On my spin out today, the number of cyclists on really nice bikes made me think that with all the money washing around amateur cycling, have we got to the stage where there are reports of amateur cyclists throwing their empty bidon away mid-ride?
I'm not talking about amateur races, I mean just a casual Sunday ride, for example.
I'm not knocking it either, if anyone has done it, well why not?
Actually I might try it next time I'm out and am near other cyclists (I'll go back and get it later, obviously)
eh? what would be the point? is their mum waiting up the road with a replacement ?
Even if it's not true I'm prepared to get outraged at the hypothetical possibility that it could be a thing.
I'm thinking just for effect? Another marginal gain for the pro look? 😉
Actually, the idea of a family member or friend with a food bag is another good idea.
What's a bidon?
So to be clear you haven't seen it happen, not sure if it is happening but think it might be?
Ha, it's a water bottle.
[quote=km79 said]What's a bidon?
It's a waterbottle, I don't know why the OP didn't say water bottle, perhaps they're French.
Mike- yes, it's just conjecture at this stage.
seen bottle by the side of the road? Occasionally see one here or there but that would normally be down to dropping it by mistake or bouncing out of the cage
I've seen parents teaching kids to do this at u8 and above circuit mtb races.
Inappropriate IMO.
Thanks Kryton, I thought it would be done at some level. Everything pro seems to filter through.
I agree with you, if people are teaching their kids that, then it's not right!
Km79, you've come away with a bit of French so you got something out of this:)
watched a rider leave two water bottles at the bottom of Ditchling Beacon before strava-ing the shit out of the climb*
considered moving them a bit, for bantz
*hardly bothering the leaderboard
Im just confused why is called a bidon?
Are they teaching them the proper hurling a bidon technique..?
I bet they arent.. amateurs!
ugarizza - Member
Thanks Kryton, I thought it would be done at some level. Everything pro seems to filter through.
I agree with you, if people are teaching their kids that, then it's not right!
But it's massively different doing it in a closed circuit race where people picking them up to a road. Though please pop back when you see somebody actually doing it....
Im glad I wasn't the only one who thought whats a bidon? Is it related to bidet i.e squirty bottle?
They've been throwing inner tubes away for years, probably cost about the same as a bottle.
Snipers. It's the only way.
I hang them in trees beside the bags of dog shit.
There's a triathlon around Cannock Chase every year. Water bottles (bidon-shaped) get handed out at Marquis Drive. If you grab a bottle, what are you supposed to do with it if your two cages are already occupied by empties?
Exchange one of the empties for the full one? Or is that too difficult?what are you supposed to do with it if your two cages are already occupied by empties?
Too difficult at speed, yes. That's why you might throw one away.
Or are you suggesting I'm hard of thinking? 😉
I'm no triathlete but surely there is a large bin or something you can chuck your empty into before grabbing a replacement? Those empties can then be cleaned and reused next race handed out full?
So are we talking about about closed circuit racing or littering here?
I'm finding it difficult to be outraged about something that doesn't actually seem to be happening.
'm finding it difficult to be outraged about something that doesn't actually seem to be happening.
Your obviously not trying hard enough.
km79 - Member
What's a bidon?
It's a fancy word to use instead of gourde
Im just confused why is called a bidon?
It's French. It's meant to make you sound superior to others. It's actually very pretentious.
There's a triathlon around Cannock Chase every year. Water bottles (bidon-shaped) get handed out at Marquis Drive. If you grab a bottle, what are you supposed to do with it if your two cages are already occupied by empties?
Triathlons are notoriously tough for littering, instant expulsion from the race if a marshal spots you discarding bottle or gel wrapper outside a feed zone. It is a shame most other events are not half as strict.
I was disgusted at all the co2 canisters left on the road by lazy litterbug cyclists until I recently found out it's kids whizzing Laughing gas 😳
My use of the word bidon is getting a bit of a hammering 🙂
In my defence, I thought it would be de rigeur on a cycling forum.
Oh #@#@, I've done it again!
My local circuit race has a complete ban on throwing water bottles. Riders used to do it in the last few laps to "save weight" as they built up to get their prestigious 27th place in the sprint. Then one hit the fence, bounced back into the road and took out half a dozen riders.
