Drivin' Riders: The worst bicyclists.

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As of May 4, I will have been commuting by bicycle full time for six consecutive years. As another late spring/summer season approaches, what I call the “fair weather” riders (those whom will only ride when there is no chance of rain and the temperature is at least 70 degrees F.) are beginning to re-appear. These riders tend to clog up the bike cage at my workplace and to overrun the paths and trails that are basically all mine for the other nine months of the year, and a few of them even sneer at me because I don’t wear all the “proper” Spandex cycling gear that they spend thousands of dollars on every season.

Don’t get me wrong though, I have no problem with fair weather riders at all. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who rides a bicycle in place of driving a vehicle even once per year is at least putting forth some effort, and that’s terrific.

It’s what I call the Drivin’ Riders that really irritate me. These are the people that pack their so-called “mountain bikes” onto their cars or into their pick-up trucks, and then drive anywhere from 10 to 120 miles one-way in order to “commune with nature” on a two to three hour recreational ride in the forest.

The simple truth is, Drivin’ Riders are no better than dirt bike or snowmobile riders. They vastly increase their carbon footprint so that they can feel “athletic” or “environmentally conscious” by adopting a supposedly Earth-friendly sport. Never mind the accusations of erosion damage and other environmental problems caused by mountain bikers, these people are typically spewing double the amount of pollutants they normally would just so they can pedal in the woods for a little while. It’s BS!

I ride past the major trailhead of large mountain park everyday, and as the weather improves, I see more and more of these people, often arriving in separate vehicles. They unload their several-thousand-dollar bicycles and strap on all their overpriced Pearl Izumi lycra gear, then pedal away as though they’re some wonderful advocates for a clean, green planet. It’s disgusting, and ultimately, I guess I’m embarrassed for them.

Thanks for reading my rant.

Are these mountain bikers really professing to decrease their carbon footprint by riding 2-3 hours in the woods? If yes, they are tools. But I don't think most fall under that category. They just want to bike for a short time in the woods, and since the trails they want to ride are far from their home, they have to drive there. Don't see anything wrong with that. Mountain biking has very little to do with reducing carbon footprint (as opposed to commuting in a bike). It is an activity done for recreation.

Are these mountain bikers really professing to decrease their carbon footprint by riding 2-3 hours in the woods? If yes, they are tools. But I don't think most fall under that category. They just want to bike for a short time in the woods, and since the trails they want to ride are far from their home, they have to drive there. Don't see anything wrong with that. Mountain biking has very little to do with reducing carbon footprint (as opposed to commuting in a bike). It is an activity done for recreation.

That's a decent point, but judging by the typical bumper stickers on their vehicles (Think Globally, Act Locally; Free Tibet; Greenpeace; etc.) I suspect there is, at least for some of them, a sense of smug self-satisfaction in their chosen hobby.

Also, I live in an area where trails and paths are commonplace, and very few people really have to drive at all to find good off-road riding. I have no problem with people camping in the forest for a couple of nights and taking their bikes along. I do it several times every summer. It's the daytripper kind of MTB riding that I find ludicrously energy intensive.

If you've ever rode a serious trail for a few hours there's no way you'd have enough energy to ride 10+ miles back home.

If you've ever rode a serious trail for a few hours there's no way you'd have enough energy to ride 10+ miles back home.Pah! I intend to ride, as a warm up, 30 km to a 12 hour MTB race on the 3rd May (http://12timers.teamhustler.dk/), race around it solo for 12 hours, and assuming the bike is still rideable at the end, ride the 30km back home again.

Kids today. :rolleyes:

Pah! I intend to ride, as a warm up, 30 km to a 12 hour MTB race on the 3rd May (http://12timers.teamhustler.dk/), race around it solo for 12 hours, and assuming the bike is still rideable at the end, ride the 30km back home again.

Kids today. :rolleyes:

Threaded, you are a frickin' role model!

As for "serious trails," I can't imagine that Georgia comes close to the kind of climbing and/or decents the Pacific Northwest offers, but I'll take Trek's word for it. In any case, that's why I made a deliberate choice to live near those trails, so that I don't have to drive 2-1/2 hours to ride on them. They're four blocks from my house.

North GA has plenty of trails that you can call serious. Around where I live it's mostly flat.

