Bike snobbery? Let's hear some views

Will Snow

ok, this probably wont go down well, but who thinks there is a certain amount of snobbery in our sport nowadays??? i.e. people more concerned about what they ride, and comparing it to others?? and, is it related to how much the bike cost???

clas

bit difficult this my bike cost £1000
I dont think there is that much snobbery. I always like to see a bit of bike porn and will dribble over it but it doesnt make the rider any better, and I have often been blitzed by people on cheaper bikes. its just that they are better riders.
Once people realise that the bike is only 10-20% of the speed/ skill and if you put Gee Atherton or Sam Hill on a fully rigid he will still blow them into the weeds even if they are on a world cup bike, they accept that maybe riding is a hobby that they enjoy. they dont have to be great at it!
It is often (but not always) the younger riders (late 20's) who want to prove they are best and get all snobbish about the bike they or other people ride.
Most people I meet let their riding do the talking and are pleasant cheery company.

Matteeboy

I touched on this a while back and received a mighty barrage of stroppy replies.

We have a £1200 Stumpjumper, a £600 Rockhopper, a very old but still brilliant £800 Stumpjumper and a pretty knackered old thing.

Apart from the last one, all are superb fun and I'm really not sure if the £1200 Stumpy is TWICE as good as the £600 Rockhopper - they just excel in different areas.

I have a mate who is a superb rider - pretty much no one can keep up with him when he's riding his £200 old dog of a bike. Even high level racers.

However expensive bikes LOOK so damn nice 8)

dav1

perhaps a bit but then again we all know that you get what you pay for in MTB. Also i have never seen people come out with "your bike costs less then £1000 thus you are below me"

z000m

theres snobbery in all forms of biking, but i always thought it was more down to what an individual wore not how much their bike cost. guys in jeans usually snigger at guys in lycra and vice versa. ill be honest if im riding my motorcycle and i wear all the protective gear and some other person comes along on his mc isnt wearing protective gear then hes a clown and i will snigger.

clas

Ah yes Matteeboy there was a bit of stick!
However that might have been partly because people did not want to communicate!
I would say that there is very much a snobbery based on the TYPE of riding people do not on their bike.
Dirt jumpers wouldnt P.I.S.S in your ear if your brains were on fire if you were not another dirt jumper
DH'ers hold XC racer types up as slightly risible charachters
XC types look down their noses at DH'ers and everyone else
MTBers are supposed to hate roadies
cyclists dislike motocrossers
bikers dont like car drivers
Welsh dont like the english
everyone hates the germans
if that is snobbery then there is some. but its not your bike its you they dont like!

big_southern_jesse

There is some form of "mine costs more than yours" in every part of life; whether it's your bike, house, holiday, car, shirt or tie!

And generally this is because, in varying ratios, you get a better product for your money. Cycling is one of the areas where it I've never found it to be an issue. I have never felt embarrased or looked down upon because of my bike. And I've never looked up at anyone with more respect because of what they ride.

If I had infinite money, I'd certainly have a lot of bikes, all top of the range, because I enjoy mountain biking and although my bike works, with infinite money I'd certainly upgrade.

However, I don't have infinite money, and just now in my life I have a few things that have a higher priority for my money. So I have a bike that does the job, doesn't cost loads, and I do my best.

In the mean time, my money goes on the house, my wife, windsurfing and sailing.

And if you are looking for snobbery, come along next time I go to Cowes, and moor my little manky old boat next to £2,000,000 worth of plastic fantastic. I've never found anywhere worse for snobbery than some areas of boating. Saying that, other areas are just as welcoming and non-judging as biking.

Face it, there is no bad snobbery in mountain biking, some people just have better kit!

FSR_XC

clas wrote:

XC types look down their noses at DH'ers and everyone else
MTBers are supposed to hate roadies
cyclists dislike motocrossers
bikers dont like car drivers
Welsh dont like the english
everyone hates the germans
if that is snobbery then there is some. but its not your bike its you they dont like!

