Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
If I ride with some people and don't wear spandex, I'll get some harassing. If I ride with other people and do wear spandex, I'll get some harassing. I'm pretty sure a lot of those people are kids who wished they were the cool kids in high school, don't really understand what was going on, and are desperately trying to act like they're part of how they perceived the "cool" crowd.
Some of these guys who have tried to give me crap...they always seem to be the out-of-shape guys who bought a $5,000 bike but have trouble keeping up with an 18mph average. The wannabee's. I don't think I've ever gotten crap from a guy who's actually good at biking. Will probably happen eventually, but that's how it's been so far.
People giving you crap for showing up with a bike that's in disrepair can make sense. Or if you lack tools to fix a flat. Or what you're wearing or riding doesn't match the ride - jeans on a hot day on a high speed ride probably aren't going to be good. Neither are fat knobby tires on an "A" ride, then expecting the group to slow down for you.
But "oh noes you aren't wearing quite the right shoes in my opinion" always seems to come from wannabees.
The mild harrassing I get is from friends. That just means they like me. I get teased by other riders for having a bell on my bike, my cheap gawdawful HiVis jerseys, and a few other quirks. Most of the teasing comes from guys who've done a century under 5 hours (elapsed). It's all good fun.
I had a discussion with a 75+ year old guy who had started cycling that year. He had a lot of trouble with slipping and clipping in with his clipless road shoes/pedals and had a few falls. Almost all of his riding was city streets with frequent stops, or on the MUP. I suggested that he might find MTB shoes/pedals easier to deal with; but he wanted to look cool like the young guys do. He's an adult and can make his own decisions.