bikemonster Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 this lot are 'avin a friggin' bubble bath with some of the comments.... A bubble bath? You 'avin' a giraffe or wot?
Java001 Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Being a roadie, who struggle to even cope with a dirty roadbike and who cannot imagine why anyone would want their pride and joy covered in dust and mud,no matter how much fun they might be having, I can't resist a bit of stirring to get this post back on "track" ......MTB sales by far outstrip Road sales here in the Eastern Cape and many roadies are crossing over to MTB. They often tell you that it is because there is just too much "politics" in road cycling. With politics usually caused by the rider and not by the bike, I wonder how long before there is just going to be too much politics in MTB ?
Caerus Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Next time your at the gym, wave and say hi to the person next to you on the spinning bike, or wave and smile at the muscle bound freak next to you benchpressing 200kg.
TNT1 Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 or wave and smile at the muscle bound freak next to you benchpressing 200kg. It depends on how hot she is...
Caerus Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 It depends on how hot she is... Thats if you like that sort of thing
Thor Buttox Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Maybe it's not a roadie/MTB thing... maybe it's a CT/Jhb thing... cos most people down here acknowledge you if you smile and/or say "Hi". Although i love it when a group of roadies are going along and I happen to pop in behind their group on your mtb cos you can't swing around into the road to pass. They don't like that much... hmmm! I think it has to do with small suspension issues...
vanniri Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 (edited) By the sound of it all you bunch do is to greet people on the road (asphalt or dirt). I never greet anybody. If I wanted social interaction I would have joined facebook So next time an a hole passes you, it might be me! Edited January 13, 2011 by vanniri
Saudiq Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 I enjoy both disciplines but my 1st love is road biking and I've found most roadies here in CT will greet back but thats where the friendliness ends. If u should breakdown however its very unlikely that a roadie will stop to help, MTB'ers on the other hand will stop, fix ur bike, offer to call someone for you, etc EVEN IN A RACE! It is also sacrilegious to join a roadie bunch if you've not been invited even if ur prepared to work upfront :-)
Big G Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 This is just a general question of something that I've noticed. Coming from a roadie background and moving over to MT biking due to the dangerous roads etc I noticed that mountain bikers overall(with the exception) are more social than roadies. Roadies has the tendency to almost never greet you on the road, always has this "looking down to mountain bikers attitude" like if you're not a roadie then you're don't know anything about cycling attitude... However mountain bikers normally care for the environment, rides more responsible (maybe because they fall harder sometimes) and is much easier to have a normal conversation with without any attitude what so ever, they're more relaxed and open. Lots of mountain bikers only training doing mountain biking but kick ass on the road as well and some roadies are also seriously good or better the mountain bikers so the playing field is level, I'm just not sure about the attitude between the 2 sports. I was just wondering if it was only me or if I missed something that happened between cool roadies and social MTBikers. Almost like Mercedes vs BMW or iPhone vs BlackBerry etc. TO have a BlackBerry tells people you're a hardcore business man, to have an iPhone is like saying I'm chill but I also do business. Maybe I'm dreaming and in that case I apologise for this post. Does anyone agree/disagrees with me?As a roadie that has been around a while and without reading all the other posts. I have to agree with you(yea as one of the posts i did read "Opening a can of worms again").But as i said i have to agree. Ride on any given day and notice how many of the roadies "pro, non pro" will return the gesture when you greet them. Unfortunately without mentioning names this was started by one or two individuals back in the 80s late 80s, who thought that they were a cut above everybody else even though you may have kicked their butt more than once, and has carried through to certain clubs and individuals in cycling. May i add i am not accusing all members of certain clubs, there are the few that have the common decentcy to return your gesture of greeting but they are in minority!! One of the ex greats in cycling of this country once said to me Common Courtesy costs you nothing no matter how great you may become in a sport, it takes a better and bigger man to be humble. You treat everyone out there as you would want them to treat you. My point is we are all riding a bicycle no matter what make or price tag is on it. Road or MTB we are all cyclists and we are no better than the next man for choosing one above the other. Show some common courtesy to your fellow cyclists road mtb after all, what does it cost to say HELLO by lifting your hand or are you just too good!!!!