OK, the environmental bumper stickers are a symptom of a deeper problem than posing as a 'green' cyclist. How hypocritical is it to post such things on a gas-hog to begin with? MAYBE -- just maybe -- put 'em on a Prius.

Now, not everybody is fortunate enough to be able to live that close to a good trail system. The premier system in my region is 30+ miles (not k's) away, not exactly cake for a 50-y-o clyde. I've been there once, when a buddy took me there in his econobox car three years ago. Love to go back, but I'm car-free, and it's not worth the expense (that buddy's in Iraq right now, btw). When it comes to a car, pretty much NOTHING is worth it to me.

On the face of it, I won't fault anyone for riding, regardless of how they get there to do it. If they're posers, they'll be posers in every facet of their life. If this is what brought it to your attention, okay.

Oh yeah -- been a bike commuter now for 7 1/2, myself; way to go!

As of May 4, I will have been commuting by bicycle full time for six consecutive years. As another late spring/summer season approaches, what I call the “fair weather” riders (those whom will only ride when there is no chance of rain and the temperature is at least 70 degrees F.) are beginning to re-appear. These riders tend to clog up the bike cage at my workplace and to overrun the paths and trails that are basically all mine for the other nine months of the year, and a few of them even sneer at me because I don’t wear all the “proper” Spandex cycling gear that they spend thousands of dollars on every season.

Don’t get me wrong though, I have no problem with fair weather riders at all. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who rides a bicycle in place of driving a vehicle even once per year is at least putting forth some effort, and that’s terrific.Well, as someone who fits that description for the most part (I'll pass on the commute when the morning temp is getting down around mid-30s F or in a monsoon; a little bit of rain doesn't bug me), I think anyone who chooses to commute on a bike is doing a good thing on SEVERAL levels - most guys I work with (a mannish collection of manly-men doing a he-man job) think I'm a bit weird for it but seem to respect it. When they ask "why?" I usually say "why not - it is good exercise for my tubby ass, saves gas $$$, and oh yeah, it's doing a slight bit of good for the planet as well."

Now being a condescending douche about "proper" gear is another matter. I guess in terms of the general public I may qualify as "Joe Cyclist" but I'm pretty much just a dabbler; but even so, if someone says they ride a bike or want to start riding, I try to encourage them no matter what their bike is, whether or not they're wearing a jersey and spandex or a t-shirt and cutoffs, etc etc.

It’s what I call the Drivin’ Riders that really irritate me. These are the people that pack their so-called “mountain bikes” onto their cars or into their pick-up trucks, and then drive anywhere from 10 to 120 miles one-way in order to “commune with nature” on a two to three hour recreational ride in the forest. One nice thing about my family (and in-laws) living in what Wisconsinites call the "Up North" is that I have a good excuse to strap my bike onto my car and hit trails that are 100+ miles away. :cool:

As a matter of fact, we're going up to my friend's place next weekend and I hope to stop in Boulder Junction (http://www.boulderjct.org/biking.php) - which is about 10-15 minutes away from their place - and do some riding. Not to mention a nice little 15-20 mile mtb loop 15 minutes from my mom's house, where we're also visiting.

OK, the environmental bumper stickers are a symptom of a deeper problem than posing as a 'green' cyclist. How hypocritical is it to post such things on a gas-hog to begin with? MAYBE -- just maybe -- put 'em on a Prius.!

Why do people put stickers all over everything anyway? For every one you see I wonder how many make it into the landfills. Stickers on cars are for braggers and tools.

