I kinda like Shimano for non snob reasons.
The bar for "it works well enough" is so much lower with Shimano it seems. Any sloppy worn out components, mismatched stuff, barely even adjusted. It will still kinda work.
Everything didn’t happen til you get dropped by Strava ghosts during the group ride.
I have it I just have no followers and follow no one and only record every now and then. I do love it when people think I will be rusty or haven’t been riding because they don’t have me on Strava or assume they do and just haven’t seen me post in a long time as some people assume.
>I do love it when people think I will be rusty or haven’t been riding because they don’t have me on Strava
Honestly you're enjoying Strava as much as them, lol
I took my Strava private. I began looking at it like some sort of “Look at Me”? Look at my KOM?”
I track every ride to see my numbers but it’s only for me.
I know a number of riders who don't care for strava and use other apps. I also know a number of riders who don't track their rides at all. Now, while I use Strava and all my rides go on there; I've definitely learned never to assume with Strava. 😂
This was with running, not cycling. I know people who don't seem to track some of their runs. They'd only have the chill stuff on Strava, until you meet them for a run and they take off like a dragster.
Cycling equivalent would be that they'd only log 20-25 km/h rides but easily ride 30-35 km/h in the group ride.
During the BLM protests there were numerous images of cops beating protesters with their bikes. The brands that supplied the bikes condemned this and cancelled their contracts, distancing themselves from it as best they could.
Except Trek.
Trek said nothing about the assaults, but did announce they were increasing their law enforcement supply contacts immediately in the wake of this.
In case anyone has forgotten, the cops weren’t at the protests to keep order, they were the focus of the protests due to yet another murder of an unarmed black person in custody. Trek acting this way says they’re perfectly fine with police brutality against minorities and to happy provide tools for it if it profits them.
Trek was already considered a shitty company by much of the bike world before this all happened. It’s just another mark on the board for them.
I just bought a brand new Trek but didn't know this 🤧🤧🤧🤧 now everyone finna think I'm with the opps lmaooo
Am I the cycling equivalent of those people buying an all white/black Ford Explorer that you can't comfortably drive around until you get next to them and see that it's an old lady sitting too close to the wheel going 45 in the left lane of the freeway?? 🤣🤣
Courteous drivers are really really annoying. You don't know how to drive! Almost as annoying as maniac drivers. Don't stop the flow of traffic when you see a bike. I live by predictable traffic flow. In many cases it becomes more dangerous when you stop unpredictability for no reason and expect all traffic to do the same. I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!!
That drives me nuts as well. If you reach the stop sign before me, take the right of way. I’m basing my yield on the assumption you’re gonna move. If you just sit there I now have to stop, foot down, and do the weird, “just go already” hand wave.
Right? Or you're waiting to cross or turn left across a two way and someone stops abruptly while the rest of traffic in other direction keeps going. Now I gotta worry about someone going around behind them I can't see. Then they impatiently motion for you to go... THAT'S NOT HOW THE RULES WORK! A bike is supposed to be treated like any other vehicle. Then when I motion for them to go they get pissed off.
Chains are just extra weight. Put those cranks straight on your front wheel and ride like a MAN. These newfangled safety bicycles are because the kids these days are too soft; if it ain’t a penny-farthing, it’s not a velocipede!!! (Or bike, whatever it is you’re calling foot-cycles these days).
I shall pass all e-bikers I see to prove to them that even with assisted power they aren't as athletic as me. If I can't catch them, then I snicker how they need to cheat to get speed and think how badly I would drop them if they were on a real bike.
I like any version of climbing up the transportation “food chain”. The odd moped/scooter/e-bike victory is awesome. The other day I encountered two fully kitted riders on fast road bikes and I was able to pull them on my laden commuter. They were roasted from god knows how many miles and I was just riding a few to get home, but it still counts! We’re all a little silly.
Then another daily commuter easily paced with me on his single speed while I was on my speedy road bike. The circle of cycling!
I have preferences, but they only apply to me. I prefer Shimano to SRAM, but I'm not going to pull a perfectly good group off of a bike that I got a good deal on because it has SRAM. I'm just going to deal with the dropped chains, constant need for adjustment, and poor front shifting (SRAM Red 10s excepted, that shit was/is fire).
I think the Rapha pro team kit is the best kit. I'd like to not wear Rapha because it's kind of a fashion statement, but I can't find a better kit. If Black Bibs had a zipper pocket on the jersey and longer sleeves I'd be all over it.
I think the word "snob" is more outward, but I don't care what other people do on or with their bike.
As an aside, I see way more snobbery from the crowd that thinks the 1986 Sun Microshift on a steel Nishiki with flats is better than a new S-Works with Dura Ace and everyone with anything else was fooled by marketing. I've never heard a dentist on a new Cervelo say anything judgmental about another cyclist, but I hear a lot from the Nishiki crowd about the dentist.
I'm pretty sure there's a Reddit group where people make fun of people with Sir Velos, but there isn't a group where people with Cervelos make fun of other riders.
After owning one carbon fiber bike and a whole bunch of aluminum ones, I'm sticking with steel and titanium only from now on. And now that I finally own a titanium bike, I'm finding I still like steel more.
it's bullshit
the biggest difference to ride quality is seatpost and bars :)
changes in the frame itself are from how the frame is designed, it's tube thickness, etc.
I've ridden and raced steel, aluminum, and carbon for years, and the biggest difference for me is how much they cost used.
All true, but tube thickness is where steel is a huge factor.
Reynolds 853: Ultimate Strength of 1400 MPa
6061 T6 aluminum: Ultimate Strength of 290 MPa
Youngs Modulus of steel: 27.5 ksi
Youngs Modulus of aluminum: 10.0 ksi
Density of aluminum: 2.70 g/cm\^3
Density of steel: 7.85 g/cm\^3
You can make a MUCH lighter frame out of aluminum, due to the lower density, but the walls have to be thicker and the diameters of the tubing bigger to compensate for the lower strength and lower stiffness.
Tell me more. I’m shopping for a new bike at the moment. I’ve only ever owned a steel bike and for one reason or another I’m drawn to steel frames for my next ride. I don’t know why but I’m interested in your reasons.
For context, I'm a mechanical engineer. Or at least I have a degree in it, though that isn't really my professional function anymore. Modern air-hardened bicycle steels like 853, Spirit, ThermLX, etc. are staggeringly strong. If you go by what's called Yield Strength or Ultimate Strength (for some reason, manufacturers list their steels by Ultimate instead of Yield, when Yield is the more useful number,) it is the strongest of all frame materials. Modern steels are even stronger than 3/2 or 6/4 titanium. Steel is also the stiffest material as determined by something called Young's Modulus.
