Why Roadies Don't Smile-funny article I just read

[Robspace1]

Tomorrow morning I’ll hit the tracks with my buddies. We don’t spend much time on the bitumen but when we do I always smile and way at every other bike rider. I always have. I’ve made more friends this way than I can remember but sometimes my intentions aren’t entirely pure. I usually get a laugh from my riding buddies every time a roadie goes past and they point blank ignore my friendly wave. Its not a one off, its been happening for so long we often have post ride conversations about why roadies never smile or say g’day. Here are some of our favourite theories:


Mountain Bike Riders on the road

1. Road riding just isn’t much fun. Whats your least favourite part of any mountain bike adventure? Yep, riding on the road. It doesn’t take any skill, there’s no challenge, no fun and Its just plain boring. Imagine if this was all you ever did. You be a bit twisted and chances are you wouldn’t want to way, smile or say g’day to anyone.
2. Road riders don’t have good bike skills and they need to concentrate much harder. Its true, if roadies had bike skills they’d ride a mountain bike. So they need to fixate on the bit of tarmac 3ft infront of them and every second is a scary experience. They’re worried if they look up to say “hello” they’ll wobble and if they take a hand off the bars to wave they might splat on the road.
3. Roadies are Strava slaves and haven’t got time to look up and say hello. We were waiting on the side of the road when a buddy rides past on a roadie. We all know him and would consider him a good mate. We all said hello but he just grunted and kept riding hard. He was on a Strava mission and couldn’t even raise a hand to say “hi”.
4. Roadies are miserable gits. This isn’t very generous but some of my mountain bike mates are convinced that road riding attracts miserable gits and that’s the end of the story. I don’t want to be seen sticking up for roadies but I know lots of roadies and while one or two are miserable people most of them are great guys and girls who I enjoy spending time with off the bike.
5. Road riding is the new golf and golfers are miserable gits. A bit harsh but maybe it could be true????
6. A lot of Roadies are pretty new to riding and don’t understand riding etiquette. You wave, you say g’day, you always stop to ask a stranded rider if they’re OK. It doesn’t matter if they’re on a roadie, a mountain bike or a penny farthing.
7. Roadies have hard uncomfortable saddles which always puts them in a bad mood. Imagine you became a shaolin monk and one of your training regimes involved hours of being hit between the legs with a wooden bar wrapped in a thin layer of leather. You’d be pretty cranky, right?. Guess what? That’s whats happening to roadies every time they go for a ride. They have hard tyres, hard saddles, no suspension and every bump hits ’em where it hurts.
8. Roadies look down there noses at mountain bikers. … Ha ha , Im only kidding, as if. They can only ride where some council shovel leaner has laid a perfectly smooth tarmac trail. ha ha ha. 7% is a steep climb hahaha, -10% descent give them a severe case of brown pants, and any small bump on the road is a near death experience. HaHaHa. Oh dear, thats funny.
9. Roadies are jealous of MTB’rs because we have fun and they don’t. Picture this, if you will, …You’ve put the golf clubs away and you’ve taken up a new hobby. Several of your old golf mates ride bikes so you’ve decided to join the fun. They helped you buy a bike and without too much trouble you dropped $5k on a light weight carbon flyer the skinny tanned bloke in the bike shop said was fast. 125psi 23mm tyres, steep head angle and a seat like the spine of a book. You bought some lycra, shaved your legs and feel like one of the cool kids. You’ve had a couple of rides but its actually not that much fun. You ride in a bunch and the other riders are always telling you what to do; “watch your wheel, take a turn, don’t cross wheels”. Its long and boring and at the end of a ride you drink black coffee and something healthy. You think about quitting when you notice some other bike riders. They ride funny looking bikes with wide handle bars and fat tyres. They laugh and smile and encourage. At the end of a ride they drink beer and eat burgers. They don’t wear lycra, they don’t shave they’re legs and they don’t slavishly follow the wheel in front. And when the road ends they just jump off and keep riding. It looks like fun but you’ve just spent all your dough on a torture machine that won’t even ride on gravel let alone that exciting looking track they’re riding. You find out its called mountain biking and you wish that you’d bought one of them. You become bitter and when one of those free wheeling smart alecs gives you a friendly smile and a wave you clench your jaw and curl your lip. You might even tell you road riding mates “What a loser” but that night, alone in a dark room, you mark in your diary, at a date in the future when your other half will have forgotten how much you spent on your roadie, “Buy new bike ( mountain bike this time )“