1. The increasingly optimized Chinese macro-economic environment provided realistic guarantee and broad prospects for foreign investment
　
During the past 20 years of reform and opening up, the national economy has been keeping a high-speed development with an average increase speed of two -digits, a and has topped the countries all over the world. Since the latter period of the 1990s, the increasing speed though to certain extent dropped, still reached 7-8%, which was really commendable under the circumstance that the global economy increase slowed down. The Gross Domestic Product in 1997 was RMB7, 446.3 billion Yuan, RMB7, 939.6 billion Yuan in 1998, RMB8.205.4 billion Yuan 1999, RMB8.940.4 billion Yuan 2000, RMB9, 593.3 billion Yuan in 2001 and RMB10.2398 trillion Yuan in 2002 and become the sixth largest economic entity of the world.
China's economic development level was also improved with a high speed, the per capita GDP was nearly US$1,000, the people's living standard has been improving by a big margin and the problem of providing them with adequate food and clothing was settled, and some places and people have already took the lead in accession into the middle-advanced level.
Viewed from the increase of national economy and its development prospects, China also behaved tremendously well. The economic rate of increase during 1998-2001 was about 7.5%, which was still the highest in the world. The economic rate of increase of 2002 is 8% and is expected to be about 8% in the years to come. Meanwhile, the macro-economic environment was fairly stable. The government has, in recent years, energetically taken positive financial policies to stabilize exchange rate and reduce deposit interest rate so as to promote the development of economy; as a result, the residents' savings have been on constant rise and have exceeded RMB8 trillion Yuan. From the perspective of factors of production, China's production costs consisting of labor force, raw materials and service and so on still possess powerful global competitiveness. The cost of payment is enormously under that of the developed countries and as well under that of most developing countries. China also increasingly elevates its economic opening degree. The total volume of export and import amounts US$620.8 billion in 2002, covering more than 40% of the proportion of GDP. Of which there is over US$325.6 billion of export, covering about 25% of the proportion of GDP, even more than that in many developed market economy countries. And foreign investment deposit amounts for more than US430 billion, covering about 1/3 of the GDP of the whole year; and an annual foreign investment of about US$50 billion has been absorbed, covering about 4% of the GDP. The above indicated that China's favorable macro-economic environment offers realistic conditions and reveals a broad prospect for foreign investment.