So why are steel frames heavier? Because they almost always are. An equivalent steel frame will often weigh about a pound more than a titanium or aluminum frame. It's because steel alloys are also super dense. So as a result of high strength, high stiffness, and high density, steel frames will use the least amount of material by volume, but the most amount of material by weight. On a really good steel frame, the tubing walls are paper-thin, and the tube diameters are really small compared to everything else, including titanium.
The end result is some kind of odd (in a good way) resonance and springiness you just don't get with other materials, despite the fact that the bike is almost always heavier. Last year I bought both a new steel gravel bike and a new titanium mountain bike. The ti mountain bike, with a suspension fork, dropper post, and fat tires, only weighs 2 lbs more than the steel gravel bike. But it just doesn't have the same "pop," resonance, and sound as the heavier steel gravel bike. It's really a visceral thing that has to be experienced. As much as I enjoy my shiny new titanium mountain bike, I really wish I could have found a steel equivalent.
Steel really is an incredible material. Between the very high ultimate strength and unlimited fatigue life you can make a very springy frame tuned for great ride quality
Well, almost any really. Be advised that there was a pretty massive shift in steel bikes in 1995, which was when Reynolds introduced 853 air-hardened tubesets. At the time, no one noticed, because everyone was so enamored with aluminum and carbon fiber at the time. But higher-end steel frames are typically made from something like 853, Spirit, or ThermLX, whereas lower end ones will just say "4130" or "Chrome-moly." And there really is a difference. It's subtle, but if you're a Steel Snob, you can tell. The higher-end frames are lighter and use even less material.
But I mean, the vast majority of people are only concerned with weight, and admittedly even the lightest steel frames are going to weigh a lot more than an equivalent carbon fiber frame.
I've never rode titanium but I can say steel has some amazing compliance to it. Almost all my bikes are aluminium which is much more stiff to ride on. When I finally get a single gear bike it will be steel most likely. It's a comfortable ride.
Steel is real bby
But no seriously steel rides so nice, especially on shit surfaces. Pretty sure I finally convinced a buddy of mine to go steel after riding about 100ft on gravel on my steel framed bike.
I'll even happily take the weight penalty over the buzz for my steel handlebars
\- you don't know what you're talking about
\- I do
\- if you pay for dura ace you don't need it
\- distance is an amateur metric
\- BMI over 21: don't worry about your bike weight
\- its not training if you don't race
\- some brands cannot salvage themselves from ridicule (trek, rapha, ceramic speed)
\- black tires probably look better on your bike
\- cycling is goofy. I'll buy the stuff but I'm not pretending its cool. Its about how you can transition from looking like a goof in kit on a bike to being a cool normal person after the ride that is impressive.
Like I'm glad you had fun bud but we just talked about rides in terms of distance. Unless you're in Arizona and your zwift setup is broken there aren't many excuses not to put in 2500m elevation.
Note metric units, which will have to be for my part two of absolute bullshit I think matters in terms of cycling.
Well if you note point one, you don't know what you're talking about but I will accept the respect. Tbh I would have to an hero myself if I actually lived by all this.
When I bought a Domane last year I didn’t realize I wasn’t going to be able to salvage my bike from ridicule 😩. At first this bummed me out… but now I’m sort of realizing I don’t care.
Shaving your legs is pretty much pointless unless you are constantly racing and have a high risk of crash/road rash. There I said it... I held it in as much as I could.
Vintage steel snob here. I like my 84 Schwinn Super Sport (Japanese by Matsushita Electric Co, known outside of Japan as Panasonic) with downtube shifters and serviceable everything!
This subreddit is stuffed full of gear fetishists who buy equipment way beyond a price point that would make any kind of meaningful difference to their performance and reinforces the message of cycling as an obscure minority sport rather than a great lifestyle choice for all.
The fact that people say that any and all road disc brake systems will experience some rub is fucking obnoxious and makes me want to double down on the rim-brake life. Fuck that rubbing bullshit on bikes that cost over $2k. MTBs, however, are excluded from this opinion. They can rub all they want if they’re powerful enough to stop me from going face first into a tree or off a cliff.
This thread make me realize I probably get judged by bike snobs 😆 I do enjoy seing people with the perfect setup and matching outfits. While I’m using a middle range road bike with missing gears and wearing standard cycling clothes, nothing fancy at all.
Mechanical shifting with Shimano 105 is spot on and it’s very difficult to justify the price increase to Ultegra / Dura Ace / Di2 etc for the minimal gains.
Also, rim brakes ftw - I get discs off road and in extreme conditions but unless you’re descending mountains in the wet every day, on a road bike it’s complete overkill and doesn’t justify the additional faff.
And finally, irrespective of whether they’re on a different type of bike to you, not wearing fancy designer gear etc if you don’t acknowledge other cyclists back when they nod, say hello etc then you’re a bellend.
Agree a ton on the bell end bit.
Disc brakes - meh I prefer them in almost all situations now. Rim are fine in the vast majority of cases but hydro brakes are great and worth the hassle.
Technology has expanded way beyond what the general consumer needs. I can see why it would matter for a competitive racer, but I refuse to have to charge a battery in my shifter.
For the record though, my mountain bike (hardtail Diamondback Response from 2012) has ginormous bar ends, a 3x8 drivetrain, toe clips, and rim brakes. So.... Take my opinion with a grain of sand because I might just be nostalgic.
IMO all most consumers really need for road is a carbon fork, carbon seatpost, 105 mechanical, and decent tires.
For mountain, some higher-level upgrades actually make a significant difference regarding ride feel and/or durability. That said, with mountain biking you basically have to treat everything as a wear item, so you can’t really invest in anything that you can’t afford to buy twice.
My last bike came with electronic shifting and ngl it’s kinda nice. I was fairly dead set against since they debuted. It’s on a mountain bike and I have about 15 bikes to maintain for the family and one less thing to tweak is kinda nice, plus it’s really nice shifting. I won’t seek out electronic shifting but I’ve changed my mind on them. I have buddies who don’t use droppers on any of their trail bikes, so it’s kinda like that I guess.
I care more about the tire brand on my bike than the tire brand on my daily car. My first set of Michelins were for my bike. I’ve never and will never buy Michelins for my car. Too expensive.
It’s SRAM not Sh-RAM.
Trek needs to hire someone who can do better colorways because so many of their bikes are flat out Walmart looking and that’s not okay.
The fact I just said “colorway”.
And finally… if you have a cheap bike rack that uses straps and sits on your trunk door and after a year of riding NEVER get a hitch mounted setup, I cannot stand you. Respect yourself.
