“Cyclists” Are Dicks.
by wjohngalloway
Great things are afoot in the cycling world. Scotty has been more than ably commenting on it on The Velocast Journal (still feels weird seeing content from Velocast without an [S] or [J] involved). However, whilst the great and the good get on with the business of Professional Cycling I’m going to talk about matters closer to home. Demographically as much as Geographically.
I’m lucky enough to live in Peebles, the jewel in the crown of The 7 Stanes. Home of world class mountain biking trails and gateway to road routes that are as good as anything available in the UK. A cyclist’s paradise.
A honeypot. A flytrap. If it’s on two wheels and self powered it’ll make it’s way to Peebles.
“Aye, there’s the rub”
I started in bicycle retail at a time when if you were engaged enough to visit a shop like The Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative as it was in then, as opposed to the hugely successful retail behemoth it is now, then I’d give you the benefit of the doubt. I am notably intolerant (ask Scotty) but if you walked through those doors I had something in common with you. We were cyclists. Simplistic? Yes but generally true.
Commuter? Cyclist.
Tourer? Cyclist.
Mountain biker? Trailblazer and cyclist, often a mountaineer or hillwalker as well.
Racer? Cyclist.
etc, etc,
These groups weren’t mutually exclusive, usually any given customer spanned two or three of these facets of enjoying the bike.
However at some point mountain biking moved from a thing cyclists did to an “extreme” sport/pastime. I know this is a sweeping generalization and that most of the folk who are taking the trouble to read this grumpy old man rant are folk I would have enjoyed having as customers back in the day but the shift happened.
Let’s take a wee trip back in time.
The approach to the outdoors drummed into me as a young ‘un can be neatly encapsulated in the phrase “Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints” (may be a Steppenwolf lyric)
Backpacking? If you carry it in then carry it out. Leave no avoidable trace.
Climbing? Same deal.
Cycling? Ditto.
So, why am I angry today? Well it’s been a week of disappointment for me. As my two collies and I wander the hills around Peebles we cover every kind of terrain from remote, narrow trails through unfrequented forests to the cycling skateparks of The 7 Stanes. Here’s this week’s observations.
Monday: Glentress. Came back from a two hour walk with a rucsac full of discarded juice bottles, crisp bags, discarded energy gels………..
Tuesday: Plora. Two discarded inner tubes. Damn tasty for a deer I’d think.
Wednesday: Harehope. A good day, only rubbish I saw was a discarded condom wrapper. Kudos for some obscure outdoor nookie! ;o)
Thurday: Nether Stewarton forest. Delicate bog plants ripped apart by mountain bike tyre tracks, damage to small paths caused by resultant tyre rut drainage channels.
Friday: Glentress again, more litter.
Today: Saw a road cyclist run onto the verge by a car carrying a Giant XTC and an Anthem. Saw a Peebles town centre road blocked by a Golf with three hardcore bikes on the rack. The occupants had gone for chips. Last year I mentioned on the Velocast how, whilst out on the road bike, I’d been given the finger and run off the road by a car which had a Commencal and a Santa Cruz on the back.
Bottom line? We’re a community here and you no doubt share my disgust but for the normal man in the street? These folk are “cyclists” and damage the land, litter and generally behave like dicks and we’re all tarred with the same brush. These arseholes affect us all and the bicycle advocates can have all of the “interesting debates” they want amongst themselves but it wont make a jot of difference to how we’re treated.
A Velocast title from last year. “The Battle is Lost in Britain”
as a person who covers the uk with there work i see this sort of stuff far to often new breed cyclists with no respect for the environment or other riders which to me i feel is quite sad. Also not obeying the rules of the road (highway code) car drivers just as bad some times but energy gel wrappers etc just tossed in to the road stick it in your bloody pocket and get rid in nearest bin its not hard….
forgot to mention mule bar have developed biodegradable gel wrappers but still think you should take your litter home or chuck it in bin on route…if your worried about getting jersey sticky carry a plastic bag
Here in the states, it’s the same. It’s almost as if riders think someone will come by and pick up their crap for them. Don’t even get me started on “driving skills.” And whatever happened to other cyclists waving? Are you that involved with blasting through a training ride (and not simply enjoying The Ride) for the Tour de Whatever that you can’t simply say hello to a fellow cyclist? Please….
This is all a sign that cycling is becoming a mass participation pastime in my opinion. The same ills that beset society are reflected. Lack of respect for your surroundings as a pedestrian dropping litter in a town translates to dropping litter when on the bike. It’s a bigger problem than just cyclists dropping litter and having no respect for those around them. The more cycling crosses demographic boundaries the more anti-social behaviour we will see whilst on our bikes. It is up to all right minded people to challenge those dropping litter, whether on a bike or off it.
The man I see commuting every morning to the industrial estate is not a dick, nor are the people I drive past (burn the heretic!) as they cycle to the local Morrisons Distribution Centre. These in my view are the real cyclists these are people who cycle because it is a practical (only) option to allow them to get to work. These are the people who use bikes because “its a method of walking faster” (c) John Galloway.
Where I do agree with John is that lots of leisure cyclists are dicks. I’ve had close encounters with cars who have bike roof racks. I have seen the trail of litter from a local cyclo sportive, not many of the cycle commuters near me consumer energy gels.
However the problem here is generalisation in the eyes of the general public. Cyclists are considered by most people to be a homogenous group therefore the litter dropping mountain bikers, the badly parked cars and the occasional red light jumper all affect cycling’s wider image. As leisure cycling becomes more popular I can only see the problem getting worse.
Exactly Andy. It’s all about how cyclists are perceived and we’ll all be judged alike.
Sadly it’s not cyclists, but humans. Not all of them, but a small minority. Oh, and a sexually active deer who uses condoms.
I wouldn’t necessarily agree with the “community” bit, John. I think there is indeed a large group of riders united through the miracle of social media, etc and there’s a tendency for us to think that anyone who’s “properly” into cycling sees themselves as part of something bigger. Beyond that bubble, tho’, I suspect the “me me me” part of human nature prevails. I along with several others tried a few years ago to get Scottish mtb-ers more involved with what became the Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland agenda and it was met largely with apathy. “So what? I just want to ride my bike.” And how often in the last couple of years have you been tempted to staple a cyclist colleagues’ head to a desk when they’ve asked you “so what’s a podcast then?”
The growth in “leisure” cycling is A Very Good Thing Indeed but I don’t think it’s a case of cyclists being dicks: more that dicks are getting on bikes. The people who discard gel wrappers or inner tubes at a trail centre or on country roads are probably just as likely to drop McDonalds cartons or other litter on their local high street.
The everyone-can-(Sky) ride-a- (Boris) bike headlines are great but nobody is speaking about the responsibility associated with it. Perhaps all the promotional stuff by the industry, health authorities, etc should come with an asterisk: human decency still applies.