2. The outstanding improvement of hard environment for foreign investment guarantees foreign investment
China, with vast territory, abundant resources, beautiful landscape, agreeable climate, is fit for various kinds and scales of foreign investment. The area of China's land is more than 9.6 million square km, and is only next to that of Russia and Canada. China is characterized by both the continental monsoon climate and complicated and diversified climate. Also China stretches from the south to the north the equator belt, torrid zone, sub-torrid zone, warm temperate zone, temperate zone and cold temperate zone, and there exists in these regions great discrepancies of natural conditions and evident diversities.
As to the natural resources, China possesses rich agricultural resources, various advanced planting and aquaculture industries with complete categorizes and perfect production system including agriculture, forestry, livestock and fishery. Dozens of mineral resources topping the world and huge storage of natural resources make China one of the few largest countries in the world with the most resources, which enable China to have great superiority in absorbing resource-seeking foreign investment. At the same time, rich natural resources just support various kinds of manufacturing or service industries for foreign investment.
In recent years, China's infrastructure has been greatly improved, and the infrastructure constructions like transport, telecommunication, water, electricity and gas supply, etc. have been basically matured, and the capacity and quality of energy, raw material and component supply were also obviously elevated, providing a favorable external production management conditions for foreign investment.
3. The constantly perfecting soft environment for foreign investment has been all the more tally with the requirements of foreign investors
China is now implementing a socialist market economy and the government is carrying out marketization management on the economy and the market decides resource supply, commodity and service offer and price. Enterprises make their own management decisions, thus the framework of market economy system start to be initially established and which provides an appropriate production and management environment for foreign investment.
Firstly, China's political situation was stable and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, which created necessary social conditions for attracting foreign investment.
Secondly, the initially established market economy system and the gradually perfected laws and rules created favorable legal environment for foreign investment.
Thirdly, with the raising of educational level and amplification of opening up degree, the people's diathesis improved, their greatly changed ideological ideas and dwindled discrepancies of languages, cultures and customs, have offered proper social environment for foreign investment.
Fourthly, the amount of labor force with improved diathesis was sufficient. The cost advantage caused by abundant cheap labor forces provided tremendous opportunities for foreign investors to invest on the labor-intensive industry, actually, over half of the foreign investment gathered in the labor-intensive industries. On the other hand, China also possessed related number of skilled labor forces that have accepted favorable training and education, and can meet the requirements of foreign investment on high-tech industries. In the fields of enterprise management, law service and accounting, etc, there was deficiency for the special sophisticated talents; however, this status is changing.
Fifthly, related foreign investment policies have also adapted to the requirements of market economy and international rules. Industrial policy has become an important way for China to control foreign investment. According to the development strategy of national economy and industrial development, China established comprehensive industrial policies for foreign investment to lead them to invest in target industry. The Chinese government in April 2002 issued the newly amended "Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries," encouraged more foreign investment to flow into target industries, for example, agriculture, resource development, infrastructure construction, export and high-tech industry, however, the government has specifically prescribed industries those are not allowed to erect exclusive foreign-funded enterprises and the strategic industries and investment fields that the Chinese part must hold a controlling share. According to the commitments to WTO entry, the opening degree of the industries will be increased by a large margin. For example, telecom service industry is to shifted from the prohibited category into limitation category, and the geographical area and business scope of finance, insurance, commerce and foreign trade and so on will be further enlarged. The strategy of Western Development has already been carried out in order to develop regional economy harmoniously, and the government has enacted the "Advantageous Industries Catalogue for Foreign Investment in Middle and Eastern Regions" to practice preferential policies for foreign investment in these advantageous industries
As for foreign trade management, China has greatly reduced the customs, gradually called off the plan, quota and warrant management, ensuring the transparency of establishment and implementation of related policies. In addition, foreign exchange control will also be loosened step by step.
4. The Chinese government will further perfect the investment environment in the future
1) Continue to enhance the essential factors for a soft environment for investment Among the essential factors for attracting foreign investment in China, the soft environment is particularly important, and the most important is the marketization degree and foreign investment policies, including the construction of laws and systems, perfection of socialist market economy, establishment and implementation of policies and encouraging foreign investment measures, etc.
In consideration of China's unique national conditions, and under the circumstances of given macro-economic essential factors and hard investment environment, the soft environment essential factors have decisive impact on the scale and quality of foreign investment. Enhancement of the soft environment essential factor is a systematic project and is essential to accelerate the process of domestic marketization construction. Foreign investment is the production of market economy and market economy in return is a must for its existence and development. The Chinese government has already completely straightened out and amended related laws and rules and policy-based documents according to the requirements of market economy and the commitments to WTO agreement, also has enabled laws and rules and policies to be established openly, impartially, and transparently. At the same time, the government has ameliorated the investment management approval, improved the service efficiency and reduced approval linkage by taking the opportunity of transforming governmental function.
2) Further improve the quality of macro-economy essential factors and amplify the market opening degree One of the measures is to pay equal attention to the intension and extension styled economic increase, give priority to the intension style, thus to enlarge the market scale, improve economic development level, exhibit a favorable increasing prospect, and to amplify the input of foreign capital and as well to make effective use of it; a second measure is to further amplify the market opening degree. Pioneering under the present circumstances new investment fields and reducing the cost of foreign capital input has already become a crying need for attracting new foreign investment. It includes freshly open or amplify certain fields, for example, finance, insurance, telecommunications and circulation and so on; loosen the share right restriction on foreign investment in certain fields, for example, commerce, foreign trade, automobile, chemical industry and certain development projects like energy, infrastructures and mineral resources, etc.
3) Further perfect the essential factors of hard environment for investment
The improvement of the Chinese hard environment for investment has made great headways, and the bottleneck to economic development by infrastructures including transport, communications and energy etc has been essentially eliminated. Therefore, as for the essential factors of hard investment environment, the most pivotal is to accelerate the marketization reform on essential factors supply, to speed up the combination of domestic market and international market, to integrate the quality and price level of service offer, energy utilization, raw material and component part supply with the international market, and to completely release the appealing of hard environmental essential factors to foreign investment.
After China's entry into the WTO, the reform and opening up has entered a new development stage and China will open to the outside world in an all-round, multi-layered and wide-ranging way. In November 2002, the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was held and the new central collective leadership was generated, which maintained the stability of national political situation and the continuality of various guidelines and policies, also safeguarded China's reform and opening up to advance smoothly. China has already put forward the grand development goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way. To realize the goal, absorbing foreign investment will exert an important irreplaceable role. Also, foreign investment will acquire better development. (香港公司注册 (http://www.dreamathk.com)网)

Carbon footprint. China crap. Driving riders.
Meh.
I thought you guys were here cos you loved MTBing?
The nearest place I can ride is 30 minutes drive from here. I will ride it til my legs dont work properly tomorrow. I drive there in a V8 X5. Who cares. I will come home happy.
I'm with you DarkLord.
Happy days!

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