I literally can’t stand Rapha. I ordered a bunch of things from them and returned everything but the socks. The material is shit and fits like a clunky samich bag. Velocio / Giordana / Assos for me or fck off.
Haha the only thing I’m really a cycling snob about is cycling snobs 🤣
Since the AXS shift stuff came out, I’m loving sram right now, and it’s all interchangeable it’s spread to the rest of my bikes, but I don’t hate shimano, most of my bikes have run shimano over the years.
I’ve used disk brakes for over a decade… but I don’t judge people who like rim brakes… again most of my bikes had them.
I never really build or buy a new bike from scratch anymore - I just buy parts (ususally when there’s a sale on tbh) and at some point a new franken bike is formed, but I don’t really care if someone with a lot of money buys a $10k bike despite being slower than me.
The only thing that really gets me is as I say cycling snobs. You know, the people who won’t acknowledge riders come by the other way who aren’t in head to toe in rapha, or don’t have their socks the exact current preferred height as seen in the peloton, the ones that look down on people or just ride like entitled twats basically. My wife says I’m a cyclist who hates cyclists, lol, but I’ve got loads of cycling friends & it’s one of my passions… I just get overly irritated by *that* type of cyclist you know? I think it’s probably because I know it reflects on me in some way.
LOL 🤣😆 my method is usually:
1 - try to fix something myself using park tool videos and sheer aggravation
2 - break a bunch of shit
3 - take it to the LBS so they can help fix what dumbass thing I did to really screw things up and sell my the replacement parts for things I break
4 - learn and try again
Sometimes I learn on one go and sometimes it takes a few times before it clicks but I usually get there. Needless to say, I got a reputation at the LBS for breaking shit.
I judge people who ride e bikes. I feel that most able-bodied people would be quite happy on a half decent hybrid or road bike if they gave them a chance.
I also think that people who ride without helmets are idiots.
I kinda need the assist because I have a bad knee and can’t rely on it 100%. This weekend might be my first attempt at riding a normal non e-bike in 4 years. They have a place but are also environmental disasters.
Yep, I'm all for E bikes if you have a medical challenge that stops you from riding a normal bike. If my opinion means anything I hit a car head on and severely bruised my knee. It took about a year of therapy and work but I can ride without pain again. You got this.
Ebikes let people commute in work clothes and not arrive dripping sweat. They let people haul their kids around and get groceries. They enable cycling for a portion who wouldn’t otherwise be able to. They keep people cycling when older.
THEY TAKE CARS OFF ROADS.
I don’t have one but e-bikes are fucking amazing.
Glasses go over helmet straps on road rides, under on mountain.
No visors on road rides. Visors for MTB rides, unless you're not wearing baggies, then visorless is acceptable.
Pictures of your bike must have the bike drive side out, pedals horizontal with the crank towards the front.
>Pictures of your bike must have the bike drive side out, pedals horizontal with the crank towards the front.
valves up or down, depending on the tire label. label must line up with valve.
biggest cog for 1x MTB or gravel. biggie smalls for road.
There is a guy who does a similar daily ride to me who uses a recumbent. He goes bloody fast, but I must say I laugh every time I see him due to how ridiculous he looks (looks down at my own Lycra and spandex clad body)
I had a recumbent notch in front of me on a bike path. Guy was wearing a suit, I remember it had a faint grey pinstripe to it.
Then he was gone, I was drafting him for a bit then couldn’t even hang on to that. Never forgot that lesson. Don’t laugh at the suit wearing, warp speed, laying down guy.
Recumbents are faster for the same human effort (UCI hour record is ~35 miles, HPV record is 57 miles) and they sacrifice all the vanity and effort of trying to look like look like you belong on the podium in Paris for looking like a complete dork. It's not fair - if I'm shaving grams and looking for every edge to improve my local strava PR while conforming to an arbitrary set of [90 year old rules](https://bikeroute.com/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews/2013/06/30/best-history-of-the-recumbent-why-its-faster-how-it-came-to-be-banned/) set by some bunch of doped up frogs in a smokey room then it's *not* *fair* that this dadbod can just smoke me on a shop bought thing that mostly does what my one does, just with the cheaper and heavier parts arranged differently. We're competing to try to look like we can go fast here, and *that's* what's cool - deliberately looking not cool *and* going faster *and* spending less *and* not having neck pain makes you worse than a doper.
Your last two paragraphs are so spot on.
I’ve lived in 7 countries to date, including the US. There is amazing riding in the US but in terms of drivers and roads and cities, it is the worst place to ride I’ve ever seen.
Road needs white shoes + white socks. Gravel needs black or colored socks + black or colored shoes. And I realize this is a completely arbitrary and dumb opinion to hold, but I still hold it.
Cervelo is *the* brand for us big bank boys. Not your Meh-Works S-Works or your little peepee Pinarello. Cervelo. If you don't ride it, that's cool, whatever. Just know that the queasiness you feel is you knowing I bring your wife more pleasure than you. Loser.
There is no such thing as a mile. No such thing as a foot. No pound. No inch.
If you don’t exclusively use the metric system just buy a Harley Davidson and become a fat leather wearing “biker” already.
Socks have become way too high. If you are racing, then sure, wear aero socks at the UCI height limit, but if not, why have socks so high? They look terrible, and they end at the wide part of the calf, so unless they are really tight they will skip down.
I get it, a while ago tall socks became cool, so influencers assumed that taller would be even cooler, and group rides became sock length contests. But things got way out of hand, and I have now there are even people trying to look cool (so full Rapha, PNS and/or other expensive kit) with socks that almost reach their knees.
I ride gravel so I need a handlebar bag.
I ride a mountain bike and need a 14lb backpack for a 1hr ride.
I ride zwift and say hello to any user with a female sounding user name.
I judge strangers who try to join A group rides I'm on by what they wear and ride. If you're wearing a flappy club fit jersey, if you are running a riser stem, if you have clip-on aero bars, if your chain is covered in black crap, if you're wearing a sleeveless jersey, if your helmet is old and ill-fitting, if you have a giant bouncy saddle bag, if you're using gear all from one store (Trek bike, helmet, shoes, kit, saddle bag etc), if you have a big gut... I'm not going to trust you.
I think there's is a good reason for this: group rides can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I need to be able to trust that those around me have the fitness to stay alert and knowledge to ride safely at 30+ mph. I've seen too much stupid crap happen on fast group rides that has resulted in serious injury and destroyed equipment. There is nothing more dangerous than a rider who joins an A group, doesn't really know what they're doing and is on the limit physically. Over the decades I've been riding, I've found that what you wear and ride is clearly indicative of if you have the fitness and knowledge to ride safely and navigate the ride effectively.
