Hobby cyclists (long)

Bill Sornson said:

Quoted message said:

Roger Zoul writes:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Hmm... I guess I'm a bike snob... every time I ride, I train... what
am I training for? My next ride!

So when will you go on a real ride, the one for which you seem to be
perpetually training? Somewhere in life there should be a real
experience, not just the anticipation of one. I suppose you are also
preparing for life, day by day. If that is the method, I think you
might be missing the main event.

Quoted message said:

Wow. Pompous, judgmental AND condescending in one short paragraph. Well
done, JB.

Perhaps but also to a certain extent true. If you are gearing up for a race
you need to train, if you are gearing up for a particularly long ride (long
for you, different people will have different definitions of long) you need
to train. If you are just cycling for general fitness or fun why can't you
just say you are going for a bike ride as opposed to claiming it is a training
ride. Consider you don't hear joggers talking about going for a training
run unless they are prepping for a marathon or something.

--
Bill

--
Bill

William McHale said:

Bill Sornson said:

Quoted message said:

Roger Zoul writes:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> Hmm... I guess I'm a bike snob... every time I ride, I train...
> what am I training for? My next ride!

So when will you go on a real ride, the one for which you seem to be
perpetually training? Somewhere in life there should be a real
experience, not just the anticipation of one. I suppose you are
also preparing for life, day by day. If that is the method, I
think you might be missing the main event.

Quoted message said:

Wow. Pompous, judgmental AND condescending in one short paragraph.
Well done, JB.

Perhaps but also to a certain extent true. If you are gearing up for
a race you need to train, if you are gearing up for a particularly
long ride (long for you, different people will have different
definitions of long) you need to train. If you are just cycling for
general fitness or fun why can't you just say you are going for a
bike ride as opposed to claiming it is a training ride. Consider you
don't hear joggers talking about going for a training
run unless they are prepping for a marathon or something.

So if someone talked down to said jogger, with, say, the following, they
wouldn't be an ass?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

"So when will you go on a real {run}, the one for which you seem to be
perpetually training? Somewhere in life there should be a real
experience, not just the anticipation of one. I suppose you are
also preparing for life, day by day. If that is the method, I
think you might be missing the main event."

I stand by my assessment: pompous, judgmental AND condescending.

Bill Sornson said:

William McHale said:

Bill Sornson said:

[email hidden] wrote:
> Roger Zoul writes:

Quoted message said:

>> Hmm... I guess I'm a bike snob... every time I ride, I train...
>> what am I training for? My next ride!
>
> So when will you go on a real ride, the one for which you seem to be
> perpetually training? Somewhere in life there should be a real
> experience, not just the anticipation of one. I suppose you are
> also preparing for life, day by day. If that is the method, I
> think you might be missing the main event.

Quoted message said:

Wow. Pompous, judgmental AND condescending in one short paragraph.
Well done, JB.

Perhaps but also to a certain extent true. If you are gearing up for
a race you need to train, if you are gearing up for a particularly
long ride (long for you, different people will have different
definitions of long) you need to train. If you are just cycling for
general fitness or fun why can't you just say you are going for a
bike ride as opposed to claiming it is a training ride. Consider you
don't hear joggers talking about going for a training
run unless they are prepping for a marathon or something.

Quoted message said:

So if someone talked down to said jogger, with, say, the following, they
wouldn't be an ass?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> "So when will you go on a real {run}, the one for which you seem to be
> perpetually training? Somewhere in life there should be a real
> experience, not just the anticipation of one. I suppose you are
> also preparing for life, day by day. If that is the method, I
> think you might be missing the main event."

Quoted message said:

I stand by my assessment: pompous, judgmental AND condescending.

If the jogger is constantly talking about going on training runs then I think
it is perfectly acceptable for me to ask what is he training for. The basic
point I was making earlier was that joggers don't talk like cyclists (at
least not in my experience). They just say they are going for a run and that
is it. If they claim to be in training it is usually for some well identified
goal such as a 10K or a Marathon.

--
Bill

William McHale said:

Bill Sornson said:

William McHale said:

Bill Sornson <[email hidden]> wrote:
> [email hidden] wrote:
>> Roger Zoul writes:

>>> Hmm... I guess I'm a bike snob... every time I ride, I train...
>>> what am I training for? My next ride!
>>
>> So when will you go on a real ride, the one for which you seem to
>> be perpetually training? Somewhere in life there should be a real
>> experience, not just the anticipation of one. I suppose you are
>> also preparing for life, day by day. If that is the method, I
>> think you might be missing the main event.

