I think many sports have got more “serious” at the top end of amateur competition/serious participation.

I identify as a ‘cyclist’ and I’m a bit squashy of middle, I sometimes don’t ride for a few weeks at a time and I’m not fabulously talented. My passion for bikes as a means of transport, as a way of seeing the world around me and as a means of accessing adrenaline, positive mental and physical health by bicycle are all part of that. I’m also a “sailor”, a “dad”, a “husband” and a bunch of other stuff. My love of bikes hasn’t changed since I ditched the stabilisers over 35 years ago and I really don’t view them any differently.

I ride with a lovely bunch of people and I’m one of the youngest but likely least fit. One thing I do notice is that ultimately they’re all out for the fun of it.

I take my bimbling , er , cycling, very,very seriously. Keeps me sane.
I train but in an extremely “analogue” fashion and I don’t buy all the new shizzle that the marketeers want you to consume.
As for proper cyclists – there’s a bloke I work with ,who has commuted 10 mile EVERY day. For 15 years on a BSO ,in jeans. He has as much respect from me ,as a cyclist ,that I would give, for example,to a Paris Brest Paris finisher.

I think it’s all down to marketing. As much as I love those bike marketing video’s most have very skilled riders in them that make the average rider feel less of a rider and people think, I am not a proper mtber

Whilst I can’t deny the impact of marketing in what is very much a marketing driven ‘life-style-choice’ sport/hobby/activity, I think some of the OP’s observations are perhaps because:

[slightly tongue-in-cheek]

– cycling in general is no longer viewed as a predominantly working-class/lower middle-class mode of transportation and weekend & holiday activity. It is now a subsection of the aspirant middle classes, many of whom are cash rich & time poor so strive to maximise their leisure time resulting in a quasi-competitive environment … whilst not necessarily always a negative this does result in a level of alpha-male ‘willy-waving’ … ExhibitA – STRAVA 🙂

– mountain biking itself is a fairly recent activity and has now ‘come of age’, so rather than a loose collective of like-minded individuals all mucking about on vaguely similar bikes, it has become divided and partisan and like Heavy Metal it now has a bewildering number of sub-genres!

But I also think that like many so called ‘extreme’ sports, the standard of mountain bike riding by many top-level amatuers, privateers, semi-pros etc has dramatically increased over recent years – especially amongst female riders and this is a really good thing.

However what it leaves is an even larger middle ground of reasonably fit, moderately talented but frustrated folk on big bikes who now look distinctly ‘pedestrian at best’! 🙂

I’m in my early 50s and still trying to progress, especially with jumps, gaps and drops but the level of skill required for the likes of some Golfie/Enduro/EWS tracks is daunting but impressive, however I just remind myself that I’m doing this hobby for me … it’s supposed to be fun and as long as you are enjoying yourself, there’s no point beating yourself up over what you could have been if only you’d put more hours/effort/money in …

I think all the data devices a lot of us now use (GPS computers, HRM, power meters etc.) along with Strava can easily make many of us push ourselves harder more often, not only trying to beat our PBs, but also “competing” against others.

The internet is another massive factor in this I think, because like with many hobbies and life in general, we are able to communicate with a much broader audiance than the handful of other cyclists we were aware of in our neighbourhoods ~25+ years ago if we weren’t a member of the local cycling club.

Bikes have been part of my life for as long as I can remember (at least 40 years of my almost 46), but I only started taking it “seriously” just over 2.5 years ago, starting from a very low baseline following my Xmas 2013 RTA and consequent loss of what fitness I had. Heck, I didn’t even have a Strava account until three years ago, when I suddenly realised after ~12 months that I could install it on my Nexus 7 2013! As a youngster, I loved playing verious sports to a reasonable level, but I always regarded cycling as simply a method of transport because none of my mates cycled as a sport and nobody in my family was sporty. It’s kind of ironic to me that we lived in Dolgellau for a few years in the 1980s, right on the doorstep of a decent road climb to the base of Cader Idris, but I’m not sure if I ever cycled all the way up to Gwernan lake at the age of ~10 and we were so close to the south facing climb of Bwlch Y Groes that I so want to climb these days.

