Diversity in biking

shin0r

How come mountain bikers seem to be almost exclusively white and male?

maximus69

???

grantway

MMMMMMMMMM Best ask me mum had no choice you see

What go away It just maybe that where i ride no B astard can still me bike
and I live in East London for me sins

This has screwed my Sunday

strodey

i start off white, then turn brown after a few miles

DanEvs

Why are motorcyclists all white and male? Have you ever seen a black man in WSB? MOTOGP? WSS?

I worked in a motorcycle dealership for about 8years and we didn't have a single black customer! :shock:

Is it a bike thing???

ddraver

grantway wrote:

MMMMMMMMMM Best ask me mum had no choice you see

What go away It just maybe that where i ride no B astard can still me bike
and I live in East London for me sins

This has screwed my Sunday

I..erm....what?

hucking_fell

There's been a few magazine ads with black riders recently.

Shaums March is a talented and successful mountainbiker.

Father Faff

Well there's plenty of women riding these days and I'm sure more black people will get into it soon enough. It takes time to change cultural trends. I mean if none of your mates go mountain biking and you live in Brixton how likely are you to go mountainbiking? Well it's not impossible coz when I did a bit of work for Brixton Cycles there was also a mean MTB racer called Lincoln who worked there who was as black as I am white.

Northwind

DanEvs wrote:

Why are motorcyclists all white and male?

They're not... But definately the majority. Still, I've seen a lot more women and coloured dudes on motorbikes than on pushbikes. And I live in Edinburgh, one of the whitest cities in the UK (even the white people are whiter than they are in the rest of the country)

The theory used to be that asians and indians especially tend to see bikes as a poor person's method of transport, and also tend to be a bit more into presenting the appearance of affluence. A young british-asian male's more likely to buy an ancient knackered BMW than a citroen saxo, frinstance, because BMWs are flash cars (even when they're ****ed). Whereas cycling is often seen as an admission that you can't afford a car. So it's an aspirational thing.

My mate Debs is a first-gen child of indian immigrants, and when her son asked for a bike she was appalled, she was working hard so that her son could be carried around in a car She gets it now though. Her parents grew up dirt-poor, and their life and a lot of hers have been about getting away from that, not just from poverty but the illusion of poverty.

(this isn't purely an ethnicity thing of course- a lot of americans are the same, the idea of buying a bike when you can afford a car seems like madness, the idea of buying a bike that costs as much as a car even more so, and therefore people who cycle presumably can't afford cars, or are in some interesting way deranged. The same seems to be true of polish immigrants, all the poles on my team think me cycling is hilarious)

Whereas middle class white guys, we tend to be a bit more inclined to buy what we want and to worry less about appearances. Which is why we all dress like idiots and have terrible haircuts, and why young white kids drive clios with HID lights and terrible fibreglass. It's also why I'm not embarrased to be riding a £300 halfords bike in the company of people with £4000 bikes.

thomasali

weeeeel I am half brown, riding-mate-wise one mate is of Portuguese descent so hes a bit brown, another 2 are brown, another is wee a bit brown being from Cyprus, another 3 are white..... I do work/live in the most multicultural area in europe though...... I think the reason you find many MTB riders are white is because most of the population is white really, mainly in big cities you may have higher concentrations of people who have come to the UK from elsewhere. What I have noticed is that customers from Eastern Europe Czech, Russia, Ukraine etc have a much better idea about how much you should spend on a bike, in some of those countries stuff like Challenge, Silverfox, Shockwave etc isnt even allowed to be sold!

johnsav

annoys me that people should even be bothered enough about colour to think of things like this.

Northwind

That's just diversity though isn't it, celebrating difference instead of encouraging conformity. Who wants to live in a world where we're all the same? Monoculture leads to potato blight

xtreem

Because the dream of every black kid is to be a raper.

supertwisted

shin0r wrote:

How come mountain bikers seem to be almost exclusively white and male?

Can't say I've noticed one way or another, but I'm not really a hardcore biker (yet)!.

There was an article, I think, on Countryfile this weekend. It was an editorial peice on the lack of ethnic minority visitors to Britain's country parks, places of natural beauty, historic sites and so on.

I didn't pay a lot of attention, so I'm not sure what their conclusions were, but it came to mind since MTB and those areas tend to go hand in hand.

stumpyjon

That's just diversity though isn't it, celebrating difference instead of encouraging conformity.

Unfortunately it oftens end up highlighting difference which results in a them and us culture. The whole thing pees me off really, why can't we just see everybody else as people. Things would move on a lot quicker if we stopped seeing people as different.

Based on that the original question is very relevant, or could be answered simply with 'some people don't want to ride'.

KB8

I think the thread is valid to a point. But it's just like football, you don't see anybody wearing turbans.

dave_hill

DanEvs wrote:

Why are motorcyclists all white and male? Have you ever seen a black man in WSB? MOTOGP? WSS?

I worked in a motorcycle dealership for about 8years and we didn't have a single black customer! :shock:

Is it a bike thing???

