Are Roadies Odd?

It has been bugging me all day. The new guy at work prefers a SIS go gel over a stop at the Peaslake Corner shop for a slab of homemade flapjack after decending Barrys. What is it with Tarmac?

mountain biking is about the fun and adrenaline rush for fulfilment and road cycling is about the pain.

It's the fumes…

I saw some of them on Sunday, lycra, roadie style jerseys, all that stuff but they had mountain bikes. It was weird and scary..

NO!

i wear lycra to mtb in as its comfy and light . What do cross country racers wear? you dont see them in baggy kit.I also don't classify myself as roadie or mtb .I am a cyclist I have a go at most forms of cycling (apart from bmx cos it's for kids)

I'm a mountain biker and I've just done 8 x 2min hill climb reps on my road bike (in the sunshine).

It was odd but I liked it.

Haha, I ride on the road but I'd much rather a cake stop than any brand of gel!

I like all this them and us stuff, especially the pillocks at trail centres that call out 'watch out for the roadies' because you can ride up hill whilst they walk, they keep quite though when you're all over them like a rash on the downs on the hardtail whilst they drag the brakes on their 5" travel skill compensators.

Mine is actually a six inch skill compensator and I wear lycra under my baggies which is completely as it should be! 😛

Team jerseys are fine – If your on the team eh..

Overtaking numpties on 5" trail bikes with those silly adjusty seatposts on a racey hardtail is brilliant.

Saying that, I saw a roadie the other day wearing full roadie lycra (Astana I think), riding a posh Spesh road bike with all the gear and…. wait for it…. he was wearing a full face crash helmet. I nearly turned round and took a picture.

CAKE!!! It's the reason you burn the calories riding.

GB

Don't get me wrong.. Watching contador climb or cavendish sprint is amazing but they get to the end of a ride and as u are going into the pub I imagine it is like "nah I will have me protien shake and off to bed"

Yes. All roadies are uptight prudish anorexics, and all mtbers are gnarly tattooed hardcore partying doods 🙄

mountain bikers used to be converted walkers in the early 80s with a love of the countryside

The only thing I don't get is people trying too hard, roadies in full on tdf gear for the Sunday pootle, Stormtroopers at the top of BKB with an 8 inch DH bike, Guys new to it all with 6k of bike and all the gear. It seems so, excessive.

I've watched this lark evolve over 20 years and AFAICT the marketeers have got their grubby little mitts on cycling..

Oddly enough I couldn't care less – To each their own but I still have a little chuckle now and then..

Guys new to it all with 6k of bike and all the gear. It seems so, excessive.

It does however mean that 18 months on we can pick the stuff up for about half price when they sell it on

'We are all momentary escapees from the crushing realities of our mere existence….be it on 700c or 26"'

Dostoyevsky

What about track cyclists then. Explain that?

I've watched this lark evolve over 20 years and AFAICT the marketeers have got their grubby little mitts on cycling.

I think it's been longer than that. It's just that the marketing men have become more skilled.

track riding is great the banking is steeper than it looks on tv especially when you are riding the top of it and the adenaline rush of sprinting off the banking is amazing

bicycles are all good.

…well not the Argos specials but they aren't technically bikes at all, just shaped a bit like bikes.

http://www.argoscycles.com/

make some excellent frames

In fairness unlike road cycling I have not tried the track. Anyone want to defend recumbants?

It's all about performance 😀

LOL edric, you know that's not the Argos I meant 🙄

Haze – Member
It's all about performance

….! 😉

The only thing I don't get is people trying too hard, roadies in full on tdf gear for the Sunday pootle

Pro team kit and yellow jerseys? In which case I agree with you – team kit is for wannabees, proper road riders either wear club kit or plain. However if you do just mean a complete set of lycra (club/plain), then what else are you supposed to wear to go for a road ride?

Mind you, I'd still rather have a piece of cake than a gel – unless of course the chap in the OP was having the gel because he was training and wasn't stopping (you don't get cafe stops in races).

