SoSmellyAir

Teenagers racing one another on Super 73 e-bikes.

botty kayer

City living so......

1. Deliveroo/just eat nobbers on shoddy bikes with illegal ali express motors attached, most have terrible road manners and an aversion to signals and signalling and give the rest of us cyclists a bad name. They usually have no.lights, even if its been dark for hours.

2. As above, they're so numerous and consistently bad they need mentioning twice.

3. Drivers driving while.on the phone.

5. Hire/rent a bike users, piss poor road craft, no knowledge or flagrant disregsrd for the laws of the road, wobbling about like Bambi on ice they look an accident waiting to happen so i give as wide a berth as possible.

4. Terrible quality road surfaces. Craters and potholes everywhere, utilities constantly digging up roads, councils deciding to cut budgets and not maintain roads properly. I've snapped at least 3 saddle rails, buckled wheels and snapped spokes.

5. Punctures, related to the above but also the cities streets are not paved with gold, but with broken glass.

zandoval 

The biggest enemies of my current rides is simply my abilities. I am not the same person I was. It has been a lesson hard learned but I am dealing with it. So I Adapt, Overcome, and Improvise.

Still... Its quite humbling on a climb when I see guys older then me charging on when I am doing the Walk Of Shame...

WaveyGravey

As someone mentioned above, the biggest enemy to the Road bike cyclist is cars and trucks. The rest will not likely result in death.

TomM

McDonalds
Beer
Dominoes

skidder

1. Sloth
2. Procrastination
3. Indifference

All three of those seem to become the 'norm' when you retire.

jonathanf2

These are the top car brands with the worst drivers while on a bike:

1. BMW
2. Tesla
3. Hyundai
4. KIA
5. Any overlander vehicle that has worn down off-road tires from too much "mall" crawling. The overlanders with bike racks are the good ones.

AndyJoK

Ill play

Id say most of them are typcialy fine for me. Esp if I have the right bike for the job. Though since moving and selling off some of my beaters, I ride less in the rain and snow. So I guess that would be one of them. Another being roads/traffic. I live in a less cycling friendly area than I have in the past, more cars and more highways and no real country to ride out to unless its a long long ride. I never have time for those anymore.

I think the other one a few folks have already mentioned. Life moves on, things change and boy have I lost a good amount of my fitness. That I think would be my biggest with the others as deterrents

But I still can dream!

Frkl

This is the exactly wrong mentality. I actually enjoy riding in snow, rain, cold, heat, at night, on poor surfaces, and actually in traffic. I like climbing. And if I don't want to deal with them, then I don't. They aren't enemies, they are just so.

Jedneck

Hills
under fueling
rest

as a 200# i am slow going up. But will diesel up anything. Or try to.

as a commuter 6 days/week for 188 miles total rest n fueling are my 2 biggest enemies

Chuck M 

I don't actually get a high number of flats. But a flat will at least delay me.

indyfabz

IKR. I’ve had several of those in one day while touring.

freeranger

Kamikaze squirrels!!

Steve B.

- Rain. Will not ride if it’s raining and don’t like it if it starts when I’m out
- Wind. Today as example, forecast said W at 17. Except it was windier then that, then they said 20, then 20 gusting to 30. I was just getting blasted so turned around and called it a day. When they say “20” it’s really more like 25 with gusts.
- Rush hour. Will try to be home and not road riding after 2:30 or so as that’s when rush hour gets going with parents picking up their lazy children who don’t know how to walk home from school,
- Cold, Not happy below 35 on a road bike, below 20 on the mt bike.
- Heat, not liking over 86 or so.

rsbob 

Nuclear blast or cell phones

NVFlinch 

1. Expansion freeze/thaw cracks, hundreds of 'em in our neighborhood. Catch your skinny road tires for sure! Why can't they fix 'em?
2. Expansion cracks after they 'fix' them, heaping a ridge of smoking asphalt along the crack.
3. Chevy cargo vans....and physical therapy...'nuff said.

VegasJen

I have a reputation here as a flat magnet. After much cajoling, I finally took the tubeless plunge a couple months ago. Went out today for only the 3rd or 4th time since converting my tri bike to tubeless. The plan was a 60 mile training ride, preparing for IMAZ in November. Made it 48 miles. I was 8 miles past my 2nd turn-around point when I could tell the front tire didn't feel right. Pulled over and sure enough, saw lots of orangy-white goo bubbling out of the tire right on the side wall. I did have a plug kit but no bueno. Had to make the "damsel in distress" call.

Kabuki12

I hear you ! Last August I broke my hip and had to have 3 screws installed. I have been back on my bike since December , riding short rides . Recently I am increasing the length of my rides but , honestly at this point , not sure if I will ever be what I was before . Plus , I will be 70 this year . I am still pushing , did a couple of 40 milers and a canyon climb. I didn’t have to walk but it hurt like heck afterwards. Joe

BTinNYC 

Weather, mostly. If cars and people bothered me I'd probably live somewhere else.

The Chemist

For me, it's inattentive drivers, salmon (especially at night in the rain), and poorly synchronized traffic lights (especially if said traffic lights have really long cycle times). I can deal with pretty much everything else

wheelreason

Krispy Kreme, Mission BBQ, Nathan's franks, Wendy's Baconator....

NVFlinch 

Hey, enough of that kind of talk! You'll make it back. Keep up whatever physical therapy exercises you were prescribed, as in do them religiously. I smashed my pelvis last fall and am back on the bike. Oh, and I'm a bit older than you, youngster!

ScottCommutes

The best thing about this list of enemies is that they can't all get you at the same time!

Kabuki12

That's great! Gives me hope , thank you!

DangerousDanR

I fell on ice and went down hard. Really hard. That was in November 2022. Broke my femur in a couple of places. I got a titanium ball and rod down my femur.

Followed the PT to the letter. At one month I was on a stationary bike. At 2 months I was on a real bike. By June I was riding sixties. Did a century ride by the end of the summer.

I still have a fair amount of pain. Back in physical therapy and working on it. But I can ride five hours a day without too much trouble.

I was 66 when this happened. So, good luck and get cracking.