– cycling in general is no longer viewed as a predominantly working-class/lower middle-class mode of transportation and weekend & holiday activity. It is now a subsection of the aspirant middle classes, many of whom are cash rich & time poor so strive to maximise their leisure time resulting in a quasi-competitive environment … whilst not necessarily always a negative this does result in a level of alpha-male ‘willy-waving’ … ExhibitA – STRAVA 🙂

Sort of, Strava isn’t really a single thing it’s a data logging tool with a “Social media” bolleux bolt-on, so in many ways it suits both the leisure cyclist just looking to document their enjoyable activities, and the competitive club cyclist looking to prove their mileage and performance to peers and/or strangers and all points in between.

Is cycling “More serious”?
I think it’s becoming more popular as a hobby/leisure activity/amateur sport which of course comes with good and bad trade-offs and it’s really all down to personality types.
There are people who cannot take anything up without embracing the aspirational/spendy side of things and getting into the competitive “something to prove” mentality.
There are people who just want to go out and enjoy a bike ride at a comfortable pace, escape some of their daily life’s pressures and spend time with friends and family doing something they enjoy…
And then there are people somewhere along a spectrum between those two extremes, who enjoy a bit of competition but don’t really mind about the outcome, and ride (possibly more) for enjoyment as much they do fitness/training or recognition.

Of course what’s missing there is “utilitarian” cycling, commuting to work, doing the shopping, getting the kids to school etc which isn’t really a “leisure activity” it’s using a bicycle as a tool (arguably it’s most appropriate function), and I don’t see much evidence of that being either promoted like “Leisure/competitive” cycling or indeed being taken up as much recently.

I do both and I’m still a bit of an outlier at work for actually riding to the office, but then there’s more chat about weekend riding plans and club runs than there was a few years ago.

What has been normalized and started to grow in recent years (for the professional middle-classes at least) isn’t cycling in general, but spending a couple of grand of your income on cycling as a sport/hobby rather than golf…

All IMO/IME of course.

I think there have always been people for whom every ride is “training”, and not primarily fun.

These people or people with this tendency now have the availability of more data to further refine their “training plan”.

A significant proportion of these people also don’t race. And are noticeable from all the data we can now share on Strava.

I think there have always been people for whom every ride is “training”, and not primarily fun.

You can have both, I enjoy the rides the most where I worked the hardest – possibly it’s all dopamine related. Definitely come home high as a kite after a tough ride with fast riders though.

Prompted by an article someone posted to the cycling club page yesterday about people not identifying themselves as a propper / serious / real cyclist because they didnt race, have more bikes, do enough miles, werent 4% body fat, only rode one a particular discipline etc.

Is it just me, or have people in general started cycling more seriously?

I see what you mean. Some of that I would put down to Strava. Not by way of blame, mind you; but because of how it facilitates competition both with others and with self.

You can have both, I enjoy the rides the most where I worked the hardest – possibly it’s all dopamine related. Definitely come home high as a kite after a tough ride with fast riders though.

I totally agree – I like to ride hard, even do the odd intervals ride on my way to and from work, and do a bit of racing, and I appreciate the odd ride out with a fast bunch of riders where you do naturally push each other, even after the promise of just a gentle spin at the start :). But these riders refer to each ride as training, never seem to actually enjoy it…

even after the promise of just a gentle spin at the start

🙂

followed by

http://anello-grande.blogspot.com/2012/01/cat-3-comics-issue-2-part-3.html

But these riders refer to each ride as training, never seem to actually enjoy it…

I do understand the appeal of ‘Type-Two-Fun’ to a certain extent, however what I certainly don’t get and I sadly see more and more of is the negativity and resentment from riders of a seemingly lesser technical/fitness/ability towards riders who are fit and/or very proficient etc riders …

It often goes along the lines of being critical/snide of riders and brands who promote ‘RAD’ mountain biking, or ‘I can’t ride that kind of technical trail, so I don’t think that kind of trail should exist here’ … chatting to some riders recently and they were adamant that ‘bimbling’ was the moutain biking of the future (despite being on big trail bikes) – yes so called ‘bimbling’ is fine and it certainly has its place but to suggest that all mountain biking is or should be ‘bimbling’ is perhaps disingenuous.

I’ve seen this within Winter Sports where certain participants of one sub-group try and dump crap all over another just because it’s not their thang …

I know this is part of human nature (or at least a quality of numerous British folk): when we can’t (or don’t want to/can’t be bothered to) pull ourselves up to other people’s level, we have to drag them down to ours. It’s just a shame that it seems to be prevelant in cycling in general and mountain biking in particular.

vive la différence

I’ve seen this within Winter Sports where certain participants of one sub-group try and dump crap all over another just because it’s not their thang …

We all know boarders are the spawn of the devil…

I think the industry has got a lot to answer for, although it’s found the same way as any other industry to sell more to people (and the people are the same whatever you’re selling) – make them unhappy with what they’ve got.

