We are cyclists, the rest of the world merely rides a bike. What defines us as cyclists? Can a recumbent rider be a cyclist, a unicyclist, a fat recumbent rider with hairy legs and a YJA on? I think yes but am I snob for even asking?
Years ago, I was helping a woman at another research institution set up some scientific equipment. Evidently we kept our small talk very small because it never came up that she was the wife of a cyclist friend, Paul. I had ridden with this guy many times, he used to race a lot, and he always put in his miles. Eventually, he and I put it together that I had been working with his wife.
“She didn’t think you were cyclist, as you didn’t have shaved legs.”
Boom, lightening struck, really, that’s the requisite? I had dabbled in racing fleetingly and shave up for it but unless one was somewhere in the spectrum between racer and ex-racer, I thought it was almost false advertising to shave the legs. I rode nearly as much as Paul, I was probably more obsessed with professional european cycling than he was. Actually, I had to have been a lot more obsessed than him, he had a PhD and could not spend his lunch break cloistered in his office reading Cycling News online, every day, could he? Was I not a cyclist too?
In the 1970s at a big college where I knew no one, I became best friends with a fellow misfit, Mark. He had raced on the boards through his high school years, racing at the outdoor velodrome in Northbrook, Illinois. The Chicago area must have been a hot bed of American cycling back then. High school youth with too much energy could channel it into track racing on bikes when it was warm and track racing on speed-skates when it was cold. We bonded over Jimi, not Eddy but he had a huge poster of Eddy Merckx in his dorm room. I had never seen that before. I dare say he worshiped Eddy. He agonized over still referring to himself as a track racer, though he had not raced in two years. I didn’t understand at the time how important a question this was to him. It was his identity. Let’s see, you haven’t raced in a long time, and you have a bong in your hand, you might not be a bike racer anymore, I thought, but I didn’t get it. He was still a cyclist.
It was his unbridled enthusiasm for bikes and cycling that opened my eyes. He understood a whole universe I was unaware of and even though we were the same age, he became my sensi.
We both dropped out of school that year and the sensi began his work. His Campagnolo-ed up Frejus road bike was always spotless. He taught me by example only, everything about looking fantastic on the bike. He was the one who insisted we take apart my brand new, as yet unridden Peugeot PX-10 down to the ball bearings and rebuild it properly. He was a Velominati long before there were Velominati. As a sad endnote to this, Mark died in his sleep in his early twenties; some cruel syndrome that kills young healthy men for no known reason. One of his track jerseys has always hung deep in my closet. It remains, as the idea of discarding it is still impossible.
So what makes us cyclists instead of just bike riders? Is it love? Does loving to ride any wheeled (I’m not unicyclist phobic) machine do it? Is it the need to ride where we cross the line? If riding defines us and we are good with that, then we are cyclists.
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@antihero Agree entirely. It's not what you ride, but how you ride it that defines a cyclist. A city courier doing 200+ miles a day on his filthy fixie, jumping lights, cycling on the pavement and shouting abuse at other road users is not a cyclist. The busy dad or mum who can only afford a couple of hours at the weekend and looks forward to the ride all week, keeping their bike and kit clean and tries to follow the rules is a cyclist.
What a great question! I believe that there needs to be a certain amount of obsessiveness to truly be a cyclist as we generally define it around here, This past weekend I rode 160 kms in Door County, Wisconsin. A marvelous ride in every respect. Thousands of riders participate over the various distances. All rode bicycles. Were all cyclists? Hard to say. I think many would say they "rode their bike" rather than "I'm a cyclist." I think many would honestly admit that there's a difference between the 28 and 50 mile riders and the 100 mile folk (like me) on their expensive bikes with all the kit.
I know the word snob comes up around here too to describe our attitudes to those less OCD about all things cycling, and Merckx knows rule violations were as common on the ride as blades on grass on a football pitch, but you know what, for some participants, riding 28 or 50 miles was a bigger accomplishment for them than the 100 was for me. They're wildly out of shape, ride badly maintained bikes and have awful positions and poor clothing choices. But you know what? They literally got off their asses and rode and for that I give them huge props. Are they cyclists? I still don't know, but they're doing something on two wheels and that is a good start.
What a great question. I "am" cycling.
It is my transport. It is my hobby. It is my watercooler conversation. It is my drug. My lover. My worst enemy. My comfort, and my pain.
When friends or colleagues are shopping for bikes or need bike related advice, it's me they come to. A holiday a year is devoted to at least one cycling event and one family cycling activity.
When I'm in my shed, it's my bikes I stare longly at. When I'm on my lunch hour, it's here and Cyling News I click on.
When I pass other cyclists, regardless of rule violations, age, gender or bike, I wave and smile and say "Hello". For they are cyclists too.
I ride therefore I am.
It's not what you ride or even how you ride, it's WHY you ride.
A cyclist is someone who rides just to ride. Because they enjoy cycling. Someone who didn't have to ride, but did.
Commuters are not cyclists per se and people riding to the shops are not cyclists. They may be cyclists by other activities, but these acts don't give them that status.
Professional cyclists are just that - professional cyclists. They probably were cyclists when they were young but if it's just your job and you wouldn't be riding otherwise then no you're not automatically a cyclist.
It's like being a tourist. If you live there, if you are there on business, or visiting relatives, or hiding in a witness protection program, you aren't a tourist. If you're there to enjoy it, you're a tourist.
I thought being a cyclist was about dogmatic adherence to The Rules...
@Kupepe I admire your dedication. My trainer mysteriously disappeared a few moves back. I am not too sad because I could hardly manage myself while riding using it, plus it gets me outside to exercise even in worse weather. Just yesterday I had no time to ride (I wasn't willing to wake up early enough to get out) so I had to settle for another unnamed form of outdoor exercise with my 16 month old daughter. It was great.
@wiscot
That's right on the money. No one should ever be looked down on for merely "riding a bike." Those people deserve plenty of credit because, unlike most of their follow citizens, they were out doing something physical instead of sprawled on their asses glued to a TV.
@VeloSix
Really. I hate to think how many carbone wheel units would go into paying for therapy sessions. What a waste, what a waste.
@Kupepe
Owning a red Colnago Super, you have met the definition already, I would say. Only a cyclists would own a that. Chapeau for getting on it inside, three times a week.