 

[Robspace1]

Love it. I just went for a ride today and smiled and waved at 4 different roadies. None smiled or waved back. Maybe it's because I'm on an ebike or because it's also a mtb or both. Kinda rude. I do stop and help any other bikers with a problem. To me this is all about fun and relaxation. Not a race or competition.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I always wave — at cyclists, neighbors, kids, dogs, drivers who actually stop at stop signs. Have to agree that I don't get much back from the serious-looking road bikers. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and vote for Reason 7.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Love it. I just went for a ride today and smiled and waved at 4 different roadies. None smiled or waved back. Maybe it's because I'm on an ebike or because it's also a mtb or both. Kinda rude. I do stop and help any other bikers with a problem. To me this is all about fun and relaxation. Not a race or competition.

I enjoy riding both disciplines and also find that on trail rides MTBers are, in general, a much friendlier bunch and almost always acknowledge with a friendly nod, smile or g’day. I ride my analogue road bike during training sessions and very rarely do I encounter similar responses from fellow roadies.

Trail riding on single track might evoke a different attitude since the proximity when approaching another mucker is slightly more intimate and there is more of a tendency to drop a “Hello”, or “How’s it going”. I feel that rational translates deep into the mtb brethren so much that it’s almost instinctual. I also find when riding the trails during the winter season an even more friendly atmosphere develops as the singles become significantly tighter. So often that courtesy extends to both riders when approaching in opposite directions that one always makes room for the other which occasionally creates a situation to pause and make sociable conversation.

 

[Nvreloader]

I will say from my 3 contacts this past yr with Roadies, is that they are,
rude, crude and sociably unacceptable IMHO,
I have never met a more unfriendly group of bike rides.
Tia,
Don

 

[DaveMatthews]

I always wave — at cyclists, neighbors, kids, dogs, drivers who actually stop at stop signs. Have to agree that I don't get much back from the serious-looking road bikers. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and vote for Reason 7.

I wave at the ocean, cuz it waves back...

 

[Robspace1]

I always wave — at cyclists, neighbors, kids, dogs, drivers who actually stop at stop signs. Have to agree that I don't get much back from the serious-looking road bikers. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and vote for Reason 7.

Good on you my friend. Biking puts me in a really good mood and I just don't know why anyone would not wave or smile back. These things are fun machines, especially for us old timers. lol

 

[Robspace1]

I wave at the ocean, cuz it waves back...

Nice. I miss it. Grew up in SF and surfed in the cold fog, and biked the monster city streets on a 1 speed. Love to ride PCH on my ebike.

 

[mschwett]

i love it when different subcultures within a pastime decide they need to come up with some s*it they think is funny to make themselves feel better than others!

around here, virtually every rider who is out for fun/exercise (vs just riding to work or delivering something) gives a smile, nod, wave, hand sign, etc. they’re mostly roadies because i mostly ride on roads too.

i had a mechanical a while back and approximately 20 out of the 20 “roadies” who passed stopped, offered to help, tried to diagnose/fix/get a friend who could do so. every single one super friendly.

by contrast, MTB bros around here are too busy making up bullshit about being “heroes” on the “hero dirt” while they f up the ecosystem, create erosion, scare wildlife, while being too soft, lazy, or out of shape to actually RIDE their bikes to the destination that they have to put them on their cars, further polluting and creating traffic in between debating whose IPA is more bitter.

that last part isn’t (mostly) actually what i think - but it would be if i was making a list like whoever made this one!