You need another bike because your current one:
hasn’t got enough gears
has too may derailleurs
isn’t slack enough
isn’t low enough
isn’t electric enough
etc

All the sell is about performance, speed, control, and those are serious things. People buy new bikes and become a little happier for a short time, then it’s just normal amounts of fun, but they’re going a bit faster. Then worrying if they’ve bought too much performance, or not enough. Start logging strava segment times on one bike versus another…

Every now and then something comes along that isn’t necessarily about how much performance you can buy, it’s about fun, but these don’t tend to last. Exhibit A: the fatbike. It was a sidestep away from the marginal gains of performance and allowed people to have a larf without being bogged down on whether the had the skillz to justify the latest purchase.

But because it was a step away from performance, you can’t really sell the next latest and greatest, the “sell” doesn’t really resonate. The people that bought them have still got them, and the step away from the treadmill of serious performance upgrades is there just the same as it always was.

Digby mentioned snowsports. On a similar note, I read this the other day which will resonate here, made think of singlespeeders!

https://www.surfer.com/features/the-drag-softboard-movement/

Surfing has changed. Surfing in Australia has become so mainstream and housebroken that a generation of young surfers now prefer to happily identify with the bodyboarders.

A strange new softboard culture has been born, but what is happening now probably has less to do with a wholesale renaissance in bodyboarding and more to do with surfers wanting to get as far as possible from what surfing has become: contrived, corporate, serious. They want something fringe and loose and hardcore, and they’ve found it with softboards.

funny article and entertaining vid, too.

OP, I get where you’re coming from.
It gets complicated the more you analeyes.
Is it your inferiority complex, their superiority complex, natural instincts, marketing or just different people enjoy different things. Maybe a combination of all of those.

Learning is a part of human nature so pushing yourself to be better, ride further or compete against other humans feels natural to some.
Some apes were happy eating ants and flinging shit others were driven to crack nuts and learn new skills.

You can have both, I enjoy the rides the most where I worked the hardest – possibly it’s all dopamine related. Definitely come home high as a kite after a tough ride with fast riders though.

Its very odd.   When I was years away from racing I used to enjoy a regular Sunday jaunt which was littered with conversation stops and ended with cake and tea.

If I joined – and I have – such a ride now I get mighty frustrated, but I can bimble continuously on my own.  Literally now I’m facing the arse end of this and am suffering from some sort of training onset fatigue and its not very pleasant at all, which essentially means I can’t even go out on the club social tomorrow for a few gentle miles and a chat.

Kryton, I don’t know what training onset fatigue is or consists of but is the negative vibe because you feel you should be able to fight natural instincts? Perhaps you have a naturally high drive to improve but feel you should be able conform to be able to bimble about and chat. Why not find a different hobby to chat and relax and embrace cycling as your natural drive quota. Peer pressure works both ways.

Why not find a different hobby to chat and relax and embrace cycling as your natural drive quota. Peer pressure works both ways.

Its a wonderful thought, but I don’t have time.    I do have a contradictory personalty in that I’m driven to be above average but am in fact distinctly average 😀

training onset fatigue

I made that phrase up but I’m just saying I’m “training’ hard rather than riding and this week have hit a fatigue wall – Sunday I literally stopped being able to ride a bike with much power and Monday was akin to having flu symptoms yet without the flu.

And this is the paradox; I loved the camaraderie of the social days, took up racing and now get impatient with standing around in MTB group riding. My happy medium is club Road riding which doesn’t tend to stop until the cafe in the middle/end.  So to answer the OP, for me yes it became more serious and I feel like getting back to being not-serious is a bit of an effort.

I think casual cycling has: see power meters, strava, turbos, aero etc for folk that don’t even race.

I reckon this is right, loads of stats so easy to see incremental gains and then strive for them more.

Agree with the comment about clubs too – I’d like to join one, I’m in fairly decent shape, but intimidated that it will be a bit too serious (hill reps not my idea of fun either).

My happy medium is club Road riding which doesn’t tend to stop until the cafe in the middle/end.

