Snobs

Doombrain

I was born in Stoke and have an inbuilt hatred of snobs.

Having been so busy over the years I’ve only just got back into biking. A few months back I was out on some local trails (Woburn) on my old 2007 GT Avalanche 1 enjoying the day with a friend doing some jumps and generally throwing myself about. After a while we got talking to two chaps.
After explaining about my return to the bike and made a passing comment, and while looking at my very clean and looked after bike "Humm yes. It is old, isn't it" capped with a quick glance to his friend then bike which was some £1000 full sus (I think).

When I started years ago I didn’t come across anything like this, ever. Is this common in MTBers??

PS: If you're reading this, I’d like to meet again so I can look down on your bike or whatever I can better

What a t**t.

Doombrain

Maybe I’m too sensitive

P-Jay

There's always one mate, shouldn't let it get to you.

Some people spend more time in the shops buying shiney things than they do riding.

.blitz

2007 is old? I've got no chance then

jay12

i say "whatever bike you have ride it.you can still have fun. having an expensive bike don't mean your going to be faster. if julien absalon was riding on a 1998 raleigh rigid hardtail he could still beat most/all snobs on bikes worth£2000" i personnaly think that it's a shame we have such people in the society

ride_whenever

that's old school awesome though...

retro like a fancy steel rigid bike...

Doombrain

.blitz, that's an awesome bike!

yoohoo999

2007 is not old.

you've already acknowledged that you have an "inbuilt hatred of snobs" therefore you will be pre-empting snobbish statements to some extent, and certainly misinterpreting many of them negatively.

This sport is full of "all the gear and no idea" funboys who read magazines more than they ride. You just have to ignore them.

I used to ride with a young lad who could lay his Apollo completely flat on any tabletop that happened to be in the vicinity. Some people would give raised eyebrow looks when we attended races/trails etc when they saw his bike. They weren't so smug when he was pulling no-handers over jumps that they were almost absorbing with their 8" of small penis syndrome travel.

Just forget about everyone else and ride. You will never enjoy it otherwise.

Doombrain

P-Jay wrote:

There's always one mate, shouldn't let it get to you.

Some people spend more time in the shops buying shiney things than they do riding.

Yeah, no doubt about it.

welshkev

i had the same thing when i started riding again at the end of last year. a couple of guys made fun of my 2001 zokes forks.....they weren't laughing when i blasted past them down the trail about 10 mins later though.... 8)

passout

Not sure why Stoke doesn't have snobs, but yes there are some out there on the trails. Most MTBers, especially those who have been at it a while, are a pretty good bunch though.

MacAndCheese

2007 is hardly old! if that's old my bikes must be positively geriatric! Anyway I wouldn't let it bother you, so long as your enjoying your bike who cares what other people think!

Anonymous

I hate bike snobs.
I always have a quick glance at what people are riding as they pass me, or I pass them. But because of this recent snobbishness, I feel bad, and try to hide the glances. this makes it LOOK like I'm being snobbish, but what's really going through my head is
"please don't think I'm looking down my nose at you just because I'm sat on an £1800 bike and you're not, I'm really just looking to see what everyone rides, I'm a bike nut"

.blitz

Doombrain wrote:

.blitz, that's an awesome bike!

Thanks fella. I've owned it since 1996 and although it's in semi-retirement now, I like to ride it from time-to-time just to remind me how much progress we've made =]

Think I must've heard every comment good and bad by now. Sticks and stones an' all that.

jimjamyaharr

I was built in 1983
2007 just a pup

pte1643

You get these sort of people in ANY sport/pastime.

Certainly not restricted to MTBing.

Fishing is an excellent example... They're know as Tackle Tarts.

How is camouflaged bite alarms going to catch you more fish exactly? :?

Doombrain

pte1643 wrote:

You get these sort of people in ANY sport/pastime.

Certainly not restricted to MTBing.

Fishing is an excellent example... They're know as Tackle Tarts.

How is camouflaged bite alarms going to catch you more fish exactly? :?

ahh mate, i'm with you there. i do a lot of carping when i can.

KnightofCydonia

passout wrote:

Not sure why Stoke doesn't have snobs, but yes there are some out there on the trails. Most MTBers, especially those who have been at it a while, are a pretty good bunch though.

It may have some, but it's a very hard working town traditionally. My grandfather was born & raised there and generally it's a low-income place where the cost of living is lower than many other places.

nwmlarge

i wouldn't stress about it. people worth knowing know the difference between an older but proven product and the latest and shiniest components

VWsurfbum

I get told off by the wife all the time, not be cause when were out shopping i look at all the lovely fillies that can be around but when there's a noble steed locked up or rides past, I just have to look to see what it is and spec etc?
I'm not a snob but i like to look.

