Road Cycling

[grudas]

Yeah, I mean there will be much banter about grudas' tank top but he can still ride with us!

I'd just rip your sleeves off anyway, if you said anything about my wife beaters uniform. but yeah, Agree that's ridiculous.. takes all the fun out of the activity no?

 

[touch]

Also, what do you guys think about bringing a backpack, and using trainers on a group ride? I did this on Sunday, and the group I was riding with politely asked me not ride with them unless I had clipless pedals, and no backpack.

Have you ridden with them before?
It doesnt take new riders long to realise that a backpack is not much fun on a long ride, so I can see why they might assume you're not a very experienced cyclist.
If somebody unknown turned up to one of our club rides with trainers+backpack we would probably suggest they go with the slower group. If they are known to be a competent rider or say they want to go with another group, there would be no issue with that.

 

[Berger]

Thomas, I know you had a few teething problems with your P2Max when you put it onto your Cervelo, what were they please

 

[Asprilla]

I remember one of my last rides with KW a chap turned up on a CX with CX tyres, trainers and a rucksack. He then proceeded to destroy most of the group, except on slight down hills where he ran out of gears.

Snobbery sucks.

 

[Eliot]

If they said this to me then I wouldn't ride with them again.

That's actually quite rude and unfair.

Do they think they are pros or something?

Disgusting.

These people sound like tools.

 

[physichull]

Have you ridden with them before?
It doesnt take new riders long to realise that a backpack is not much fun on a long ride, so I can see why they might assume you're not a very experienced cyclist.
If somebody unknown turned up to one of our club rides with trainers+backpack we would probably suggest they go with the slower group. If they are known to be a competent rider or say they want to go with another group, there would be no issue with that.

I'd say this. My CC don't have problems with somebody turning up on a CX or hybrid, as long as they could keep up. That being said, its more likely that that person would go in the slow group or go on the intro rides first to see how they fared.

I know a couple of weeks ago on of my CC friends told me of a person who turned up to an intro ride with 2 panniers on the back of her bike and a rucksack and normal pedals. She lasted all of two miles before it was mutually agreed that they separated. She was just ridiculously slow.

There is also a certain level of fitness required and that's why my CC has the intro rides, so that riders can build up fitness and distance before progressing to the proper rides. That being said, on my first intro ride there was another newbie who was incredibly unfit and was exhausted and out of breath and needed to rest every minute (only averaging 24 km/h or so on the flat). Unfortunately he then hit a pothole and got a double puncture. We helped him repair both, continued on for 3-4 minutes then it was agreed that somebody would ride back to the start with him as he wasn't up to continuing on.

None of the above experiences are particularly applicable to the original point of this topic of discussion though.

On the other hand, I've seen a bloke (aged 60+) turn up with a ridiculously heavy steel bike and batter everyone in the group!

 

[James07]

I remember one of my last rides with KW a chap turned up on a CX with CX tyres, trainers and a rucksack. He then proceeded to destroy most of the group, except on slight down hills where he ran out of gears.

Snobbery sucks.

There's an ex semipro who works at my place who knocked 7 mins off my best time from Bingley to Cullingworth last week. I know he's an epic rider but it's soul destroying when he kills your best time even though I gave it my all!

He would have beaten me in trainers without a doubt.

We're talking 5 miles and 800ft climbing, he then proceeded to divert away from where I used to live down a road that's pretty much like a cliff face down a valley and the same steepness up the other side and gained a KOM on his first attempt, he didn't know the road at all.

What I'm saying is it hardly matters if your clipless or in trainers, it's knowing how to ride like that which makes the difference.

These people sound like tools.

Who?

 

[Eliot]

The ones you were also talking about, Sorry quoted you instead of whoever it was.

The "no trainers" group

 

[[Damien]]

but there is one guy who occasionally wears sky kit (with trainers lol).

The funniest thing when on rides is seeing people in full pro kit pootling along or pushing their bike.

The only thing that I find more funny is giving someone a cheery "good morning" with no hint of heavy breathing when passing them on a climb, despite being knackered, hiding it for just long enough to pass them. It's my guilty pleasure.

If you wear pro kit/yellow or KOM jerseys etc you should be able to do it justice.

The amount of people in full Sky/Garmin kit riding pushing Pinarellos up a hill I saw when a few of did the Cheshire Cat a couple years ago was insane.

No flat pedals or backpacks innit

Bashing people for wearing trainers/backpacks etc is just pure snobbery. If you want to ride with gear that makes it harder yet can still hold your own then good on you.

