffic)?

    Posted 13 years ago #

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