GHill

Just ignore them if you can, if you're having fun and not hurting anyone who cares. Reverse snobs are just as bad though (the one's who look down on people for having expensive bikes but not all the skills).

Thewaylander

Just a mag boy,


Met one or two at times.. one kept professing he was a downhiller a year before and that was why he couldn't get his pricy bike up the hills with out walking lol. only problem was he also was slow going down.
Its all about attitude just go out to have fun ignore anyone who seems to have there nose where the sun don't shine...

Anonymous

im from stoke too and also dont like bike snobs but it works both ways.

as a few folk have mentioned about themselves, i also love to have a perv on bikes, if i see any go past on a roof rack, if theres one locked up somewhere, if someone cycles past on the road or street or trail i have to have a look, i cant help it!
its not because im sizing anyone up and deciding whether they are worth talking to due to their bikes its because i love the looks of a bikes and im interested in what people ride.

now, bike snobbery goes bth ways and more often than not it is displayed by folk with cheaper bikes. they look at folks more expensive bikes and suddenly get very defensive about their own perfectly good bike and they assume folk with pricey bikes are looking down at them.

trust me, folk with pricey bikes dont think they are better than folk with cheaper bikes. and i dont see why folk with expensive bikes should feel apologetic for owning a nice bike.

Doombrain

I also love looking at hardware and enjoy seeing a bike in its paces no matter who’s riding it. It was just his tone, he has no idea what I could afford or nothing about me.
After I thought about it, it really made me mad and seems to of stuck with me.

Northwind

I've noticed that at glentress at least, the old the bike, generally the faster and more skilled the rider. It's kind of cool actually. There's exceptions of course, the time honoured "My mate wants to try mountain biking so I've loaned him my old bike while I hover down the trails on my £5000 superbike". But a bike's a bike.

delcol

let your riding do the talking.. at the end of the day if your out having fun and enjoying your return to mtbin thats all that matters,.. don't let other people bother you...

i always look at other peoples rides just to see what they on not to judge them just like seeing other bikes out and about...

when i was in whistler last year we were on the dirt jumps when this lad turns up wearing a rain coat no one noticed his crankworx number in the rear weheels spokes only me,
all the locals were ripping him about his clothes his rain coat and his bag, he did one run to case the jumps took his coat off then dropped in big 360 into a nohander huge table on the hip straight air on the next then a huge backflip on the last masive jump.
he was landing 720's needless to say the ignoreant locals were soon woo mate were you from that flip was awesome that 720 this that 360 that..
it turns out he was from chillie and had been over for the crankworxs comp but did not make the finals,.. he had satyed in whistler for a month or so after the comp...

it was so funny watching their faces when he sarted doing big trcks...

Where are my stabilisers?

F*ck em! Is what I say - That goes for all judgemental people!

You get the ones with top end bikes who look down on people who have low end bikes and then you get the ones with low end bikes dissing people for having top end bikes and not being able to ride them properly :roll:

Ignore them, who gives a toss what they think!

Anonymous

Northwind wrote:

I've noticed that at glentress at least, the old the bike, generally the faster and more skilled the rider. It's kind of cool actually. There's exceptions of course, the time honoured "My mate wants to try mountain biking so I've loaned him my old bike while I hover down the trails on my £5000 superbike". But a bike's a bike.

Haha! I've been doing the opposite recently. I've been riding my old bike whilt my newbie friends are borrowing my brand new bike.

Northwind

Yeah, I do that too. Or I did, til I took my carrera out with all the spare kit- 2 2.35 sticky tyres, heavy tubes, etc etc- and carried all the tools and spares, while my brother took my Soul. Then spent all day saying "I thought you were supposed to be fit" and "Why are you so slow?" So now, he gets the Carrera

carrock

invariably, in the lakes, I see lots of people on fancy carbon road bikes ( usually with replica team kit straining over their guts and man-boobs) who push their specialized tarmac s-works up the hills, and get overtaken by old gits on steel tourers complete with luggage

So it happens all the time in all types of cycling, but yes, often the flashier the bike, the more up his own @rse the rider, and the more stupid he looks when he can't ride properly

Anonymous

Northwind wrote:

Yeah, I do that too. Or I did, til I took my carrera out with all the spare kit- 2 2.35 sticky tyres, heavy tubes, etc etc- and carried all the tools and spares, while my brother took my Soul. Then spent all day saying "I thought you were supposed to be fit" and "Why are you so slow?" So now, he gets the Carrera

Ah, but I'm in the rather enviable position of having two pretty desirable bikes, in very good nick!