"Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... <snip>>
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I'd be interested to hear the viewpoint of cyclists who live and ride outside the big cities, where there is a smaller total cycling population - maybe there is more cross-discipline interaction there?
&roo Roadie, Commuter, Rec Rider, and general nodder - except to BMX/MTB riders ;-)
On our bike trip round the Top End (Darwin > Kakadu > Nitmiluk > Litchfield
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Darwin) everyone waved at us. Even the occasional road-train!
Seeing as we're doing the boring "Helmet Debate" again....lets start another boring, old- school debate!
Why is it that some riders just wont say "hello" back? I mean...it's not very hard. Even just a nod of the head. It's just common courtesy! If someone says "Hi"...you say it back! You'd think we'd all stick together rather than being a bunch of stuck-up [censored].
I've noticed that it's mostly road riders (who struggle to un-clip at lights) that elevate themselves to the "holier than thou" position of not having to communicate....May 1000 flats come your way!
Maybe it depends where you ride and live. In the country, maybe any kind of cyclist would nod/wave to any other kind of cyclist - there's just so few of them. Same on a walking trail - you'd usually nod, smile, or say hello to people coming the other way even though you don't know them from Adam, whereas if you saw the same person walking towards you on George/Collins/Hindley/<insert_big_street_here> Street, you'd totally ignore them and nobody would be the least bit offended. In big cities like Sydney (where I live) or Melbourne (where one of the earlier posters lives), maybe there's so many cyclists (especially some of the places I ride) that you don't feel the need to be matey with every single one of them, and prefer to associate with (or at least nod at) the ones with whom you feel more empathy (e.g. MTBers might feel more at home with other MTBers, commuters with commuters, roadies with roadies, etc.). I wouldn't nod at some kid on his BMX in the city any more than he would at me, and neither party would mind or be surprised by the lack of interaction. I don't pretend to know what it's like to ride a great piece of singletrack, and maybe the MTBer I see on the street doesn't know what it means to plan a criterium race just right and [censored] victory on the line - what do we have in common apart from gears and a chain? Why _would_ we nod or wave to each other? If we're meant to be such genial souls, why not wave at pedestrians, horse riders, motorbike riders (who have everything we have), or motorists? I'd be interested to hear the viewpoint of cyclists who live and ride outside the big cities, where there is a smaller total cycling population - maybe there is more cross-discipline interaction there? &roo Roadie, Commuter, Rec Rider, and general nodder - except to BMX/MTB riders ;-)
I live in a large regional town and all the roadies & MTbikers wave t each other and most other people (who are out on the bike) as well, bu I never did when living in Melbourne. I have generally found Triathlete to be ridiculously stuck-up however; maybe they are just too bus readjusting those sleeveless jerseys or their countless number of drin bottles to notice other people
