Growing hostility towards Mountainbikers and Cyclists

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Although social media can be a force for good, it can like the fipside of the coin be used for bad. Unfortunately, it also gives a voice and a platform to those who in the past before the internet would never have been able to publicly manifest their crazy bad thoughts as if they were the norm.
 
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My family are really getting into weekend riding, kid loves it, wife getting into it now I have fettled her bike. These nut jobs never think in their red mist of hate, what could happen to innocents. Things like this could really put less determined riders off for good. I know lots of people who won't ride on the roads anymore, as they can't take the insults and yelling 'get off the road' from moronic drivers.
 
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My neighbour has got bikes for his young son, daughter and himself. They won't ride on the roads but take the bikes in the car to a park then ride around the park. I can understand why as there's too many bling 4x4s being driven by people with one hand on the wheel and the other clamping a phone to their ear, for one of many examples.

Many people where I work can't comprehend how I manage to deal with the traffic and cycle to work. Many people just don't get why I love riding either.

Moronic in general is more prevalent now. And I've lost count of the "get off the road" or "my road, not yours" shouts. However, I will not give in and be intimidated off my bike and off the road, no matter how close people try to drive at me. It's my road too, I help to pay for it. They belong to all of us, no matter how you use them, or who you are.
 
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Before I took a break from cycling back in 2000 or so I had never heard anyone say "get off the road". It's not worth doing 20 yrs inside for, so I'm 99% off road now and I love it. Wonder what S Khan will do for London cycling now. There should be a regular TV campaign to improve awareness and attitudes but I guess the EU needs UK tax payers £55 Million every day more than we do.
 
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May be we Khan... http://lcc.org.uk/articles/good-news-sa ... or-cycling

I think the "get off the road" attitude might be a relatively recent development like in the past half dozen years or so, possibly. I can't pin point as yet how or why. May be it was too many years of Top Gear, seeping into the general psyche. May be it's the accelerated pressures and expectations of modern life. May be somethings gone wrong in driving tuition in the past 15 years. I don't know. There's certainly many sheep-like people walking into the roads who could benefit from having the 'Green Cross Code' drilled into them. The thing with the much mis-maligned EU is that it actually pays out generously to areas and sectors in the UK – providing the funding, grants and investment which our very own Westminster 'gravy trainers' should be doing instead. Also, much of the so called EU 'dictat' of rules and regs supposedly being imposed on Britain by Brussels is actually mythical – the real problem lies in how Whitehall functions and misinterprets then imposes rulings on us. Plus the dubious creative musings of sections of the press reinforces negative images, like they do with us bikers. With the forthcoming referendum, voters just do not have the honest facts from either side of the argument to be able to make an informed decision. We'e being asked to make a decision based on irrational notions. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... referendum To be honest, I'm now seriously considering a relocation to somewhere on the continent where cycling culture is warmly embraced. I don't particularly fancy the chances of an isolated UK governed by Trump and Boris. Dangerous clowns.
 
In a twist of irony, that article bore the sh*t out of me. An overly-long ego-whinge about someone unable to find the time to ride because he had kids but keen to blame it on the fact that some aspects of cycling have changed in the last ten years - he's the kind of guy who immediately stops liking a band once they achieve any kind of recognition from the greater public or start having any sort of success.

I get it, all the guys who go out and drop £3k on carbon road bikes and Rapha kit aren't real cyclists, they don't even know the joy of riding a cheap hybrid across the South Downs with a close friend fuelled only by home-made flapjack and local ale. But they are cyclists, and due to the fact that there are a lot more of them the infrastructure is improving, there is increased exposure in the media pushing cycling away from being the fringe activity it once was which will hopefully lead to more safety in numbers and hey, it's better than our ageing, bloating nation sitting at home watching Game of Thrones or toddling round the golf course.

As mentioned before on this thread, my experience of cycling daily through London is markedly different to some of the other contributors - maybe I'm doing it wrong - but the pernicious chant of 'Danger! Danger!' does nothing to improve our lot, we need more people out on their bikes, not less, scared away by things they've read on the internet.
 
^^^^^This.

I have lurked on the thread for a while, but am getting increasingly annoyed by the 'real cyclist' snobbery that seems to abound.

I like 'The Rules' as much as the next roadie. and I have a Velomenati log in; a fat man on a Pinarello Dogma and a Sky team kit is no different to the guy with a Ducati 1098 who never gets his knee down.

Too much BS & static.

Do you ride?
Are you courteous?
Do you encourage others to ride by your words and example?
Do you support your LBS?

If you get 4 yes' then you are a cyclist.
 
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groovyblueshed":3mv5munp said:
you know, it's just isn't what it used to be...

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... of-cycling


I've read this and posted somewhere here earlier and there is a bit of a smatter of a 'something' missing in cycling. Maybe it was the atmosphere of the late 1980's early 90's, music, drugs, music, drugs and the drugs Did I mention the music?

It does feel a bit corporate and monetized. Gone is the slightly chaotic mtb-er, sans helmet, sans lycra clattering by enjoying themselves in jeans & a tee. These kids have grown up man, they're the 'system' now. Did I mention the drugs? I did? Oh, sorry.
 
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