I’ve just got back into cycling after about 11 years off and the current group I’ve been riding with have quite a weird mix; hard group ride and then stop for a whole hour at a tea stop and then ride back. So a typical 4 hour ride has a whole hour just sat drinking tea, not that I’m complaining, plenty of time to digest two slices of cake or more. Although to be honest, I could take or leave the tea stop.

Agree with the comment about clubs too – I’d like to join one, I’m in fairly decent shape, but intimidated that it will be a bit too serious

Any decent club will split rides into groups, for two reasons 1) ability and 2) practicality – you can’t really manage a 60+ pack on a ride. Just turn up and see how it goes. The great thing about road riding is you can just hide in the pack and get sucked along (saving 30% energy); whilst the stronger riders take turns on the front getting their workout. No one cares if you don’t take a turn on the front (or shouldn’t). Most of the club rides I used to do had a group of 6-8 riders who took turns on the front pushing the pace and a group who just sat at the back; everyone got a good ride and it worked well. If it’s a large club, the fastest group will probably be a ‘no prisoners taken’ ride, so just try the 2nd group and see what that is like.

Cycling is what I do to get away from serious. Being at work, worrying about money, the kids etc. It’s the least serious thing I do and that’s how it should be. I love it because it’s a simple freedom that lets me act line a kid again. People who take playing out on bikes seriously are not to be trusted.

:o) People who take work and worrying about money seriously are the ones I dinnae trust

Kinda have to take work seriously or I wouldn’t have a job. Sorta have to take money seriously too. Kids need clothes and stuff, not easy without money. Cycling on the other hand is fun, serious fun I suppose 😉

Guessing this is basically just a question only an individual can answer for themselves.

Me personally, nope, just the same as it always was. Well cept I’ve changed from hardtail only to hardtail ebike conversion and a roadbike.

Ethos is the same as it’s alway been since I was a wean, I cycle purely for fun.

Had a great afternoon out today on the road bike, 40km, took me 1.45minutes, I’ll not be entering races anytime soon, no intention to. But I enjoyed it, immensely. The sun was out and a couple of pints before the train home!

I definitely class myself as a cyclist, we’re a broad church.

Guess what it all comes down to it is personal perception, as individuals we do tend to view ourselves as the centre of the universe. So if you think cycling is about competition and pushing yourself to the limit and the latest and greatest, that’s how your cycling world will look and you’ll tend to immerse yourself in that. Mine doesn’t, tis all good though! 🙂

My personal problem as that I can’t sit still / am dulled by doing nothing.  I’ve always been involved in some kind of sport and the post sport tiredness takes the edge of my energetic anxiety.  I think that’s why I need to compete, even if it’s only to ensure I’m exercising for a purpose in the week.

Yet, when I finally retire from work I want to be a recreational cyclist, and one of those people that’s able to go out on a spontaneous sunny Tuesday bimble in the Lakes with a pub stop, posting envious landscape pictures within STW.  To me that’s enjoyable cycling.

Surprised this hasn’t gone up yet:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2016/apr/12/no-more-hippies-and-explorers-lament-for-the-changed-world-of-cycling

I think it’s down to Groupthink. People increasingly live in an online environment that pushes a kind of synthetic hyper-individualism, but in fact what I mainly see is the growth of group activities, mass participation events, benchmark waymarked routes to be ticked off. In that climate, it’s probably difficult not to look around at your peers and resist the competitive urge.

Personally, I find it hard to take cycling seriously when I look at the clothing decisions made by otherwise presumably rational middle aged men just because they’re swinging their leg over a bicycle.

Surprised this hasn’t gone up yet:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2016/apr/12/no-more-hippies-and-explorers-lament-for-the-changed-world-of-cycling

I think the author is a complete half-wit! He laments the loss of intimate sole stuff and goes looking for it by entering a multi 1000 rider Sportive and is disappointed when it turns out to be exactly like any normal person would expect ie not some small intermate bike packing adventure group. Total drivel.

He doesn’t mention entering an organised ride at any point. He does mention a particular route – if you think it’s not possible to do a certain route outside of an organised event, that probably says more about you than the author.

I tend these days to ride about 30 miles 2-3 times a week. Mainly a mixture of bridleways, cycleways, a bit of 3 ply tarmac and the odd sneaky footpath. I’m not a fast rider but I can usually outlast other riders in my peer group. I let them blast off then I reel them in if the rides long enough, if not they can get the cake and coffee in. It’s a win win! Now’t wrong with bimbling along, Ive been doing that for the last 20 yrs.