(and now someone will just say, it was just a joke man, which is what everyone says when their comments are revealed as small minded, bigoted, hurtful, loutish, or whatever.)

 

[Robspace1]

I will say from my 3 contacts this past yr with Roadies, is that they are,
rude, crude and sociably unacceptable IMHO,
I have never met a more unfriendly group of bike rides.
Tia,
Don

And for no real reason. So much easier to be friendly when meeting other bikers out there.

 

[Gionnirocket]

i love it when different subcultures within a pastime decide they need to come up with some s*it they think is funny to make themselves feel better than others!

around here, virtually every rider who is out for fun/exercise (vs just riding to work or delivering something) gives a smile, nod, wave, hand sign, etc. they’re mostly roadies because i mostly ride on roads too.

i had a mechanical a while back and approximately 20 out of the 20 “roadies” who passed stopped, offered to help, tried to diagnose/fix/get a friend who could do so. every single one super friendly.

by contrast, MTB bros around here are too busy making up bullshit about being “heroes” on the “hero dirt” while they f up the ecosystem, create erosion, scare wildlife, while being too soft, lazy, or out of shape to actually RIDE their bikes to the destination that they have to put them on their cars, further polluting and creating traffic in between debating whose IPA is more bitter.

that last part isn’t (mostly) actually what i think - but it would be if i was making a list like whoever made this one!

(and now someone will just say, it was just a joke man, which is what everyone says when their comments are revealed as small minded, bigoted, hurtful, loutish, or whatever.)

Time to go up a size in panties

Many roadies are dicks... especially when they ride in a pack.
I've seen them run (or at least try to in my case) people off the trail. Even families rolling with children.

You want to drive one crazy... Stay right behind them up a hill. They'll run themselves ragged to not let you pass. I've done this more than once when cut off hard on the preceding flat. Talk about hysterical.

 

[Mike TowpathTraveler]

I know a good many years have passed since the movie "Breaking Away" was in theaters, raking in alot of money & in the process, igniting the road-racing craze on "10 speed bicycles". I came of cycling age during that time, but not at all interested in racing; more interested in pedaling 10 miles or so, back to homebase.

That movie established the idea of the snooty, above-it-all, Italian and European bike racer. All wearing their leather helmets, cycling shorts, jerseys and cycling shoes in toe clips.

And I really think us copy-cat Americans latched onto that idea, of dressing out as if they were Eddy Mercks (sic) or Bernard Hinault.......every ride out done in a self absorbed style that included alot of suffering grimaces and thoughts of lording above everyone else on 2 wheels. And in the years since that movie, after LeMond winning in France, Armstrong and all of the others, the attitudes have only gotten worse. Everyone has to fit in one particular niche, with each niche hating on all the others.

I'm one of those e-mtb'ers who does most of my mileage on asphalt due mainly because off-road areas are at a minimum, 5 plus miles away from homebase. On occasion, I've had opportunities to pass roadies at speed. Let me tell you, hearing the whine of 26 x 4 Schwalbe Jumbo Jims coming up from behind them....always get's their attention! Some are fine. Most don't acknowledge my presence, what with their personal suffering in the name of Aero Tuck. I found the bigger groups of spandex faux Tour racers to not be too nice at all as I pass them by.

 

[JGcycle]

In all seriousness, anyone who gets around on two wheels, is all right in my books.

 

[Gionnirocket]

In all seriousness, anyone who gets around on two wheels, is all right in my books.

I don't have a problem with them... but they seem to be disrespectful to anyone who isn't on a <20lb bike and dressed like a sausage..... "and that I do not forgive." (in my best Don Corleone voice)

 

[mschwett]

…

I've seen them run (or at least try to in my case) people off the trail. Even families rolling with children.

…

i have never, ever seen this - in something like 10,000 miles over the past couple years.

 

[Gionnirocket]

i have never, ever seen this - in something like 10,000 miles over the past couple years.