Hmmm, I must be different:

- I admire anyone that can ride down a mountain with no fear
- Looking to buy a road bike
- I own a MX & ride both
- Got a few cars too & use one to transport my bike
- I can understand this one (was once married to a Welsh girl)
- No, excellent place to visit & if you try, they are very helpful
- Snobbery, yep there's a lot of that about. I'd rather ride a half decent bike well than a top end machine OK.

shin0r

Of course there is an element, just like in any sport or hobby I guess.

Will Snow

i certainly didnt think the voting would go this way, but hey!!! keep the votes coming in, im finding this really interesting.

cee

clas wrote:

Welsh dont like the english
everyone hates the germans

This is a very english view..... the truth of the matter is that everyone hates the english and mostly get on famously with everyone else (yes including the french!)

Seriously.... there is snobbery in cycling. whether its the campag lot going on about it, or the fool with the 4 grand bke that used it twice last year......

I have a specialized hardrock......I get all sorts of sneery looks from some folks on the trails.....until I blast past them on the rocky stuff at glentress and then don't see them again until im finished my macaroni cheese at the hub

z000m

in my opinion trendy bike shops breed cycling snobbery

zero303

Yes and no, I'm happy to splurge a lot on what I want and I'm quite snobby about what I'll ride. On the flip side, I put no pressure whatsoever on anyone else to feel like they or their bike isn't good enough and the essence of the club I help run is exactly that...

If someone wants bike buying advice, I don't suck through my teeth when they say a budget of £200, I just explain what they can get for their money and then point them in the right direction - followed by "see you on the trails this weekend!"

Snobbery isn't just in value of bike though, as above, I don't disrespect peoples choice of bike brand but there's a few that I personally tend to limit my choices too. I am a bike brand snob and an Orange for example will always be top of my shopping list (I know plenty who are just as passionate about them and plenty of others who think we're mad!). Others I know are snobby about only riding less mainstream brands such as Cotic and Cove for example.

To conclude, I'm a bike snob but I only do it in my own home

zero303

in my opinion trendy bike shops breed cycling snobbery

There's one recently featured bristol Bike shop that is accused of this many times over lol

papasmurf.

your bikes are all shite. fact.

breezer

In the wood where I ride with my club it doesnt matter what bike you have. I have never seen anyone make a offensive comment regarding someone elses lesser/cheaper bike. You get all sorts from a few hundred to Yeti 303's or whatever they are called. Last week someone turned up on one of those new Nicolai's with the gearbox, 3.4k for frame alone, lots of interested people nozing over that one!

The only snobbery I see goes the other way, from my friend with a cheap bike who slags me off when he keeps up with me, "oh its not about the bike, your thing cost 2k more than mine but you are no quicker, its only about the rider, why did you waste your money". Strangely he didnt say this when i did him by 10 minutes at a Gorrick XC race in November heh

ashleymp777

Well, what ever makes people happy!

MTB'ing is my only hobby, so why not spend as much as you can on it if it means you enjoy it more! I feel lucky that i can aford relatively decent bits.

Will Snow

papasmurf. wrote:

your bikes are all shite. fact.

would you care to explain that???

big_southern_jesse

papasmurf. wrote:

your bikes are all shite. fact.

That's not just a flame, that's a sodding bonfire!

papasmurf.

Will Snow wrote:

papasmurf. wrote:

your bikes are all shite. fact.

would you care to explain that???

yes..your bike is poo mines better then yours, and my dads bigger then yours also so don't try any funny business

Will Snow

rightttt......................................

im gona guess youve got an amazing point, that will only become apparent after youve told us??? i shall reserve judgement until then

papasmurf.

think maybe you're reading to much into it

zero303

I totally read papsmurf's comment to be sarcastic and meant in jest...

Will Snow

zero303 wrote:

I totally read papsmurf's comment to be sarcastic and meant in jest...

i hope thats what it was... i just expected the punchline before now

dave_s

PapaSmurf is only saying that because he rides a 3 wheeler still along with the other Smurfs.

And he thinks having one extra wheel makes his bike better

Chaka Ping

I think there's more reverse snobbery than actual snobbery of the "your bike is crap therefore you are crap" variety.

