Went to Swinley yesterday,

Out of boredom/nececity I took the BMX as I was taking the nephew out for his first ‘propper’ mountainbike ride and his wheels are 20″ so at least I’d have a feel for how the trails felt to him and leveled out the playingfield a bit for the climbs (singlespeed, 21″ top tube, no seat).

Now I know we deride Roadies for being miserable, but by-heck, take a BMX to a trail and with the exception of a couple of old boys on retro trek y-frames who just seemed confused about the BMX and thought it was a singlespeed (well technicaly it is…) and kids on BMX’s I could have been a lepper with spurious comments about your mum on my t-shirt!

p.s. 20″ brakeless* is the way forward for trail centers!

*it has a rear brake, but the rims chromed and the tyers a slick so it may as well be.

What a tool! WTF did you expect? a round of applause from shocked onlookers at every corner? I doubt anyone **** cared what you were on.

Agreed. Us mtb riders are pretty selfish and ignorant. Then again so is everyone else who limited time, etc. Not a reason and a pretty poor excuse.

All the gear types will be like that though wont they 🙂

a round of applause from shocked onlookers at every corner?

It’s what you get when you ride a unicycle, so why not a bmx at a “trail centre”

thisisnotaspoon, remember if a mountain biker sees someone riding the same stuff as them on say, a bmx, they suddenly have to really really concentrate on what they’re doing. No one wants to cock up and have someone on a bmx whizz past them while they’re lying on the floor, they’d never live it down 😉

Attention whore whining when he didn’t get the praise he thought he deserved?

I don’t think mountain bikers on the whole are any better or worse a cross section of the public than anyone else. I’ve met those that go out of their way to meet/greet and be polite, there are those I’ve seen looking so miserable they should blatantly just give up and find another hobby!

I do know some very elitist mtbers though, those that will deride you for not wishing to fall in with their stereotype, which is quite extreme. But then it’s probably nowhere near as elitist as the music world…

No praise wanted or needed, a response to “hello” would have been polite in some cases!

shame you didnt bump into us at swinley yesterday, we would’ve said hi, would’ve prob asked to follow you around for a bit too and been a bit too friendly… you know…. bit of groping, touching of “special areas” 😉

if it helps, everyone we bumped into there yesterday was really cool and said hi back or chatted for a bit.

I’d have said hello at least, I like to see people out on inappropriate hardware, tesco’s bikes, ancient wrecks, BMXs… I got a lot of chat going to glentress on my rigid carrera so I’m surprised a BMX didn’t get a laugh.

Yeah classic logical fallacy here, I met a couple of “A” type gits therefore all “A” types are gits..

The others above have got it right, take any cross section of society and you will find a percentage of ignorant gits. In the main I think MTB fosters a sense of togetherness.

Obviously the friendly groups I met on Leith Hill this morning weren’t mountain bikers then….

I still don’t get the need to say hi to everyone you pass, slightly odd to feel the need to have communication with other trail users. I generally only do if I’m stopped and have nothing better to do. Don’t care what bike you’re on.

I rode solo today – didn’t speak to another cyclist. Didn’t see any mind.

Got a nod or a smile from every single ROADIE I passed today.

Antisocial feckers of all ages on BMXs though, didn’t acknowledge me at all. Not one.

where in The Law does it say that just because we both ride bicycles i have to like you?

I’d like to be able to be more freindly to other bikers of all decrees, but my restraining order doesn’t allow it!!

I don’t disagree that mountain biking can be anti-social.

But the word you’re looking for is “unsociable”.

And yes, MTBers are, on the whole, unsociable gear snobs who won’t talk to you until they’ve checked out your bike.

Well i disagree – everyone up here seems uber friendly 🙂

You seem very keen to point out the bmx thing.

Maybe you just came across as a boring tryhard and on some other forum someone’s posted “BMXers are actualy quite sad”

😉

Chrome rims are the best for u-brakes! Clean em up and they stick way better than a “normal” rim.

I’m very friendly actually – except to those who are in need if friendliness … I’m not a damn charity afterall

😉