Out for first proper ride on my new MEKK road bike today (very nice to ride) and my friend made the laughing comment about me being a roadie now. Got me thinking,what defines a proper roadie?
To me its someone like Oldgit of this ‘ere parish, a club member, someone who races,someone who puts a lot of work/time into the sport etc. That’s not me, I’m just a plodder, just a cyclist..

Meh – I’m not even a cyclist, just someone that rides a bike.

And that’s whether or not I’m on a road bike.

The shaved legs are a give away 😉

scotroutes – Member

Meh – I’m not even a cyclist, just someone that rides a bike.

And that’s whether or not I’m on a road bike.

+1 x 100000000000. Spot on, that. Enjoy the ride, wherever. 🙂

absence of pot belly and they can ride past a pub

I only have a CX bike with no wheels at the mo, so have no idea what I am…

How do you know he’s a knight roadie?

He’s not covered in sh!t like the rest of us!

They’ll catch up to old ladies on shopping bikes, sit on their wheel for a minute then jump them for the sprint to the lights.

Does not ride a mtb
No baggies over bibs
Tea not beer
Think with the new interest in cycling and. Sportife events the lines are a little confused
Most people we see at work do not belong to a club or
Care about the heritage of the sport.

But does that matter

I think of real roadies as those guys who do proper road racing and do plenty of riding in chaingangs. Plus they obviously shave their legs.

I do all the things the op mentions but am just a tester who likes dabbling in a bit of muddy riding too.

None of those things really, though it helps. Odd one isn’t it. I ride with lots of people that race and work hard in the sport, but there’s something missing.
I’d put it like this. Find a known rider, someone with credentials. An old pro would be best, one that doesn’t suffer fools gladly. If you can ride with them, and I don’t mean to be able to keep up. If you can spend all day with them and just understand all the nuances, then you’re probably a roadie?

Oh and we dig out out MTB’s for winter, and even race them.

If you find yourself preferring to go out for a road ride most of the time, instead of the MTB…
Or you have more road bikes than MTBs in your collection

That’s when you know you’ve been lost to the ‘other’ side… 😉

But it’s all bikes at the end of the day, all good 🙂

+ I think when you ride with a club – that’s the traditional way to ride a road bike

I do all the things the op mentions but am just a tester who likes dabbling in a bit of muddy riding too.

A recreational roadie?

Someone who goes out on a ‘training ride’ rather than just a …’ride’

A tester is just an anti-social roadie 😛

Eek, think i’m guilty of being a roadie, but my first love is cyclocross, so does that just make me confused, and today been out on the singlespeed mtb for a nice ride round, ok was logging heart rate data as I went 😳

Got me thinking,what defines a proper roadie?

1. Someone who is attoning for sins in a past life by making absolutely bloody sure they never enjoy riding a bicycle.

2. A refusal to believe scientific data regarding hydration.

3. Complete faith that the only way to do anything is the way it has always been done.

😀

Junkyard – lazarus

absence of pot belly and they can ride past a pub

.. and their knees dont point quarter to and quarter past as they peddle.

Well I’ll never be a proper roadie – not fast enough, don’t want to join a club and too bloody antisocial!

Road riding is nice ( i would say that after buying a carbon road bike) and you can travel good distances, don’t need to be a racer or a club member to do that.

EDIT: Good point Rusty! 😀

4. The ability to spell ‘pedal’. 🙂

Surely anyone who likes to ride on the road is a roadie? If you’re enjoying an off-road jaunt up into the hills the next day, then you may be an MTBer as well. And when you get in the car to go home, you’ll be a motorist.

Being technically crap on an mtb (not as bed as a triathlete tho).

I used to train when I was doing 12 hour mtb events , bonty 24/12 eaelstoke etc
Training does not make you a roadie just competitive

Someone who sets off on a rare afternoon off to attack a local cycling clubs TT course (despite only owning a f/s MTB) rather than ride in the woods less than 1/2 a mile from their house??

Oh dear 🙁

Defined by bikes:
I have:
A fixed wheel road bike
A race bike
A best race bike
A track bike
An MTB#

If I was a mountain biker, I’d have
A HT
A rigid SS
A FS
A long travel HT
A road bike

#ok, it’s a hub-geared, soon to be SS steel HT, but that’s because I’m a bike geek. To a roadie, it’s the mountain bike.

And shaved legs 😉

Think many of us are just cyclist
The collection
Full sus big bike 26
Full sus 29 100mm travel
Ht 29 hub gear
Ht 26 xc race bike
Ht single speed
Full sus hack old sx 26
Ss 26
Sunday best road bike
Summer hack road bike retro steel
Winter/ touring bike surly lht
Pub bike 50s Raleigh 5 speed
Cx bike but not a full race one
Retro 26 xc race bike

Opps

a very shiny dining table..

Calves.

Smelling of embrocation

Well i have :-
1 x full suss 100mm travel mtb
1 x full suss 140mm travel mtb
1 x flat-barred 700x28c road hybrid
1 x 700x23c road singlespeed
1 x proper road bike

Oh hell, i have more road bikes than MTB’s!!

You know you’re a roadie when other roadies say hi and MTB types ignore you…

Someone who follows The Rules.

All of them.

Someone who doesn’t muck around on Internet forums.

How much to buy a half decent road bike – what would I get for <£1000?

Somebody who rides up hills as well as down them.

I’m not sure where I fit in then, rode 40 miles to the Quantocks, then 8 or so up and down the combes, then 40 miles home again. Some roadies did say ‘hello’ but I got an odd look whilst decending from the cafe to Kingston – chin on the bars arse in the air at a shade over 40mph, knobblies at 23 psi thrumming nicely.. (maybe I need a ‘cross bike)? Oh, and we have a dining table, but it’s not shiny and it’s in the kitchen!

Being technically crap on an mtb (not as bed as a triathlete tho).

Got a weeks holiday now on the mtb having ridden off road only a couple of times this year. Shall see today if my transformation is complete 🙂

I only have a CX bike with no wheels at the mo, so have no idea what I am…

Stationary.

Going to the Pyrenees tomorrow and taking my race licence just in case

Got a weeks holiday now on the mtb having ridden off road only a couple of times this year. Shall see today if my transformation is complete

Had my first off road blast for a couple of months on Thursday night, resulting in a slow motion OTB moment down a bank.

May have to get a track bike for this winter…

Someone who follows The Rules.

The Rules

If you read these and think ‘what a load of pretentious old cobblers’ then you’re not a roadie

If you read them and hurry off to take your pump off your frame, polish your bike to pristine condition and line up your logos then, welcome, you’ve been well and truely bitten 😉