So the rider who turns up at the car park in a Range Rover with a spanking new carbon Enduro attached might get a frostier recption than someone with a £500 hardtail on the back of a Ford Fiesta.

On the whole, though, I think the sport is very inclusive and I love seeing kids in the woods on £200 bikes - or older guys on 15-year-old fully-rigid bikes at trail centres - because that's been me in the past.

Matteeboy

Big Southern Jesse wrote:

And if you are looking for snobbery, come along next time I go to Cowes, and moor my little manky old boat next to £2,000,000 worth of plastic fantastic. I've never found anywhere worse for snobbery than some areas of boating. Saying that, other areas are just as welcoming and non-judging as biking.

Face it, there is no bad snobbery in mountain biking, some people just have better kit!

I see this very often in boating too.
Nothing more satisfying than burning off a £500k cruiser in our little 14'6" speedboat (with a 60bhp engine - good for 35 knots) though

Some interesting (and often very funny) points here.
Good thing about biking this way (Cornwall) is that you rarely see other MTBers so snobbery is pointless!
I don't look at the bike, I look at the rider.
I have a mate who rips on any bike - from a £150 Halfords special to a £4k Scott.
I have far more respect for him than some fat wheezy city boy on a £5k superbike, who likes to shout how loaded he is :roll:

teacherman

LOL.

I know some people disagree but...if i could afford to spend £3k on a bike i would. Fact. would i look down on someone because of it? No. Would i feel proud of my bike? Yes.

I went for a ride with aguy i met out on the trails. He was riding a Santa Cruz Blur LT with Chris King, Hope etc, etc bling hanging all over it. Could he ride it? No. I didn't look down on him because of it he'd qualified in his profession, had the cash and wanted to treat himself, so good on him.

I was very, very jealous.

Matteeboy

Hmmm - I don't think that's a healthy attitude at all.
Money talks too much to too many people.

That's part of the reason I like surfing so much - however well off you are, you cannot spend more than say £400 on a board and £250 on a wetsuit. And you get a board for your ability. A beginner simply cannot ride a proper pros board, yet his board will cost the same amount.

Plenty of people earn a fortune yet choose not to throw it all about.
Think of all those blokes maxxing themselves to the eyeballs to run a BMW M3/Boxster/a Rolex/Boss suit/etc that they can't really afford, just so they look "the part."

Same with bikes - I don't give a stuff if someone is loaded or skint. I DO give a stuff about how interesting they are, and how much fun they have and how well they ride.

batch78

I live in Surrey and there seems to be a lot of bike snobbery around here, I've had people blank me after I've said hello and even been verbally abused for whipping past someone on a bike twice the value of mine. Its a sad situation really because I am generally polite to everyone I meet out and about but now sometimes find myself ignoring certain riders based on there bike and clothing, it generally being the lycra clad 30 somethings riding Cannondales etc. Last weekend the only genuine response I got was from two guys on cyclocross bikes!!

p.s Don't try to keep up with crossers, even running close to 50psi on hardpack they could accelerate to twice my speed :oops:

p.p.s Wish I didn't live in Surrey really don't fit in, its all chavs or pompous idiots and real pubs are getting thin on the ground!

pete236

Well, I've not done much riding around other people, mainly off on my own really! But of those that I have come across there have been a few of all sorts.
One or two of the older guys on really nice bikes (£1000 + is a lot of money to me!) looked genuinely happy to see a young teen on a £200 Giant Rincon keeping up with them on an XC trail. I bade them a cheery good morning and one in return!
Another day I was out and met a bloke on an obviously mega bucks bike. Cheery good morning and got blanked in return. He wasn't happy about me keeping up so I passed him!

I reckon the most snobbery has to be among kids, teens etc. The few times I went to the local dirt track and there were others there they completely ignored me. Them with their jump bikes and all the fancy gear - they had no idea!

One thing that is fairly universal is that the people I meet who are dolled up in lycra ignore me. Not all of 'em but mostly. Is it so bad to ride in cheap jeans tucked into your socks? Roll on summer when its shorts and t-shirt no matter who you are! Much better