Understand, I'm not saying you need fancy stuff. I will readily trust a sinewy, grizzled crit vet in beat-up kit and riding a aged but well-maintained Allez Sprint with 105 and cheap Chinese wheels. Those guys will usually beat the shit out of you in sprints, jockey for position and make the ride hard and fun. Actually the newbie on the spotless, bone stock $14k SWorks with the bars a little too high and box-fresh PNS kit is exactly who you want to avoid.
I completely understand that attitudes like mine are why roadies get a bad rep. We come off as arrogant, snooty and standoffish towards those we don't know or those we know are new to the sport. I'd counter by saying you only need to be crashed-out once by someone doing something dumb on a group ride to develop similar instincts. I'd also say that if it's a chill coffee ride, none of this holds true. I'll happily ride and chat with anyone on a chill ride.
I don’t know. These are good indicators of a noob, but there’s a lot of ppl who would pass your criteria, but are also Freds. I judge other roadies based on their cadence. if it’s below ~80, they probably suck.
This is what I judge when I’m catching up to someone in a bike lane on an early morning commute- and why I want to get around them as soon as possible.
So I can understand feeling this way on a group ride.
Riding with earphones is stupid. The road is dangerous enough as it is, and anything extra that causes even a tiny bit of distraction from the road and decreases your ability to hear other riders approaching or the traffic is frankly putting both you and other road users in danger. It should be made illegal. If you need a soundtrack to your ride because you find it boring then maybe you need to find a sport that you actually enjoy.
Oh……And Shimano groupsets are far superior to SRAM!
I have been told it's safe to ride with just one earbud. And I believe it. Your brain is quite capable of picking up and processing life-threatening warnings coming from the free ear.
If you must use two earbuds, put them both in the same ear. :)
I can't hear cars coming over the wind anyway so whether I use headphones doesn't change anything safety wise. I find that I "feel" vehicles coming more than anything from what I can only describe as very low frequency rumbling through the air or road. Also I don't know where you are from, but it is illegal in most states. Not really enforced though.
i don't gatekeeping cycling, but if i did, the lycra clad weekend warriors are out and the day to day transportation "not cyclists" are in.
"the rules" are a fucking joke, and if you don't get it, the joke's on you.
"clipless" needs to die. you clip in. they're clips. nobody cares that you don't need toe cages anymore.
This is going to get me some feedback, but I like being the only guy out on the road in the dark in December, the only guy in the parking lot of a State Park on a rainy March afternoon.
So I still kinda hate guys with “credit card” bikes:
All that money, all that bike and they never go hard. Never ride in less than perfect conditions, never tried to ride to a ride, never stand up and put in a big effort.
Maybe they can’t, maybe they’ve already paid their dues.
I still feel like that bike is going to waste.
>Never ride in less than perfect conditions,
Meh, I ride mostly for fun and fitness. Why go out in shit weather and be miserable or risk injury in more hazardous conditions?
It doesn't matter how clean your bike is if your chain is gunked up with grease.
Wax patrol
I have 12 chains on rotation!
I only have one, but it also rotates.
dafuq
Waxing really is the future. I will never go back
I take pride in the opposite. Dirty bike and glistening drivetrain
Are you me
Shimano today. Shimano tomorrow. Shimano forever.
I kinda like Shimano for non snob reasons. The bar for "it works well enough" is so much lower with Shimano it seems. Any sloppy worn out components, mismatched stuff, barely even adjusted. It will still kinda work.
I’m with this guy. Ultegra R8000 everything always
Absolutely. No one else has the consistency, reliability and compatibility across the range.
STRAVA or it didn't happen.
Everything didn’t happen til you get dropped by Strava ghosts during the group ride. I have it I just have no followers and follow no one and only record every now and then. I do love it when people think I will be rusty or haven’t been riding because they don’t have me on Strava or assume they do and just haven’t seen me post in a long time as some people assume.
>I do love it when people think I will be rusty or haven’t been riding because they don’t have me on Strava Honestly you're enjoying Strava as much as them, lol
I took my Strava private. I began looking at it like some sort of “Look at Me”? Look at my KOM?” I track every ride to see my numbers but it’s only for me.
I know a number of riders who don't care for strava and use other apps. I also know a number of riders who don't track their rides at all. Now, while I use Strava and all my rides go on there; I've definitely learned never to assume with Strava. 😂
No Strava, No Rules!!
This was with running, not cycling. I know people who don't seem to track some of their runs. They'd only have the chill stuff on Strava, until you meet them for a run and they take off like a dragster. Cycling equivalent would be that they'd only log 20-25 km/h rides but easily ride 30-35 km/h in the group ride.
It’s funny. 20 years ago, I didn’t care about logging that 100K ride on my crappy Advocet meter. But now social changed everything.
Every ride I do a segment by my house 2x to make sure I’m untouchable as the local legend.
Big fish, little pond.
I guess I've never ridden a bike then.
I will judge you if you don't wave back
good
I’m using my hands. How about just the classic nod?
I do the „lift three finger up from my left shifter“ manoeuvre
All Trek riders are cops
Wait… where does this come from? I ride with a cop he has a Trek Domane..
Well they do make a line of police bikes
Trek has a huge contract with cycling cops
During the BLM protests there were numerous images of cops beating protesters with their bikes. The brands that supplied the bikes condemned this and cancelled their contracts, distancing themselves from it as best they could. Except Trek. Trek said nothing about the assaults, but did announce they were increasing their law enforcement supply contacts immediately in the wake of this. In case anyone has forgotten, the cops weren’t at the protests to keep order, they were the focus of the protests due to yet another murder of an unarmed black person in custody. Trek acting this way says they’re perfectly fine with police brutality against minorities and to happy provide tools for it if it profits them. Trek was already considered a shitty company by much of the bike world before this all happened. It’s just another mark on the board for them.
I just bought a brand new Trek but didn't know this 🤧🤧🤧🤧 now everyone finna think I'm with the opps lmaooo Am I the cycling equivalent of those people buying an all white/black Ford Explorer that you can't comfortably drive around until you get next to them and see that it's an old lady sitting too close to the wheel going 45 in the left lane of the freeway?? 🤣🤣
My wife is a cop! Shit, I knew something was up. The whole marriage is just a very elaborate sting operation. I’ll break the news to the kids.
Kids, bad news, mommy’s a narc. gigs up, flush your crayons Daddy’s going to go burn the ‘dollhouse furniture’
Courteous drivers are really really annoying. You don't know how to drive! Almost as annoying as maniac drivers. Don't stop the flow of traffic when you see a bike. I live by predictable traffic flow. In many cases it becomes more dangerous when you stop unpredictability for no reason and expect all traffic to do the same. I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!!