That's encouraging... Perhaps things are better in different communities and that mindset will flourish.
But it's really frustrating and infuriating to see them wiz past people cutting as close in front as they can.
I purposely avoid riding the mups on weekends mid morning to avoid them.

 

[mschwett]

That's encouraging... Perhaps things are better in different communities and that mindset will flourish.
But it's really frustrating and infuriating to see them wiz past people cutting as close in front as they can.
I purposely avoid riding the mups on weekends mid morning to avoid them.

yeah, that is very uncool behavior. my guess is that road bike riders in places where it’s less common get a chip on their shoulder from constantly being nearly killed / honked at / yelled at by cars. the roads i ride here are filled with cyclists, and cars generally behave respectfully. in return so do the cyclists, and that probably carries over to general attitudes. it can be a vicious cycle otherwise.

i don’t like riding with others - it’s a solitary thing for me - but the clubs that do group rides here are well known for being super inclusive, involved in the community, very welcoming etc. just not my cup of tea.

i actually felt really bad friday, i yelled at a driver that i thought cut me off dangerously close at a small roundabout. he actually stopped and rolled down his window, and after discussing for a moment i realized that although it seemed to me he turned in front of me, i was actually entering the roundabout and he was already in it. the road i was on was tangent to it so it didn’t seem like a turn. i apologized and he apologized (he admitted he didn’t even see me), no harm done. sometimes people make the wrong snap judgement. he had florida plates, obviously on a long trip.

 

[Djangodog]

Maybe it’s a regional thing. I can’t take any of this too seriously.

I was a mountain biker, motorcyclist and roadie all at the same time. Most of the roadies that I have known ride in multiple disciplines, just ask Petr Sagan..

Around here, our roads are far from smooth and riding well in a pace line, high winds, traffic, rain or descending at high speeds takes good bike handling skills.

There are always some grumpy or elitist types, but I have never known roadies to be any less friendly and welcoming than any other cyclist. Our group or training rides were always fun, (that goes even more for charity rides).

If we are the ones bashing an entire type of cyclist, I have to ask, who’s the elitist?

 

[Robspace1]

yeah, that is very uncool behavior. my guess is that road bike riders in places where it’s less common get a chip on their shoulder from constantly being nearly killed / honked at / yelled at by cars. the roads i ride here are filled with cyclists, and cars generally behave respectfully. in return so do the cyclists, and that probably carries over to general attitudes. it can be a vicious cycle otherwise.

i don’t like riding with others - it’s a solitary thing for me - but the clubs that do group rides here are well known for being super inclusive, involved in the community, very welcoming etc. just not my cup of tea.

i actually felt really bad friday, i yelled at a driver that i thought cut me off dangerously close at a small roundabout. he actually stopped and rolled down his window, and after discussing for a moment i realized that although it seemed to me he turned in front of me, i was actually entering the roundabout and he was already in it. the road i was on was tangent to it so it didn’t seem like a turn. i apologized and he apologized (he admitted he didn’t even see me), no harm done. sometimes people make the wrong snap judgement. he had florida plates, obviously on a long trip.

Glad you guys worked it out. Way too much anger and road rage happening out there. Cooler heads prevail.

 

[Gionnirocket]

Maybe it’s a regional thing. I can’t take any of this too seriously.

I was a mountain biker, motorcyclist and roadie all at the same time. Most of the roadies that I have known ride in multiple disciplines, just ask Petr Sagan..

Around here, our roads are far from smooth and riding well in a pace line, high winds, traffic, rain or descending at high speeds takes good bike handling skills.

There are always some grumpy or elitist types, but I have never known roadies to be any less friendly and welcoming than any other cyclist. Our group or training rides were always fun, (that goes even more for charity rides).

If we are the ones bashing an entire type of cyclist, I have to ask, who’s the elitist?

I think this is all said with a bit of humor towards a stereotype.
But with all stereotypes.. there is some foundation to it.