Instant DQ if you're seen throwing it no matter how "careful" you are. Start with a bottle = finish with a bottle.
What's a bidon?
It's what French people, professional cyclists and pricks call water bottles.
I'm assuming the OP is in one or other of the first two categories...
Im running low on bidons, where was this op so I can go & collect them?
Ha, I stand by the use of bidon and am neither French nor a pro.
I'll ignore the other category 🙂
I wouldn't use the word at home, or even with the people I ride with.
But I secretly like it and have no shame about that, I just need to be more careful about where I use it 🙂
(@oldtalent - I don't know but if I find out, they're mine! Could be like used golf balls on a course if it takes off)
Im just confused why is called a bidon?
Same reason hat is chapeau and peloton is, er...
Anyway as for bidons, I couldn't care less what you call them, but discarding them is littering.
I have been known to empty my bottle/s on the road before big climbs on sportives, in the knowledge that there is a feed station at the top to refill.
Karma has seen to it that on at least one occasion doing this, I had to stop halfway up for a pee anyway 😳
But it's massively different doing it in a closed circuit race where people picking them up to a road. Though please pop back when you see somebody actually doing it....
Depends on the context. Kids need to be taught about littering, and also that when they are grown ups they'll need that go go juice and mummy won't be there to tidy after them.
Watching a u8 / u12 do it makes me cringe on the basis is disrespectful to the sport. Pros do it for reasons based on the very close margins they are competing with. 8 year olds and veterans completing a sportive are not.
Sure, if your at the point end of a race / hill climb and the loss of 500g could make a difference to your result the fine, but go and pick up your litter during your recovery.
I've seen it - rode out to watch the tour of britain a few years ago at the top of one of the new forest's most brutal 6% hills
Couuple of lads came riding up the road in university club kit and one or two folk thought they were the leaders of the race. One of them played right up to it and jeté'd his bidon just before the sommet (where his mates were standing) 😀
Did a lovely job of it too; I reckon he's a regular
I've seen wannabees jettisoning bananas before the Michaelgate climb at the Lincoln GP sportive, might have been better if they'd eaten them ten minutes previously.
I persisted past post 4 thinking something must happen, but no it hasn't 😐
Having read the title I was about to ask why anyone would do this given that a decent water bottle is a fiver. But then I read the OP and it turns out no one is actually doing this 🙄
TBH I wish some in amateur racing did do this as many seem hopeless at getting their bottle back into its cage while simultaneously looking where they are going and holding their line. Frequent cause of accidents.
I once discarded a bidet after a proper messy shart.
Does that help?
It's French. It's meant to make you sound superior to others. It's actually very pretentious.
Unless you're French speaking.
TBH I wish some in amateur racing did do this as many seem hopeless at getting their bottle back into its cage while simultaneously looking where they are going and holding their line. Frequent cause of accidents
Doesn't need to be racing. I almost got wiped out by someone JRA not long ago. He was looking down and swerved as he passed me.
Longer races I've seen feedzones and handups. Amateurs can still race 100miles.
I did once imagine a discarded bottle hitting a fictional child's face. Disgrace, we should ban something.
Longer races I've seen feedzones and handups. Amateurs can still race 100miles
hand ups and feed areas are common in gran fondo clubs
DezB - isn't that where you have a crepe? (can't do the French e thing but did read instructions on a different thread yesterday and thought I am never going to need that!!! How shite am I!)
Top trolling!
Hat, OP, hat!
I think it's "house"Hat, OP, hat!
Im just confused, why is it called a bidon?
House á toi aussi, pantalons-des-peurs.
I launch my camelback in to the bushes before epic climbs. Pfft amateurs throwing away cheap bottles.
Indoors on a turbo trainer would be quite a safe environment to launch an empty bidon into an imaginary crowd.
ugarizza - Member
In my defence, I thought it would be de rigeur on a cycling forum.
Technically a mountain bike forum, but few see the association with the mountain bike magazine it takes its name from 😛
MTB doesn't seem to have a French style to it so we're not all giving French names to parts, accessories and activities. More American maybe.