I'm amazed though – a roadie thread and no use of the word d*rks*d*

Well, don't know where I fit in, I ride road for a bit of extra fitness and mtb because its fun. Nearly all my rides involve a pint or cake somewhere along the way, sometimes both. I don't think you can really say its 'them and us' thing (I can think of cases on both sides of the knobbly/slicks fence that'd rather have a gel than cake). Some people just choose to follow their chosen hobby very seriously, imho, each to their own. My point of view is so long as you enjoy it, then do whatever makes you happy. Just don't expect the restof us to get it.

Nothing marks out a complete noobie more than an anti-roadie thread. Usually started by someone aged around 13 3/4.

Adrian Mole?

Roadies are probably mountain bikers too, in fact they are like the rest of us just cyclists.
At the Etape de dales yesterday after Malcolm Eliot and Mark Thwaites smashed out 110 miles in 5:43 and 5:49 they didnt go for the Rego, they were tucking in to Bacon Sarnies, and at Ribblehead, you would have seen Ian bibby and Ed Clancy neking cheese burgers, so get over the whole them and us toss that this web site keeps coming up with.
I was out on the road bike tonight and tomorrow Ill be on the mountain bike, wednesday I may get some dirt jumping and digging in, its all just riding a bike ffs.

Did the Black Rat road sportive around Somerset yesterday and had a a few pieces of ginger cake at the food stops and didn't touch the High5 gels on offer. Should I have stuck to gels as I was road riding, and left cake for mountain biking outings?

110 miles in 5:43

Thats a better average speed than I can manage on my 10 mile commute! 😯

biggest bunch of lycra wearing weirdos on the f***ing planet, they never talk or say hello , and alweays look they are in loads of pain, heaven forbid if your on a mountain bike and say hello.

not gonna lie, i ride both and enjoy both, all-be-it in different contexts, great feeling at the end of either type of riding, legs may not agree sometimes though. cant claim to eat cake soley on the MTB, nor can i claim to just have protein and energy gels/bars on the road bike. it definately helps riding both
gotta agree with druidh:

Nothing marks out a complete noobie more than an anti-roadie thread

learn to get on with both and your fitness and riding will benefit loads….

edit: massively disagree with this:

biggest bunch of lycra wearing weirdos on the f***ing planet, they never talk or say hello , and alweays look they are in loads of pain, heaven forbid if your on a mountain bike and say hello.

very rarely do i pass a so called 'roadie' without a nod or some sort of acknowledgement…. maybe its just you… 😛

biggest bunch of lycra wearing weirdos on the f***ing planet, they never talk or say hello , and alweays look they are in loads of pain, heaven forbid if your on a mountain bike and say hello.

'They' can probably spell though, whoever 'they' are.

Some people are rude/unsociable, some aren't. WTF difference does it make if they're on a road bike, a mountain bike, a unicycle or walking?

Scraprider do you say hello to everyone you walk past in the street? If they don't reply do you bitch about it online? Get a life!

FWIW the folk I find to be the rudest in general, is the 'rad gnarlcore doods' with attitudes like yours!

And cake over gel every time!

nah, people are odd

Nothing beats turning up at Peaslake for a mug of coffee and a piece of cake to have an overweight database programmer, ignore your cheery "hello" before turning to his equally overweight database programmer friends and say loudly "here come the **** roadies" then scrape his rather nasty, cheap Orange 5 on your road bike after he's finally managed to adjust his body armour before walking up the Holmbury climb and sessioning BKB, again.

do you ever say hello to the roadie ? is it the law that the roadie has to say hello first? i cant believe that someone will ignore you, i'v been out on my road bike and mountain bikers have ignored me, i always make an effort to aleast raise my hand and nod,

I stand corrected. Roadies like cake too! Maybe i just don't get eating those gel things over cake. However it would explain why I never did very well at racing… Maybe it was the cake!

Thinking about it I reckon a Bakewell tart could be on the cards at lunch!

Maybe i just don't get eating those gel things over cake

I don't think I've ever had a gel away from racing, they're a very efficient way to stay fuelled, nothing else! Although the Torq ones are pretty palatable.

At the Etape de dales yesterday after Malcolm Eliot and Mark Thwaites smashed out 110 miles in 5:43 and 5:49 they didn't go for the Rego, they were tucking in to Bacon Sarnies, and at Ribblehead, you would have seen Ian bibby and Ed Clancy necking cheese burgers, so get over the whole them and us toss that this web site keeps coming up with.

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