Are you a cyclist?

Why do you cycle?

  • Because it's now cool

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • I'm no good at team sports

    Votes: 2 5.1%
  • I can't catch, throw, kick or hit a ball

    Votes: 8 20.5%
  • I don't like people

    Votes: 20 51.3%
  • I can't afford a car

    Votes: 4 10.3%
  • Because it makes me attractive to other people

    Votes: 4 10.3%

  • Total voters
    39
  • Poll closed .

ededwards

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Sitting at home sulking at having destroyed the taper on a Dura Ace 7400 crank (non drive side in 175 in case anyone has a spare), blustery rain hitting the window, I pondered on why I cycle. And more importantly, what is a cyclist? I can be as pedantic as the next man (note to self: person would probably be more appropriate), indeed I'd be disappointed if I wasn't much better than most, but I don't want a dictionary definition of "cyclist" as I can Google that myself. No, I want something more erudite, personal even.

What does being a cyclist actually mean? I don't know but I'm pretty much certain that I'm not one. Sure, I ride a bike and for all sorts of purposes. But that makes me a cyclist in the same way as writing some self-serving shit on the Internet makes me a published author. I've friends who meticulously set up their bikes, measure everything to the mm, use a plumb bob. They also weigh their food, have strategic fluid intake strategies and spreadsheets to record all manner of scientific data. I think they may be cyclists. But then I can ride past them up hills. Merckx is a cyclist. Boardman is a cyclist. Wiggins is not. This is clearly far more complicated and nuanced than it first appears.

There is only one scientific way to resolve - using the collective wit and wisdom of the internet. So, why do you cycle?

Disclaimer: this is clearly a bit of fun (although the fact that there is a disclaimer probably means not clearly enough) so please try to keep answers in that spirit
 
For me a cyclist is one that does it for love. Not just as a means of transport. Some idiot with no lights, jumping red lights and riding on the pavement while wearing black clothes and jeans isn't a cyclist. I have several hobbies. I kitesurf, play cricket, and cycle. I also commute by bike. I don't ride for any of the reasons on the poll. I ride because I enjoy it, and I love bikes, well old ones anyway
 
Dibs on the DS crank pending pics of the taper. :xmas-big-grin:

Seriously though, there's a certain amount of escapism and the journey is better than to arrive.
 
I voted for "i'm not good at team sports" because the real reason I am a cyclist is not on the list: because I just love bikes! (and I stay in shape which is a nice benefit)

From the time I was about seven I have loved bikes. Back then it was a shiny red Schwinn Sting-Ray which I loved so much that I crashed into a parked car because I was looking at the bike rather than at the road. Since then I have been a bike commuter, weekend warrior, bike shop employee and most recently a collector. If I am working on a new build it keeps me up at night thinking about the different way I could put it all together (or maybe I can't sleep because the darn thing is in the bed)

At any rate, other than photography, which is my career, bikes have been a constant in my life and remain a driving force.


Steven
 
I'm not a cyclist, they are roadies or commuters*.
I do neither, I ride offroad, only hitting the road to get to some proper riding and away from the boring stuff and rib yer mates and have some fun. A Biker.

*the proper commuter, all the gear of a roadie but does it just to get to work and back, by choice. Not a teen on a BSO who has no other choice apart from walking.
 
I am not a cyclist. I just enjoy riding bikes, but not in the rain, not competitively, at all. I have no interest in being better or worse than anyone else. I my own small way I have made progress, beaten 'hills' I would never have thought of climbing a year ago, made friends and acquaintances through the commonality of riding and building, but I don't think of myself as a cyclist. More a lover of two wheels.
 
I ride a bike because I always have done, and don't like giving up.

I also hate everybody (pedantically, with a small number of exceptions), so will be voting in your pole, fittingly, although it has precious little to do with why I ride a bike.
 
im a cyclist because cars go against everything I believe in, I put cyclist for my religion in the national census. I also don't like people.
 
Love the freedom it brings. The exercise benefits, feel good buzz. Speed through cities, no parking hastles, scenery, meeting other people, cool retro bikes, cool people. Freaking motorists out by how fast I could go on the road in my youth.
 

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