Bidons or bottles are less common outside of xc racing, and even there riders are unlikely to chuck them. Gels however, now that gets my blood boiling.
Ive got quite a stash of bottles, camelbaks and tools which amateurs leave behind. keep throwing I say.
My use of the word bidon is getting a bit of a hammering
I assumed it was a fancy word for colostomy bag, turned out to be a very disappointing thread.
MTB doesn't seem to have a French style to it so we're not all giving French names to parts, accessories and activities. More American maybe.
maybe we should start calling it velo tout terrain, or Le VTT?
I've always found the whole brtis using french words for stuff when a perfectly good English word exists a bit cringe worthy TBH. Same with professional cooks who insist on their staff acknowledging them with "Oui Chef!" and the obsession with the michelin guide.
I guess it's a cultural thing.
I wondering we'll see the same thing in a few years when MTB becomes the new golf.
Right now, there are hordes of neo-roadies desperately scrabbling to show that they're more pro than you. They grab at anything that screams "heritage". Rapha were geniuses at spotting this. These same neo-roadies are the ones saying bidon and chapeau to each other.
What will happen if/when MTB sees the same renaissance in popularity? Will we see neo-MTBers clad in BeenBag and quoting Zak Tempest?
😆
I've always found the whole brtis using french words for stuff when a perfectly good English word exists a bit cringe worthy TBH.
yep! my skin crawls every time they use peloton on the telly.
Kind of wishing I'd just used bottle now, I hadn't realised it carries such a stigma 😉
s’apparente à un mega troll,
yep! my skin crawls every time they use peloton on the telly.
Derailleur
repechage
musette
Domestique
Soigneur
Grupetto
Flamme rouge
Echelon
Have you got a case of the Brexit hives yet?
Yeah, my mates and I were discussing this in the cafe.Klunk - Member
I've always found the whole brtis using french words for stuff when a perfectly good English word exists a bit cringe worthy TBH.
yep! my skin crawls every time they use peloton on the telly.
What's the perfectly good single word in English that is used for a water bottle shaped to fit into a cage for fitment to a bicycle?
Bloody tour [i]OF[/i] Britain missed le opportunity
What's the perfectly good single word in English that is used for a water bottle shaped to fit into a cage for fitment to a bicycle?
Bottle
I can't tell if some of the words of foreign origin in this thread are placed there with a nod and a wink or just ignorance. 🙄
Doffs casquette to OP. 😉
From Wikipedia
First attested in English in the 14th century, the word bottle derives from Old French boteille, which comes from vulgar Latin butticula, itself from late Latin buttis meaning "cask", which is perhaps the latinisation of the Greek ??????? (bouttis), "vessel"
It's a waterbottle, I don't know why the OP didn't say water bottle, perhaps they're French.
I thought it was french, until I said it in France, in a bike shop, trying to buy a water battle.
The shopkeeper was mystified until I pointed at the space in the bottle cage of a bike on display and he suddenly understood what i was after, saying "Ah, Gourde!".
Decathlon France thinks it's a [url= https://www.decathlon.fr/Acheter/Bidon ]Bidon[/url]
plus ça change
Surely cycling has just adopted words into the lingo? Do those who scoff at French words similarly dislike the words huck / booter / Stoke* / rad etc which have come across the pond?
Isn't it just a mild form of xenophobia? How many of the people who take offence to 'bidon' also voted leave?
Sincerely, a pretentious wannabe multicultural remainer.
*my phone automatically capitalizes Stoke, equating the emotion with the place. Which tickles me every time.
Ps what is the English for echelon?
Ps what is the English for echelon?
With questions like that you're just a rank outsider.
Isn't it just a mild form of xenophobia? How many of the people who take offence to 'bidon' also voted leave?
Top work bring brexit into a thread bout waterbottles & littering.
The shopkeeper was mystified until I pointed at the space in the bottle cage of a bike on display and he suddenly understood what i was after, saying "Ah, Gourde!".
Gourde, according to Google Translate means idiot or imbecile.
Can someone page Edukator?
I reckon for the next week could all you roadies take a bottle out and motion to throw it every time you see another roadie 🙂