 

[Saytan]

there are some great photos of a well known local time triallist and hillclimber riding through one of the wiggle sportive photo spots on a big hill past about 30 riders.

He's on a steel fixie and carrying a musette bag.....

 

[Roady]

No joy with increasing the audio channels, I've tried with avidemux, but the wind is too loud. I'm going to try moving the Virb over to the right hand side of my handle bars, nearer to traffic, to see if that helps. Failing that, I'll buy an external mic, and only use it in the dry.

I have a friend with several GoPro's who rides quads and scramblers, the audio is fantastic on all of his videos... So that's one thing the VIRB is far behind the GoPro on for quality/clarity

I'm struggling a bit with trying to increase my weekly mileage.

Have you logged your calorie intake recently? You might be back into a deficit due to the increase in miles. It would account for the fatigue and weight loss. I'm starting to look at my diet again as I want to see if I can aid my recoveries more. I want to push my miles up to the 100+ weekly mark but I equally don't want to be struggling for 2-3 days after a big ride!

Would you guys care if I dressed like that on a group ride? Does it really matter that much? I'll still beat most of them up the hills

I wouldn't care, but if said rider was slowing everyone up/making the club look bad due to his attire I could understand why. I'm talking clubs rides where the clubs have a reputation to try and maintain - heard of one around here who don't want you to wear 'club' jerseys, unless it's their own!

For a generic 'group ride' I think they were slightly out of order, maybe if they didn't know you they assumed you hadn't got clipped pedals and were a slow rider going to hold them up?!

I would also tell them where to go if they complained about a backpack too, unless it was a chaingang ride or something.

Wouldn't a backpack in a chaingang actually aid everyone when the rider was on the front?! lol

See, this is what I hate about groups in any sports, such ridiculous pompous attitudes towards equipment.

I don't see what wearing a backpack and trainers does to stop you joining in, I can see no safety reason for it other than "people will see our sport as something other than what we like it to be seen as" every sport I know is like this and frankly, its pathetic.

Agreed, cycling seems quite prone to 'gear snobbery', more so than some other sports. Experienced a bit of it myself turning up to group rides wearing DHB kit, when I explain I found the Castelli version cheap and a poor fit they soon shut up. Most guys I've found tend to wear 'what everyone else is wearing' rather than trying stuff out themselves

I'm edging more towards Sportful and Northwave kit now myself but I'll always wear DHB for commuting/generic due to the quality for the cost

There is also a certain level of fitness required and that's why my CC has the intro rides, so that riders can build up fitness and distance before progressing to the proper rides. That being said, on my first intro ride there was another newbie who was incredibly unfit and was exhausted and out of breath and needed to rest every minute (only averaging 24 km/h or so on the flat). Unfortunately he then hit a pothole and got a double puncture. We helped him repair both, continued on for 3-4 minutes then it was agreed that somebody would ride back to the start with him as he wasn't up to continuing on.

The 'level of fitness required' is a very hard one and I think the way your CC works is probably the best way - new riders should really 'start at the bottom' and prove (1) they can handle the pace, (2) are safe in a group/gain group riding skills and (3) learn how the group rides (calls, turns etc).

The group itself matters a huge amount, some are very serious and if you can't handle the pace you shouldn't be there. Around here they tend to be quite close knit with all the riders knowing each other fairly well (step below club rides).

Then there are more social rides (like the ones I go on) where it's nothing more than a selection of riders (of differing abilities) out for a ride together for a variety of reasons. Some of the guys I ride with are regaining fitness from winter/injury, some are club riders out for an early 'social' spin at the start of their weekends (before club rides), some are Tri guys getting some miles in their legs, for some it's even a recovery ride rolleyes then there's new guys like me who are burying themselves trying to keep pace!

 

[Saytan]

Agreed, cycling seems quite prone to 'gear snobbery', more so than some other sports.

the irony being that the hardest riders almost never have the shiniest and prettiest of everything, just because it gets used so hard

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

Might have to book tomorrow off. Weather is looking too good to miss.

 

[platypus]

27oC here. And I'm looking at another roller session on the balcony .

 

[Roady]

The funniest thing when on rides is seeing people in full pro kit pootling along or pushing their bike.

<snip>

If you wear pro kit/yellow or KOM jerseys etc you should be able to do it justice.