The_Break Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Some points: Roadies generally ride in groups so won't great you cause they are normally talking and not taking notice of other road users. MTB riders generally ride alone so will naturally great more easily as they are not in conversation.Roadies generally travel at a higher speed and as you normally have a lot more wind noise in your ears your greeting gestures tend more toward either hand signals or nods. I know nods are generally not seen. I know I nod a lot. MTB guys genenrally travel a lot slower and away from all the nose of the road so are probably a lot more verbal in their greeting.Roadies generally train harder on the road than a MTB would train on the road as I seldom see a MTB hitting it till he hits his turf. Roadies nailing it are not going to greet during hard efforts. Off the bike, roadies are a bit more windgat in perception I would agree. But this often comes from the dynamic of road riding where attitude is often a bigger role than it would be in a MTB race where the group splits up. So roadies will naturally have more attitude as their is a much more competitive attitude in road racing because of this dynamics. One last thing which may be the main reason for any windgatness of roadies. On an MTB, you more often than not get put in your place in a race and are duly humbled. On the road, there are plenty of wheel sitters who are able to finish a race with riders of clearly much higher aptitude and ability, so roadies tend to have more of a flase sense of themselves. They have more attitude because they think they are one of the manna cause they can sit in the bunch and then sprint and look good. So yeah I do agree, a lot of windgat roadies out there, but there are also great people in all aspects of the sport and these are the people that I choose to spend time with. For interest. I am a pure roadie.
Grebel Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Haha seeing as I bought a road bike to train for mtb'ing, I went riding yesterday, waving at all the roadies. They checked me out with some very funny looks, but no, no words or even a wave... +1 Also a MTBer training on a road bike. I get the same reaction. As a MTBer I shout back sarcastically if they don't greet. Costs nothing to be polite!
TNT1 Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 (edited) Of course,the other side, is, when you are in your car, do you 'greet' other car drivers? When walking at the mall, do you greet other mall walkers? When shopping at the local woolies (I generalise, but it seems to me the average hub member is a poncy woolies shopper - no shoprite shoppers here, well, maybe one or two of us...) do you greet your fellow shoppers? Why do you expect some random stranger to greet you from the other side of the road, and why the hell are you so offended when they don't? Is your self esteem that low? Oh, wait, is it some naive belief in a brotherhood of fellow cyclists? WTF? Even regular folks have a serious problem with the brotherhood of man...What makes you so special? You want a team sport, where you get to feel you competitors bum periodically? Share naartjie halves at half time? Rugby's your game. Cycling is for tough, egotistical SOB's... Edited January 13, 2011 by TNT1
Starvin' Marvin Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 I'm a roadie and I greet everyone. If the person I greet is to self important to greet back he/she gets 2nd greeting "KNOB"
mark ellis Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 I'm a roadie and I greet everyone. If the person I greet is to self important to greet back he/she gets 2nd greeting "KNOB" beautiful!
TNT1 Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 beautiful! Yeah... Try going to work, passing your boss in the passage, saying hello, and he ignores you for any passable reason,and you call him a knob...
Antoo Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 (edited) Funny thing is that I see many a CYCLIST cross training between mtb and road - I suppose that they change hats and attitudes, depending on where they're at. Perhaps you guys have noticed that the tri athletes, on their special machines,don't have the decency to sit up and greet, when they're on the road!!! Not my experience though - the guys seem pretty decent I have generally found that the people that complain about others unfriendliness, are generally not to friendly themselves. I cycle in the KZN Midlands and I find that the vast majority of the cyclists that I pass bye, on my sojourns greet..................... but then I make an effort to greet first...........and I am more of a roadie, who is primarily a cyclist. Edited January 13, 2011 by Antoo
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