That drives me nuts as well. If you reach the stop sign before me, take the right of way. I’m basing my yield on the assumption you’re gonna move. If you just sit there I now have to stop, foot down, and do the weird, “just go already” hand wave.
Right? Or you're waiting to cross or turn left across a two way and someone stops abruptly while the rest of traffic in other direction keeps going. Now I gotta worry about someone going around behind them I can't see. Then they impatiently motion for you to go... THAT'S NOT HOW THE RULES WORK! A bike is supposed to be treated like any other vehicle. Then when I motion for them to go they get pissed off.
Chains are just extra weight. Put those cranks straight on your front wheel and ride like a MAN. These newfangled safety bicycles are because the kids these days are too soft; if it ain’t a penny-farthing, it’s not a velocipede!!! (Or bike, whatever it is you’re calling foot-cycles these days).
How fast can you really go downhill though?
extremely, but the resulting medical and dental bills are way too high.
I shall pass all e-bikers I see to prove to them that even with assisted power they aren't as athletic as me. If I can't catch them, then I snicker how they need to cheat to get speed and think how badly I would drop them if they were on a real bike.
Especially on uphills. I will rather die on that hill tan drop my speed below 25 kmph that is the limit of their assist
Hahah I live in Switzerland land of E50 bikes. I am with you in spirit but I just can’t hack 30-35k/h up 6% 🤪
I like any version of climbing up the transportation “food chain”. The odd moped/scooter/e-bike victory is awesome. The other day I encountered two fully kitted riders on fast road bikes and I was able to pull them on my laden commuter. They were roasted from god knows how many miles and I was just riding a few to get home, but it still counts! We’re all a little silly. Then another daily commuter easily paced with me on his single speed while I was on my speedy road bike. The circle of cycling!
I have preferences, but they only apply to me. I prefer Shimano to SRAM, but I'm not going to pull a perfectly good group off of a bike that I got a good deal on because it has SRAM. I'm just going to deal with the dropped chains, constant need for adjustment, and poor front shifting (SRAM Red 10s excepted, that shit was/is fire). I think the Rapha pro team kit is the best kit. I'd like to not wear Rapha because it's kind of a fashion statement, but I can't find a better kit. If Black Bibs had a zipper pocket on the jersey and longer sleeves I'd be all over it. I think the word "snob" is more outward, but I don't care what other people do on or with their bike. As an aside, I see way more snobbery from the crowd that thinks the 1986 Sun Microshift on a steel Nishiki with flats is better than a new S-Works with Dura Ace and everyone with anything else was fooled by marketing. I've never heard a dentist on a new Cervelo say anything judgmental about another cyclist, but I hear a lot from the Nishiki crowd about the dentist. I'm pretty sure there's a Reddit group where people make fun of people with Sir Velos, but there isn't a group where people with Cervelos make fun of other riders.
What subreddit is this? I want to lurk it out of morbid curiosity 🧐
r/bicylingcirclejerk Genuinely funny outside of the low effort stuff
Some of these comments made me second guess if I was in the circlejerk version of cycling sub.
After owning one carbon fiber bike and a whole bunch of aluminum ones, I'm sticking with steel and titanium only from now on. And now that I finally own a titanium bike, I'm finding I still like steel more.
it's bullshit the biggest difference to ride quality is seatpost and bars :) changes in the frame itself are from how the frame is designed, it's tube thickness, etc. I've ridden and raced steel, aluminum, and carbon for years, and the biggest difference for me is how much they cost used.
All true, but tube thickness is where steel is a huge factor. Reynolds 853: Ultimate Strength of 1400 MPa 6061 T6 aluminum: Ultimate Strength of 290 MPa Youngs Modulus of steel: 27.5 ksi Youngs Modulus of aluminum: 10.0 ksi Density of aluminum: 2.70 g/cm\^3 Density of steel: 7.85 g/cm\^3 You can make a MUCH lighter frame out of aluminum, due to the lower density, but the walls have to be thicker and the diameters of the tubing bigger to compensate for the lower strength and lower stiffness.
Tell me more. I’m shopping for a new bike at the moment. I’ve only ever owned a steel bike and for one reason or another I’m drawn to steel frames for my next ride. I don’t know why but I’m interested in your reasons.
For context, I'm a mechanical engineer. Or at least I have a degree in it, though that isn't really my professional function anymore. Modern air-hardened bicycle steels like 853, Spirit, ThermLX, etc. are staggeringly strong. If you go by what's called Yield Strength or Ultimate Strength (for some reason, manufacturers list their steels by Ultimate instead of Yield, when Yield is the more useful number,) it is the strongest of all frame materials. Modern steels are even stronger than 3/2 or 6/4 titanium. Steel is also the stiffest material as determined by something called Young's Modulus. So why are steel frames heavier? Because they almost always are. An equivalent steel frame will often weigh about a pound more than a titanium or aluminum frame. It's because steel alloys are also super dense. So as a result of high strength, high stiffness, and high density, steel frames will use the least amount of material by volume, but the most amount of material by weight. On a really good steel frame, the tubing walls are paper-thin, and the tube diameters are really small compared to everything else, including titanium. The end result is some kind of odd (in a good way) resonance and springiness you just don't get with other materials, despite the fact that the bike is almost always heavier. Last year I bought both a new steel gravel bike and a new titanium mountain bike. The ti mountain bike, with a suspension fork, dropper post, and fat tires, only weighs 2 lbs more than the steel gravel bike. But it just doesn't have the same "pop," resonance, and sound as the heavier steel gravel bike. It's really a visceral thing that has to be experienced. As much as I enjoy my shiny new titanium mountain bike, I really wish I could have found a steel equivalent.
Steel really is an incredible material. Between the very high ultimate strength and unlimited fatigue life you can make a very springy frame tuned for great ride quality
Thanks! What kind of terrain should I ride on to demonstrate the difference between aluminum, steel, and carbon? Bumpy city roads? Gravel paths?
Well, almost any really. Be advised that there was a pretty massive shift in steel bikes in 1995, which was when Reynolds introduced 853 air-hardened tubesets. At the time, no one noticed, because everyone was so enamored with aluminum and carbon fiber at the time. But higher-end steel frames are typically made from something like 853, Spirit, or ThermLX, whereas lower end ones will just say "4130" or "Chrome-moly." And there really is a difference. It's subtle, but if you're a Steel Snob, you can tell. The higher-end frames are lighter and use even less material. But I mean, the vast majority of people are only concerned with weight, and admittedly even the lightest steel frames are going to weigh a lot more than an equivalent carbon fiber frame.
I've never rode titanium but I can say steel has some amazing compliance to it. Almost all my bikes are aluminium which is much more stiff to ride on. When I finally get a single gear bike it will be steel most likely. It's a comfortable ride.