See, I'm still torn about pro/KOM kit. People like to wear what they see their 'icons' wearing and I see no problem with that on a leisure/social level. Two of the guys I was out with last night, 1 was wearing a Sky jersey and the other full British Cycling kiit. Then there was me tagged on the back in my *noname*/plain (DHB) commuting kit and the fourth guy wearing a jersey with a local brewery/cider on it and TdF shorts. He was the fittest/most serious out of all of us! We must've looked like a weird bunch!

The only thing that I find more funny is giving someone a cheery "good morning" with no hint of heavy breathing when passing them on a climb, despite being knackered, hiding it for just long enough to pass them. It's my guilty pleasure.

One of mine too!

there are some great photos of a well known local time triallist and hillclimber riding through one of the wiggle sportive photo spots on a big hill past about 30 riders.

He's on a steel fixie and carrying a musette bag.....

There's a similar one I saw from Roubaix (I think?) when Etixx recce one of the cobbled climbs the day before... When all of the Sportive guys are riding it...! Hillarious but they only show a small part of it. Think one of the pro guys gun's it up the climb in 41s

 

[platypus]

See, I'm still torn about pro/KOM kit. People like to wear what they see their 'icons' wearing and I see no problem with that on a leisure/social level. Two of the guys I was out with last night, 1 was wearing a Sky jersey and the other full British Cycling kiit. Then there was me tagged on the back in my *noname*/plain (DHB) commuting kit and the fourth guy wearing a jersey with a local brewery/cider on it and TdF shorts. He was the fittest/most serious out of all of us! We must've looked like a weird bunch!

If it's deemed ok for people to wear football shirts and play 'down the park' in them, why is it not ok for cyclists?

 

[xdcx]

Wearing a replica team jersey is showing support for a team you like. The same as with rugby, football, motor racing... anything! Nothing wrong with it at all no matter the ability of the wearer. Heck even a fan of the sport who doesn't even ride could wear their favourite team jersey, what's the problem with it?

Wearing a yellow TDF jersey or the world champ rainbow jersey I could maybe see the beef though

 

[Vonhelmet]

I know a couple of weeks ago on of my CC friends told me of a person who turned up to an intro ride with 2 panniers on the back of her bike and a rucksack and normal pedals. She lasted all of two miles before it was mutually agreed that they separated. She was just ridiculously slow.

The problem is that people don't always judge their own abilities very well.

My next door neighbour organises the rides I go on and he is the most gregarious man I know and will just invite everyone along, so we get people with a whole range of abilities coming out with us. Most of the guys are probably a bit better than me, and it varies from week to week who's feeling strong, but it's cool because we stop regularly and regroup at the top of hills and so on. We have a couple of hardcore club cyclists who could race off at any time if they chose to, but are happy to treat it as a social ride or recovery ride. There's one super tall guy who frequently rides around with panniers with no bother and who did LEJOG in 9 days with no rest days a couple of years ago, another guy who is a track beast so rides everywhere on a fixie. We get everyone. It's all good so long as people are halfway capable and have an understanding of how good they actually are.

We have occasionally had people come out with us who aren't suited to the group. Sometimes the track beast gets bored and pushes off to do his own thing, other times we have people who come out and are just not up to it at all. The first time I went out with the group, we had one guy who came with us on a Bianchi in full team Sky kit. I knew enough to recognise Bianchi as being quite fancy, though these days I'd recognise Sky kit as being a bit try hard... What I certainly would notice nowadays was that he was in trainers. He was hopeless. He just couldn't keep up at all, so we spent the wholw time waiting for him. We've had other guys come once in a while who'll say that yeah, they can totally cycle 40 miles, yeah, hills, no problem, yeah, 15mph average, easy, and then they'll turn up on a mountain bike in trackies and have to turn round as soon as the gradient goes above 5%.

None of which is to say that you shouldn't ride in trainers and a rucksack, or that a group should turn you away... Only that you better be sure you can hack it with the group you're going with.

 

[touch]

The funniest thing when on rides is seeing people in full pro kit pootling along or pushing their bike.

If you wear pro kit/yellow or KOM jerseys etc you should be able to do it justice.

Bashing people for wearing trainers/backpacks etc is just pure snobbery.

I dont see any difference in making fun of people for wearing pro kit or making fun of people wearing trainers.

It doesnt bother me at all what other people wear or what bike they are riding.

 

[Vonhelmet]

The only thing that I find more funny is giving someone a cheery "good morning" with no hint of heavy breathing when passing them on a climb, despite being knackered, hiding it for just long enough to pass them. It's my guilty pleasure.

I remember that one time we went up to the mast and overtook three mountain bikers who were grinding their way up and we both took a deep breath and hello'd them as we went past