Put a motor on a bike and boy to people act differently

I've seen a lot of people talk about the spandex crowd and I've really started noticing that once you put a motor on a bicycle you start to shift towards the leather crowd. I've had cyclists range from the "I just don't understand" head shake to refusing to let me pass to coming right out and saying "Why don't you just get a motorcycle?". Just once I heard a "That is so cool!" but that was from a teenage kid on a bike.

I'm getting a whole different reaction from the biker crowd, just about every biker that passes me gives me a thumbs up or a wave and I never got that just pedaling. A while back I noticed a Harley coming up behind me as I turned a corner, watched him close the distance between us in my mirror and expected him to pass but he didn't. The guy matched my speed and just sat off my back wheel for about a mile or so and and I halfway expected him to wave me over but he never did. When he finally did pass he gave me a thumbs up as he went by.

I just think it's funny how 66ccs of raw Chinese power makes us more "biker" then cyclist.

i totally agree. i ride around PCH (pacific coast highway) near the beach, and on the weekends, it's a madhouse of spandex. nice wide, smooth highway with a bike lane. passing 20 guys with 5 thousand dollar bikes...

i've had them weave out in front of me, flip me off, try to chase me down, scowl...

i don't get it. i give them plenty of room, i don't cut them off, i pretty much just ride around them, but they still hate me. (and they don't even know me. then they'd really hate me...)

one of these days, i'm gonna motorize a road bike, dress up in spandex with a big pointy speed helmet, and cruise alongside of them...

Don't ya know?

Bicycles are the new religion, spandex the robes of the initiated - they pedal to purge the sins of excess.

HEATHEN! How dare you have fun on a bike? o.o

So that's why they ride barefoot with sharpened Sylvan pedals! lol

i,ve been riding motorcycles for years ( yamaha cruiser bikes ) , and there's always been issues between the ( jap riders ) and the ( harley riders ) . this spandex crowd thing just sounds too funny and too familiar . but i must say most of the spandex riders i,ve run into ( not even when i,m on a bike ) , are quite snobbish .

if they are so worried about aerodynamics , maybe they should deflate their heads a few psi . surely they would gain at least 10mph

actually , next time you run into a spandex rider , put your finger on his nose and press lightly .

see if it makes that PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH sound

Its true though that not all spandex ppl are snobs, I've met a fair share of those that were fun to talk to - but these were "partials". It seems that if they have the full gear its a given that they'll give you "the eye" every time however. o_O

Maybe spandex makes you cranky? I suppose in all fairness I'd be too - dressed like that, its gotta be... snug.

I guess I've earned the snotty looks though, gawd knows how many times I've had a smirk, smokin' a cig as I pass some poor SOB puffin' his way up a hill.

I don't think he can hear my evil chuckle over the two-stroke... prolly not... but he knows MUhahaha

Holy Cow,
..Almost fell off my chair laughing... BarelyAWake, that was a riot.
and the thing is I know it's true.

Alajoyn

In every hobby I've ever been involved with there have been different factions that war with each other. With hot rods it's the fenders verses the fenderless crowd or the trailered verses the drivers. R/C model airplanes: Scale against the pattern bunch or the racers squabling with the sport flyers. Bikes: pedalers verses the motor guys. I think its just human nature to look down on the next guy just because he does things a bit different. Or, like Mick Jagger said, "He can't be a man because he doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me...I can't get no..."
Tom

__________________
Age and Treachery Will Always Triumph
Over Youth and Skill

Funny thing is I was coming up on a "spandex" yesterday, he had to be hard core because I know if I wasn't enjoying my ride because to the weather he really wasn't enjoying his, I'm closing on him as we come to a hill and he decides to make a sprint. Now this road had a good 4' of paved shoulder beyond the white line and this jerk decides to make his uphill sprint in the middle of the road! There was about 6 cars backed up by the time we get to the top and he finally gets back over and lets the cars pass.

I actually looked this guy right in the face as I pass him, I shake my head and I KNOW he understood me when I mouthed " what an a-hole".