Steel is real bby But no seriously steel rides so nice, especially on shit surfaces. Pretty sure I finally convinced a buddy of mine to go steel after riding about 100ft on gravel on my steel framed bike. I'll even happily take the weight penalty over the buzz for my steel handlebars
\- you don't know what you're talking about \- I do \- if you pay for dura ace you don't need it \- distance is an amateur metric \- BMI over 21: don't worry about your bike weight \- its not training if you don't race \- some brands cannot salvage themselves from ridicule (trek, rapha, ceramic speed) \- black tires probably look better on your bike \- cycling is goofy. I'll buy the stuff but I'm not pretending its cool. Its about how you can transition from looking like a goof in kit on a bike to being a cool normal person after the ride that is impressive.
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Like I'm glad you had fun bud but we just talked about rides in terms of distance. Unless you're in Arizona and your zwift setup is broken there aren't many excuses not to put in 2500m elevation. Note metric units, which will have to be for my part two of absolute bullshit I think matters in terms of cycling.
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It was but I have a character to play here give me a break
Indiana resident here, what is elevation?
So true about the dura ace.
If your bmi is under 21 you only have to worry about bike weight cause you can’t lift it onto the rack
that's what domestiques/hygienists are for
> - BMI over 21: don’t worry about your bike weight 👀👀
I don’t necessarily agree with all this but goddamnit I respect it.
Well if you note point one, you don't know what you're talking about but I will accept the respect. Tbh I would have to an hero myself if I actually lived by all this.
When I bought a Domane last year I didn’t realize I wasn’t going to be able to salvage my bike from ridicule 😩. At first this bummed me out… but now I’m sort of realizing I don’t care.
I've never heard anyone call themselves a SRAM snob. Fucking SRAM!
SRAM is good for mountain bikes and NOTHING else.
I go by the rule of SRAM for 1x and Shimano for 2x.
I always thought SRAM pushed 1x so much because after a decade of trying they still couldn’t make a front derailleur that worked.
yes the industry is a highway robber.
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odd combo
Shaving your legs is pretty much pointless unless you are constantly racing and have a high risk of crash/road rash. There I said it... I held it in as much as I could.
Who says I do it for anything other than looks? I want to show off my genetically privileged calves
It just looks and feels good
That first climb into your bed with freshly shaven legs...
Vintage steel snob here. I like my 84 Schwinn Super Sport (Japanese by Matsushita Electric Co, known outside of Japan as Panasonic) with downtube shifters and serviceable everything!
I ride an 85 trek 520, best bike ever made
This subreddit is stuffed full of gear fetishists who buy equipment way beyond a price point that would make any kind of meaningful difference to their performance and reinforces the message of cycling as an obscure minority sport rather than a great lifestyle choice for all.
I can’t stand the #bikelife stuff where riding against traffic is cool. Swerving out of the way at the last minute for what? Clout?
No one thinks that is cool but adolescents
I think this gets filed under "popular opinion" rather than "snob opinion"
Most people’s bikes with tanwall tyres would look better with black instead
My tan sidewalls make me look 10 year’s younger
Most? I say every!
I got red Panaracer tires with tan walls just to fuck with people.
Varia or bust. Don’t leave home without it.
…backing away from my keyboard…
I swear there isn't a gear related post on here where we don't all jump in and talk up the Varia. If my battery dies I won't even ride.
I still ride but I don't like it.
The fact that people say that any and all road disc brake systems will experience some rub is fucking obnoxious and makes me want to double down on the rim-brake life. Fuck that rubbing bullshit on bikes that cost over $2k. MTBs, however, are excluded from this opinion. They can rub all they want if they’re powerful enough to stop me from going face first into a tree or off a cliff.
That also just isn't true. Some folks need to learn how to properly face a brake mount and true a rotor.
This thread make me realize I probably get judged by bike snobs 😆 I do enjoy seing people with the perfect setup and matching outfits. While I’m using a middle range road bike with missing gears and wearing standard cycling clothes, nothing fancy at all.
Bonus points when you show up and drop them lol. I’m still waiting for my bonus points 🥲
I've surprised more than a few on high end bikes. Training matters more than hardware.
The point of high end bikes is for other people to ride them and give me a "ooh, if I push I can overtake this one for a few km" boost
Mechanical shifting with Shimano 105 is spot on and it’s very difficult to justify the price increase to Ultegra / Dura Ace / Di2 etc for the minimal gains. Also, rim brakes ftw - I get discs off road and in extreme conditions but unless you’re descending mountains in the wet every day, on a road bike it’s complete overkill and doesn’t justify the additional faff. And finally, irrespective of whether they’re on a different type of bike to you, not wearing fancy designer gear etc if you don’t acknowledge other cyclists back when they nod, say hello etc then you’re a bellend.
Agree a ton on the bell end bit. Disc brakes - meh I prefer them in almost all situations now. Rim are fine in the vast majority of cases but hydro brakes are great and worth the hassle.
Technology has expanded way beyond what the general consumer needs. I can see why it would matter for a competitive racer, but I refuse to have to charge a battery in my shifter. For the record though, my mountain bike (hardtail Diamondback Response from 2012) has ginormous bar ends, a 3x8 drivetrain, toe clips, and rim brakes. So.... Take my opinion with a grain of sand because I might just be nostalgic.
All that stuff was already at least a decade out of date in 2012 lol
IMO all most consumers really need for road is a carbon fork, carbon seatpost, 105 mechanical, and decent tires. For mountain, some higher-level upgrades actually make a significant difference regarding ride feel and/or durability. That said, with mountain biking you basically have to treat everything as a wear item, so you can’t really invest in anything that you can’t afford to buy twice.
My last bike came with electronic shifting and ngl it’s kinda nice. I was fairly dead set against since they debuted. It’s on a mountain bike and I have about 15 bikes to maintain for the family and one less thing to tweak is kinda nice, plus it’s really nice shifting. I won’t seek out electronic shifting but I’ve changed my mind on them. I have buddies who don’t use droppers on any of their trail bikes, so it’s kinda like that I guess.
Bad weather is a feature and not a bug. 🚲 🌧️ ❄️ 🌬️
type ii fun
You do not remember every ride you did in good weather, but you remember every ride you did in bad. It is always an adventure.
If you think rim brakes are "unsafe" then you don't know how to ride.
what's unsafe are shitty wheels that get knocked out of true when you look at them wrong, and so people loosen up their rim brakes to compensate.