> Wow. Pompous, judgmental AND condescending in one short paragraph.
> Well done, JB.

Perhaps but also to a certain extent true. If you are gearing up
for a race you need to train, if you are gearing up for a
particularly long ride (long for you, different people will have
different definitions of long) you need to train. If you are just
cycling for general fitness or fun why can't you just say you are
going for a bike ride as opposed to claiming it is a training ride.
Consider you don't hear joggers talking about going for a training
run unless they are prepping for a marathon or something.

Quoted message said:

So if someone talked down to said jogger, with, say, the following,
they wouldn't be an ass?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>> "So when will you go on a real {run}, the one for which you seem
>> to be perpetually training? Somewhere in life there should be a
>> real experience, not just the anticipation of one. I suppose you
>> are
>> also preparing for life, day by day. If that is the method, I
>> think you might be missing the main event."

Quoted message said:

I stand by my assessment: pompous, judgmental AND condescending.

If the jogger is constantly talking about going on training runs then
I think it is perfectly acceptable for me to ask what is he training
for. The basic point I was making earlier was that joggers don't
talk like cyclists (at least not in my experience). They just say
they are going for a run and that is it. If they claim to be in
training it is usually for some well identified goal such as a 10K or
a Marathon.

Go back in the thread (or just look above). Roger made one little remark,
mostly in jest or tongue-in-cheek. I highly doubt that he /really/ calls
his everyday rides "training rides". I think his point was he that he goes
on rides to keep up his fitness so that he can go on rides (and so on).
Then along came judge/jury/Jobst...

OK done.

BS

Bill Sornson said:

Quoted message said:

Roger Zoul writes:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Hmm... I guess I'm a bike snob... every time I ride, I train... what
am I training for? My next ride!

So when will you go on a real ride, the one for which you seem to be
perpetually training? Somewhere in life there should be a real
experience, not just the anticipation of one. I suppose you are also
preparing for life, day by day. If that is the method, I think you
might be missing the main event.

Wow. Pompous, judgmental AND condescending in one short paragraph.
Well done, JB.

Damn, some of y'all are thin skinned!

Matt O.

Mike Kruger said:

jhas said:

I see this sort of thing all the time. People look first to see what
brand of bike you are on. Last week I was riding to work (16 miles
each way, but who's counting?), and I had stopped for a light. A guy
at the nearby filling station was just finishing fueling up his Volvo
wagon as I rode up. He had an empty bike rack on his car, so as I
pulled to a stop I said "good morning!" He didn't even look at me.
Instead, he tilted his head to get a good read of my down tube and
then, presumably because my bike wasn't worthy of a conversation, he
just got into his car.

Yeah, there's some snoot in all sports and it's definitely
true I get a different reaction when I'm dressed in sweats and
an old windbreaker on the old "bad weather" bike than when I'm
in black shorts and a bike club jersey on my nicer road bike.

That said, sometimes people are checking out the bike as a way
of starting conversation. On my commuter bike, people will ask
about the generator, for example. They are only mildly
curious -- it's just a converation starter.

The O.P. should just lighten up. If somebody else judges you
by how nice a bike you are riding, so what? Their attitude is
their loss, not yours. The world is, unfortunately, full of
A**h***s, and bike snobs are a mild, relatively harmless
variety in the grand scheme of A**h***dom..

That said, I think the O.P.'s tormentor is probably a nice
enough guy with imperfect social skills. I'd guess he was
trying to be friendly, but he was just very clumsy about it.
The O.P.'s attitude probably wasn't helping any.

I grew up with a lot of kids who were exactly like that. They don't know how to
relate to other people except to judge them by their posessions and brand names.
This is worse in wealthy, trendy areas where families have the means and
inclination to always buy the best of the best, or the coolest of the cool.
This isn't bad in itself, but kids lack the perspective of what's really
important. Some never grow beyond this superficiality, even after they have
kids themselves. Imagine what *their* kids are like!

Matt O.

"From Newport Beach, but neither wealthy nor trendy."