Cycling cool/uncool?

[dbmtb]

People who don't think cycling is cool are so uncool so therefore unqualified to have an opinion on the matter.

That really should be the last thing that needs saying in this thread.

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

I'm the most uncool person in the history of anything vaguely fashionable. I don't care what people wear, and care even less what others think of my attire and mode of transport.

Anyone who lets the perception of others rule their decision making isn't worthy of consideration anyway.

 

[Magsy]

As an MTB'er but not roadie I think a few things really... I have a roadie next to me in work, fresh back from some stupid hard climbing stage of the Tour, so I've tried to figure it all out via him.

Why? Why go out and cycle 100 miles? I don't really see the buzz, where is the thrill? It's just fecking hard work? I fully apprecaite the difficulty, it is something I cannot do, you have my admiration but it doesn't explain it to me.

Why the lycra, why oh why the lycra? I work in a government building and people are wearing lycra to work; something wrong with shorts? You are not in a race, it is like amateur swimming in a full body suit at the local pool :roll:

As you lighten the bike it looks more and more femine, most boys dream of MX bikes and road bikes are too skinny. Average joe does does not see the tech or appreciate the workmanship.

I do understand the hobby side of it, lovely things to tinker with but I'll never understand the personal challenge that most people seem to enjoy.

I think of it a bit like motorbikes, for me they are sportbikes only, get up on a Sunday and carve your way through the hills on the edge of death. Pansying about on your unfaired 'sport' tourer with a high vis vest just doesn't do it for me, I don't understand that; all the risk of two wheels but none of the (real) fun. Get a convertible

I reckon it is just a sneaky way of getting away from the wife for a whole day

 

[barry2017]

Make up your own mind about cool or not cool.

 

[suburbanreuben]

I don't really see the buzz, where is the thrill? It's just fecking hard work?

I work in a government building

I'll never understand the personal challenge that most people seem to enjoy.

I bet you're glad you've got that off your chest.

 

[NeilM]

You think that cyclists we are perceived as gay, you wanna try telling people you ride a horse :shock:

I get a number of pleasures from my bikes: I like the challenge of riding harder, faster, up steeper hills, over longer distances etc, and of becoming fitter and stronger with each ride. I enjoy the mechanical aspects of bikes, the fact that they are machines that I can create and customise and tinker with. Lastly, I enjoy the trails, bridleways and countryside along with the fun of riding with family, friends or people I am meeting for the first time from this forum.

I think the tour will encourage a lot of people to consider cycling again (which has got to be a good thing), the challenge, for us all, is to keep them within cycling for the long term.

 

[silverclaws]

I don't give a flying F***, what people think when I am out on my purple bike, when I am out on my bike I am proud to be out on my retro bike. A bike that still climbs past modern off road bikes and roadies and out runs modern atb's on tarmac. I ride a compromise machine not especially good at anything, but it does me.

Cool/ !uncool I am not interested

 

[widowmaker]

I dont think cycling will ever be widely classed as cool by the masses, but they are just that the masses :roll:

When i leave my house clad in all my cyling gear (although it is far from 100% full on lycra), my neighbours look at me like i am as crazy as a soup sandwich. Some i have spoken to just cant understand what makes me choose to ride 20/30/40 + miles around the Dorset hills in all weathers when i own a car, they just dont get it at all :roll:

Cycling is the only time when everything else thats going on in my life just dissapears , i find myself combating the steepest hill and screaming in triumph at the top of my voice on the way down just like being 10 again

And some of the damn nicest people i have ever met have been through cycling, only this afternoon i cycled to a local church event and got talking to a cycling nut who saw my bike

 

[highlandsflyer]

Hell yes! Eternally cool.

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

ergo cycling is cool

Well I appreciated the pun.