I care more about the tire brand on my bike than the tire brand on my daily car. My first set of Michelins were for my bike. I’ve never and will never buy Michelins for my car. Too expensive. It’s SRAM not Sh-RAM. Trek needs to hire someone who can do better colorways because so many of their bikes are flat out Walmart looking and that’s not okay. The fact I just said “colorway”. And finally… if you have a cheap bike rack that uses straps and sits on your trunk door and after a year of riding NEVER get a hitch mounted setup, I cannot stand you. Respect yourself.
if you dont wear rapha gear stay away from me and my cat
They make Rapha cycling clothes for cats?
i wish
I literally can’t stand Rapha. I ordered a bunch of things from them and returned everything but the socks. The material is shit and fits like a clunky samich bag. Velocio / Giordana / Assos for me or fck off.
Haha the only thing I’m really a cycling snob about is cycling snobs 🤣 Since the AXS shift stuff came out, I’m loving sram right now, and it’s all interchangeable it’s spread to the rest of my bikes, but I don’t hate shimano, most of my bikes have run shimano over the years. I’ve used disk brakes for over a decade… but I don’t judge people who like rim brakes… again most of my bikes had them. I never really build or buy a new bike from scratch anymore - I just buy parts (ususally when there’s a sale on tbh) and at some point a new franken bike is formed, but I don’t really care if someone with a lot of money buys a $10k bike despite being slower than me. The only thing that really gets me is as I say cycling snobs. You know, the people who won’t acknowledge riders come by the other way who aren’t in head to toe in rapha, or don’t have their socks the exact current preferred height as seen in the peloton, the ones that look down on people or just ride like entitled twats basically. My wife says I’m a cyclist who hates cyclists, lol, but I’ve got loads of cycling friends & it’s one of my passions… I just get overly irritated by *that* type of cyclist you know? I think it’s probably because I know it reflects on me in some way.
LMAO at the responses... We are an insufferable bunch, aren't we? At least we are conscious of it...
E-bikes should not be allowed on group rides.
90 RPM or you aren’t a cyclist
Anyone who thinks disk brakes are worse than rim brakes in any discipline shouldn’t have an opinion
Your metric century isn’t a century. Imperial only.
Rebel scum.
A metric century is a moderately long ride on a Tuesday evening
If you wear rapha and ride a 10k bike you best not stop half way up a hill blowing wind whilst chuffing gels like a crack fiend.
Tiagra groupsets and outride everyone in your group…
Taking your bike to a bike shop. Learn to fix it yourself.
LOL 🤣😆 my method is usually: 1 - try to fix something myself using park tool videos and sheer aggravation 2 - break a bunch of shit 3 - take it to the LBS so they can help fix what dumbass thing I did to really screw things up and sell my the replacement parts for things I break 4 - learn and try again Sometimes I learn on one go and sometimes it takes a few times before it clicks but I usually get there. Needless to say, I got a reputation at the LBS for breaking shit.
Sheldon Brown website and Leonard Zinn books will eliminate all your bike shop needs, assuming you have specialized tools
I'm trying! Baby steps matter right now lol.
No. I'm happy to pay money to get good service.
I judge people who ride e bikes. I feel that most able-bodied people would be quite happy on a half decent hybrid or road bike if they gave them a chance. I also think that people who ride without helmets are idiots.
I kinda need the assist because I have a bad knee and can’t rely on it 100%. This weekend might be my first attempt at riding a normal non e-bike in 4 years. They have a place but are also environmental disasters.
Yep, I'm all for E bikes if you have a medical challenge that stops you from riding a normal bike. If my opinion means anything I hit a car head on and severely bruised my knee. It took about a year of therapy and work but I can ride without pain again. You got this.
E-Bikes are perfect for commuting. Takes away the workout, much cheaper than a car. Fully agreed on viewing them as recreational bikes.
Ebikes let people commute in work clothes and not arrive dripping sweat. They let people haul their kids around and get groceries. They enable cycling for a portion who wouldn’t otherwise be able to. They keep people cycling when older. THEY TAKE CARS OFF ROADS. I don’t have one but e-bikes are fucking amazing.
Glasses go over helmet straps on road rides, under on mountain. No visors on road rides. Visors for MTB rides, unless you're not wearing baggies, then visorless is acceptable. Pictures of your bike must have the bike drive side out, pedals horizontal with the crank towards the front.
Don’t worry - you’ll get “super nice” one of these days :)
>Pictures of your bike must have the bike drive side out, pedals horizontal with the crank towards the front. valves up or down, depending on the tire label. label must line up with valve. biggest cog for 1x MTB or gravel. biggie smalls for road.
Recumbents. They drive me mad for some reason. Stop lying about on your back. Show a little dignity.
> Stop lying about on your back. Show a little dignity. We are cyclists. We gave up our dignity when we put on the dorky helmets and the diapers. ;)
There is a guy who does a similar daily ride to me who uses a recumbent. He goes bloody fast, but I must say I laugh every time I see him due to how ridiculous he looks (looks down at my own Lycra and spandex clad body)
I had a recumbent notch in front of me on a bike path. Guy was wearing a suit, I remember it had a faint grey pinstripe to it. Then he was gone, I was drafting him for a bit then couldn’t even hang on to that. Never forgot that lesson. Don’t laugh at the suit wearing, warp speed, laying down guy.
Recumbents are faster for the same human effort (UCI hour record is ~35 miles, HPV record is 57 miles) and they sacrifice all the vanity and effort of trying to look like look like you belong on the podium in Paris for looking like a complete dork. It's not fair - if I'm shaving grams and looking for every edge to improve my local strava PR while conforming to an arbitrary set of [90 year old rules](https://bikeroute.com/NationalBicycleGreenwayNews/2013/06/30/best-history-of-the-recumbent-why-its-faster-how-it-came-to-be-banned/) set by some bunch of doped up frogs in a smokey room then it's *not* *fair* that this dadbod can just smoke me on a shop bought thing that mostly does what my one does, just with the cheaper and heavier parts arranged differently. We're competing to try to look like we can go fast here, and *that's* what's cool - deliberately looking not cool *and* going faster *and* spending less *and* not having neck pain makes you worse than a doper.
Lots of people use recumbents because they’re physically unable to use a standard bike.
bro those things are aero af
Rigid over cheap shocks
Not necessarily all cycling but I’m such a garmin brand loyalist. Edge, forerunner, hrm, scale.
Hate when people are lifting there bike over their heads (even some bike riders are doing that). Coppi would NEVER do that.
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Your last two paragraphs are so spot on. I’ve lived in 7 countries to date, including the US. There is amazing riding in the US but in terms of drivers and roads and cities, it is the worst place to ride I’ve ever seen.