You've obviously never heard of the Cobras, then? They're a patch club whose members are all black.

dave_hill

KB8 wrote:

I think the thread is valid to a point. But it's just like football, you don't see anybody wearing turbans.

Burnley used to have an Asian player, but he was never included in the first team. Can't imagine why in a tolerant, quiet place like Burnley...

KB8

http://bmbu.net/black_mountain_bikers_usa/ you have to shoot somone to become a member

pilsburypie

The inequalities of life eegh? Will we ever see a black president? :?

BOYDIE

Considering that the Majority of the UK population is white,and it also depends where you live a,I must admit hand on heart that ive never seen any body but white folk on bikes in my area,but go down to Glentress and you see folk from all over the UK,and the biking bug spreads all over the culture divide.

passout

I know of a few exceptions to your observation but generally it does seem to be that way. I don't think it's just cycling though - think fell walking, surfing, skiing and lots of other outdoor activities/adventure sports. Something to do with different cultures enjoying different pastimes (as a rule). If you really wanted to know the answer there are lots of books on sport & culture and at least a few papers on sport and race. Happy reading!

Iain C

To the OP...I would disagree about "white and male", as out of the group who I ride with, half are girls. And the bike and clothing companies would not be putting big money into WSD bikes/products if there was not much of a market for it.

Agree with what Passout says though...it does seem that it is generally the white population who like to go out there and get rained on/wet/soggy/dirty/freezing. I do a lot of sailing, and unfortunatly I can't actually think of one non-white person who races dinghies at my club. And yes, we've had all the crap on a discussion forum about it being "exclusive" etc but that it utter bollocks, we welcome all with open arms, boats can be bought for £500, and membership costs a lot less than a gym, or a smoking habit.

Re "race" in any outdoor activity, I think things really are changing, and as bikes and kit get so much better and the sport gets more exciting and accessible with trail centres etc, it can now draw in people who would never have dreamed of it a few years ago. My other half (white, and obviously female!) would never have gone mountain biking in a month of Sundays...she hated cycling and would rather walk, now she has a WSD roadie and a WSD MTB and loves cycling. Go to one of these outdoor superstores like Go Outdoors and you will see many colours and ages buying Gore-tex and tents ready for a weeekend's adventure now.

I wonder if any motorsport forums had "you never see a black F1 driver do you?" even a couple of years ago!

Northwind

Iain C wrote:

To the OP...I would disagree about "white and male", as out of the group who I ride with, half are girls. And the bike and clothing companies would not be putting big money into WSD bikes/products if there was not much of a market for it.

Mmm, that could just be niche marketing- how many female-specific models are there out there in each bracket? Not that many. How many standards? Loads. If even 1 in 50 riders is a woman, then it may be easier to target that smaller, less saturated market than it is to go after the larger, busier market- there are probably less than 1/50th as many female specific models as standards after all. Also, a lot of this will be about expanding the market- I doubt they'd put half as much effort in if there already was a strong market tbh.

stumpyjon wrote:

Things would move on a lot quicker if we stopped seeing people as different.

Yeah, but people ARE different. I think it's worse to ignore that personally.

passout

Yes, people are different and often proud of their differences. As long as barriers don't exist then you 'could' argue that it doesn't really matter. After all we are only talking about how people choose to spend their leisure time.

I'm sure that there are cultural differences regarding outdoor sports and the the countryside. I lived in Japan where the countryside is seen as been backward by the majority - and up until quite recently Japan was feudal. In the UK, as the first industrialised nation, we celebrated the countryside with some help from Wordsworth, Ruskin and William Morris. We looked back at the countryside with nostalgia and a sense of loss. Before the Romantics the Lake District was basically a no go area for the upper/middle classses. This romantic view has now been added to by 'extreme sports' which probably came from the Germanic influence in the early 1900s via 1960/70s California. Our view of the countryside is specific and can be traced historically. It's no suprise that other cultures have different views of the rural. There is no right or wrong in this case, just different perceptions & values.

Clearly MTBing is trying to target women as the potential profits are huge, and why not?

strodey

Well i'm the only ginger mountain biker in my area, why don't more gingers ride?
Could do with more wimen though to follow up the hills, get me there quicker i reckon

BlackSpur

Xtreem wrote:

Because the dream of every black kid is to be a raper.

It wasn't exactly a pleasant comment to start with, but the misspelling makes it so much worse...

xtreem

BlackSpur, I didn't meant to offend someone. Sorry if you and others felt offenden.
I'm not a racist.

Northwind

strodey wrote:

Well i'm the only ginger mountain biker in my area, why don't more gingers ride?:

When you think about it, it's the perfect ginge sport, you can hide your shame under a helmet.

BOYDIE

Im Ginger (south african sunset) dying breed m8.... :?

UncleMonty

I think that cycling not being or looking cool probably has something to do with it, I think white men & women are quiet happy looking a bit nerdy, as someone pointed out though it's not just cycling.

I go riding with a old school friend who is black but now i think about I can't remeber seeing anyone else, we also have a ginger guy in clan too, do I get a prize 8)