[Closed] Roadies, why so miserable?

I'm afraid I'm one of the annoying ones rolling along with a shit-eating grin and saying hello to people.

If you find road riding boring you must be doing it wrong... Or live somewhere really crap

What should i be doing [i]right [/i]to make it exciting?

I was pedaling in an anti-clock wise direction so i've got the basics covered. It was faster than walking and i got plenty of fresh air but road riding is much slower than travelling by motorbike and my attempts at injecting some excitement into it were unsuccessful (bike broke) so i was doing it wrong on that front. I see road riding as the serious/grown up side of cycling and that's not what cycling is about for me at present. Moving house to somewhere less crappy isn't going to change that.

why in 2014 do people use information technology so badly? With 200,000+ topics in the bike section alone the chances your question has been asked before. Posting a new thread rather than searching is a really inefficient use of a huge resource

If you'd used the [i]excellent [/i]search function, you could have found the answer to that question. 25 efficiency credits will be deducted from your account.

Ha ha, just went out on road bike and did some hill climbs and got a puncture.
But guess what...
I still really enjoyed myself.
Weather is nice.
It's a quiet-ish road.
And I'd still rather be out on my bike, mountain bike or road, than doing almost anything else.
And I greeted a mountain biker just to make a point

Surely you'd be miserable too if you had to ride this?

[img] [/img]

Not all of them can be hora though, surely?

If you'd used the excellent search function, you could have found the answer to that question. 25 efficiency credits will be deducted from your account.

🙂 FWIW I find the advanced one works fine.

My first road ride was a joyless death march,I perservered as I was carrying an injury and it quickly clicked, and I now do more on road than off road riding. My 2005 R1 has just been SORNed, first time in 20+ years I havent had a road legal bike, as those rest days where I'd blat into wales for a long day of lane carving (and spend a fortune on petrol) I now spend out on the road bike. No faffing loading cars and driving to some worthwhile trails, I'm on quiet roads 5mins from my door. More sociable than MTBing if you want it to be as you can chat as you ride. Cover more miles so (as long as youve got the surroundings) you see more than on an MTB. Flying along the flats with legs spinning smoothly and a feeling of effortlessness has a feeling of purity and is a bit zen. Climbs are there to be conquered and pain to be overruled. Then spin out, tuck and fly down the other side, lifting your vision and using your bodyweight as if you were on a motorbike, every roadie remembers the first time they topped 50mph.

As long as you are riding and enjoying it it's all good, I hope road riding clicks for you as its another option/dimension, but if it doesnt youre loving MTBing so its win-win.

I smile and wave to everyone out on a bike, be they 'serious' roadies, gnarly MTBers or commuters, farmers or pensioners pootling to the shops.

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.

H. G. Wells

They may look miserable, but they are secretly revelling in the 'glory of suffering'.

The roads did seem quieter this morning. And last night too for some reason. If it means I get to ride my bike with less numpties on the road I might have to start hoping Ingerlund win and get through to the next round.

I'm miserable because I hate the inconvenience of having to look upon another member of this doomed species. Each and every one of you makes me feel sick.

My first road ride was a joyless death march,I perservered as I was carrying an injury and it quickly clicked, and I now do more on road than off road riding. My 2005 R1 has just been SORNed, first time in 20+ years I havent had a road legal bike, as those rest days where I'd blat into wales for a long day of lane carving (and spend a fortune on petrol) I now spend out on the road bike. No faffing loading cars and driving to some worthwhile trails, I'm on quiet roads 5mins from my door. More sociable than MTBing if you want it to be as you can chat as you ride. Cover more miles so (as long as youve got the surroundings) you see more than on an MTB. Flying along the flats with legs spinning smoothly and a feeling of effortlessness has a feeling of purity and is a bit zen. Climbs are there to be conquered and pain to be overruled. Then spin out, tuck and fly down the other side, lifting your vision and using your bodyweight as if you were on a motorbike, every roadie remembers the first time they topped 50mph.

Good answer 😀 Pretty much covers many reasons why i (and maybe most of us) cycle in the first place. I'm still a bit too keen on using every lump, bump and curb as an excuse to play to make owning a road bike a practical thing though. I prefer the extra freedom and robustitude of using an mtb - sounds really very obvious but you're not limited to the roads. I do ride on roads* (not really road riding though) in order to get to the wild, but if i spy something interesting on my travels (easily done where i live - maybe i should move somewhere crappier still 😉 ) i can go explore and not worry about having to walk home.

I hope road riding clicks for you as its another option/dimension

* 500 efficiency credits deducted and a further 10,000 good citizen credits deducted for using footpaths on occasion.

I have come to the conclusion, that the ones who do not smile, nod, reply hello, morning, evening etc are concetrating on smashing the KOM on that Strava segment and any diversion from that task, would be against their marginal gains 😉

I'll bite

Yesterday whilst roadieing into work I approached a bridleway junction with a chap on a MTB waiting there. Nodded hello to him and got completely ignored.

This morning on't MTB, riding down a quite crappy gravel track on NCN20, I met two women coming the other way on road bikes. Good mornings were exchanged all round.

Conclusion? One nil to (us) roadies 😆 😛