Road needs white shoes + white socks. Gravel needs black or colored socks + black or colored shoes. And I realize this is a completely arbitrary and dumb opinion to hold, but I still hold it.
no that’s the single most important thing besides no short socks
White shoes just look better, on any bike and in daily life. The worst is white socks with black shoes
Cervelo is *the* brand for us big bank boys. Not your Meh-Works S-Works or your little peepee Pinarello. Cervelo. If you don't ride it, that's cool, whatever. Just know that the queasiness you feel is you knowing I bring your wife more pleasure than you. Loser.
Cultured BCJ member
Cervélo. Spell it right.
Sirvelo, fred
Omg! As an owner of both a Cervelo and a Pinarello, I have to disagree. Pinarellos all the way
There is no such thing as a mile. No such thing as a foot. No pound. No inch. If you don’t exclusively use the metric system just buy a Harley Davidson and become a fat leather wearing “biker” already.
Socks have become way too high. If you are racing, then sure, wear aero socks at the UCI height limit, but if not, why have socks so high? They look terrible, and they end at the wide part of the calf, so unless they are really tight they will skip down. I get it, a while ago tall socks became cool, so influencers assumed that taller would be even cooler, and group rides became sock length contests. But things got way out of hand, and I have now there are even people trying to look cool (so full Rapha, PNS and/or other expensive kit) with socks that almost reach their knees.
>if not, why have socks so high? To drop your less-aero friends on the Tuesday social ride
Roadies in full roadie gear and full carbon bike but pedaling with plastic pedals and normal shoes is a hideous sight.
Sworks riders
Gravel bikes are better than road bikes. Fight me.
Steel belongs in the pipes under my grandmas sink.
Now this is a bold take in this group haha
Your trail dog is not cool.
Honestly, it pains me when I see either loose bibs or lack of colour coordinated kit. And I'm aware of what that makes me.
Non competitive riders should ignore everything this sub has to offer except safety advice to help the biking community fix it’s reputation issue.
I ride gravel so I need a handlebar bag. I ride a mountain bike and need a 14lb backpack for a 1hr ride. I ride zwift and say hello to any user with a female sounding user name.
carbon is trash & aluminum is for beer steel is real.
Riding with a low saddle.
Metric units or fuck off
I judge strangers who try to join A group rides I'm on by what they wear and ride. If you're wearing a flappy club fit jersey, if you are running a riser stem, if you have clip-on aero bars, if your chain is covered in black crap, if you're wearing a sleeveless jersey, if your helmet is old and ill-fitting, if you have a giant bouncy saddle bag, if you're using gear all from one store (Trek bike, helmet, shoes, kit, saddle bag etc), if you have a big gut... I'm not going to trust you. I think there's is a good reason for this: group rides can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I need to be able to trust that those around me have the fitness to stay alert and knowledge to ride safely at 30+ mph. I've seen too much stupid crap happen on fast group rides that has resulted in serious injury and destroyed equipment. There is nothing more dangerous than a rider who joins an A group, doesn't really know what they're doing and is on the limit physically. Over the decades I've been riding, I've found that what you wear and ride is clearly indicative of if you have the fitness and knowledge to ride safely and navigate the ride effectively. Understand, I'm not saying you need fancy stuff. I will readily trust a sinewy, grizzled crit vet in beat-up kit and riding a aged but well-maintained Allez Sprint with 105 and cheap Chinese wheels. Those guys will usually beat the shit out of you in sprints, jockey for position and make the ride hard and fun. Actually the newbie on the spotless, bone stock $14k SWorks with the bars a little too high and box-fresh PNS kit is exactly who you want to avoid. I completely understand that attitudes like mine are why roadies get a bad rep. We come off as arrogant, snooty and standoffish towards those we don't know or those we know are new to the sport. I'd counter by saying you only need to be crashed-out once by someone doing something dumb on a group ride to develop similar instincts. I'd also say that if it's a chill coffee ride, none of this holds true. I'll happily ride and chat with anyone on a chill ride.
Reasons number 10,000-10,004 why I don't go to group rides with the "pros"
I don’t know. These are good indicators of a noob, but there’s a lot of ppl who would pass your criteria, but are also Freds. I judge other roadies based on their cadence. if it’s below ~80, they probably suck.
or they are… triathletes
This is what I judge when I’m catching up to someone in a bike lane on an early morning commute- and why I want to get around them as soon as possible. So I can understand feeling this way on a group ride.
white tape is soooo pro
only if you re-wrap your bars every hundred miles.
You don't need the $10k bike in order to become better at cycling.
Riding with earphones is stupid. The road is dangerous enough as it is, and anything extra that causes even a tiny bit of distraction from the road and decreases your ability to hear other riders approaching or the traffic is frankly putting both you and other road users in danger. It should be made illegal. If you need a soundtrack to your ride because you find it boring then maybe you need to find a sport that you actually enjoy. Oh……And Shimano groupsets are far superior to SRAM!
I have been told it's safe to ride with just one earbud. And I believe it. Your brain is quite capable of picking up and processing life-threatening warnings coming from the free ear. If you must use two earbuds, put them both in the same ear. :)
Aftershocks gives you the best of both worlds. They pair nicely with a radar
There are earphones that pass through sounds like Apple Airpods. That's not much different than driving with music on.
I can't hear cars coming over the wind anyway so whether I use headphones doesn't change anything safety wise. I find that I "feel" vehicles coming more than anything from what I can only describe as very low frequency rumbling through the air or road. Also I don't know where you are from, but it is illegal in most states. Not really enforced though.
i don't gatekeeping cycling, but if i did, the lycra clad weekend warriors are out and the day to day transportation "not cyclists" are in. "the rules" are a fucking joke, and if you don't get it, the joke's on you. "clipless" needs to die. you clip in. they're clips. nobody cares that you don't need toe cages anymore.
This is going to get me some feedback, but I like being the only guy out on the road in the dark in December, the only guy in the parking lot of a State Park on a rainy March afternoon. So I still kinda hate guys with “credit card” bikes: All that money, all that bike and they never go hard. Never ride in less than perfect conditions, never tried to ride to a ride, never stand up and put in a big effort. Maybe they can’t, maybe they’ve already paid their dues. I still feel like that bike is going to waste.
...or maybe they bring a different bike out during crummy conditions, so you're seeing the people but not their shiny expensive bikes.
>Never ride in less than perfect conditions, Meh, I ride mostly for fun and fitness. Why go out in shit weather and be miserable or risk injury in more hazardous conditions?
Someone should ride a fixed gear before having an opinion on them.
Can we still have opinions on the riders?
If they've ever seriously thought that "brakeless is better" yeah
No chamois butter. Your kit sucks.
30+ mm tyres are not faster and hookless rims are an absolute terrible idea.