Do ethnic minoritys ride ?

bomberesque

plenty of asians climb mountains. I dare say that not one white face reaches the summit of a major himalayan peak without the aid of someone asian (and more likely several).

... I recall watching the IMAX of David Breashears summitting Everest, realising that for the shot to have been made someone had to have carried 100+ kg of IMAX camera to the top of Everest and realising very quickly that Breashears wouldn't have been one of them.

I also have a friend who cycled North to South through India several years ago and found herself humbled on several occasions by young Indian men cycling the other way, doing the same trek as her ... on rod braked shopping bikes ...

Your perspective is that of a predominantly white society, that will affect what you see on the trails. Sure minorities may be under-represented and there may or may not be a central reason, but I doubt that you can generalise across races successfully (and it's certainly not because they're all busy dealing drugs :roll: ).

To take another perspective on the issue; 10 years ago, how many women did you see at Coed-y-brenin? I'll tell you how many I saw, 1. She's my wife. Today is a totally different scene as evidenced by what we saw in the scottish, norwegian and swedish trail centers that we visited this summer. My wife was well impressed,a s she felt intimidated by the predominantly male population at coed-y-Brenin all those moons ago. Women are still under-represented in cycling generally though.

Ironically, back then at coed, there was a black guy there that day aswell, I recall discussing the finer points of his Kona Stinky with him over tea in the shop.

bails87

geordiefreerider wrote:

Surf-Matt wrote:

In fact most "glide" sports.

Any reason? I can't really think of anything except that it's related to social class or something. But then class barriers have all but gone in most cases.

Maybe just maybe, it's in our genes to have a sense of adventure or something like that, look at polar explorers, mountain climbers and arctic expedition's, again mainly whites, in fact the more I think about it the stranger it seems to me

Hmmm, but then at the time that most of the pioneering expeditions etc were being done, it was probably quite difficult for minorities to get the financing for something like that...."Excuse me Mr Slave-Master, would you like to lend me some money to buy some huskies?"

"Minorities" managed to make the harshest climates of Africa, the Middle East and America inhabitable, so they can't be too bad at the whole adventuring malarkey!

But I do see where you're coming from, just playing Devil's advocate!

EDIT: Oh yeah, Sherpas!!

Surf-Matt

I guess until fairly recently (shockingly), a lot of ethnic minorities have struggled class wise so not been able to participate in the sports we love - or even had time to get into them.

Of course there are Sherpas but I do often wonder why so few ethnic minorities surf, ski, sail, etc because I'd say pretty much every other aspect of "white middle class life" is now enriched by those from other descendants.

Possibly stepping over the boundary but sports they do get into a lot is football (but not much rugby, especially Asians), boxing and athletics.

Just when we think class barriers are down, they aren't.

geordiefreerider

Absolutely, maybe I didnt think that one through properly, I meant more the "spirit of adventure" rather than the ability to do so if you know what I mean .....

miss notax

bomberesque wrote:

To take another perspective on the issue; 10 years ago, how many women did you see at Coed-y-brenin? I'll tell you how many I saw, 1. She's my wife. Today is a totally different scene as evidenced by what we saw in the scottish, norwegian and swedish trail centers that we visited this summer. My wife was well impressed,a s she felt intimidated by the predominantly male population at coed-y-Brenin all those moons ago. Women are still under-represented in cycling generally though.

This is very true, although it is improving slowly :?

You could say the same for many of these sports as well though - I also race my car and if I had a pound for every comment like 'nice of your husband to lend you the car' I would be very rich indeed..... :twisted:

Anyway, i'm going way off tangent here. Sorry :oops:

bails87

Yeah, we are slightly. I think the answer is "yes they do". Job done! Next question please! :P

Daz555

Joe_Pineapples wrote:

I'm curious, what exactly is it that you've done that you think elevates you above people who would call themselves working class

I have made no statement that suggests I think I am 'above' anyone.

Joe_Pineapples wrote:

and what's wrong with it anyway?

I have made no statement that suggests there is anything wrong with being working class.

Joe_Pineapples wrote:

This is a stupid post.

Don't be so hard on yourself.

The comment I made "I am from a working class home but there is no way I could classify myself as being working class." simply reflects that my experience is so far removed from that of my parents and grandparents, in terms of profession, education, expectation etc that I feel it would be dishonest to say I was working class.

The problem of course is that the labels themselves are personal and people can have very different definitions.

jairaj

geordiefreerider wrote:

Absolutely, maybe I didnt think that one through properly, I meant more the "spirit of adventure" rather than the ability to do so if you know what I mean .....

+1 I totally agree with this, thats almost the perfect phrase. I find with my peers there is a lack of "spirit of adventure"

Surf-Matt wrote:

but sports they do get into a lot is football (but not much rugby, especially Asians), boxing and athletics.

i think this is because these sports are more likely to be taught at school during PE so they get to try it out and see if they like it. While for me anyway, we didn't do any thing close to mountain biking or climbing etc at school, so it was quite a leap of faith to go out and give it a go.

bails87

Daz555 wrote:

Joe_Pineapples wrote:

This is a stupid post.

Don't be so hard on yourself.

I didn't want to point that one out, I was tempted to agree, but thought I'd annoyed him already so I'd restrain myself!

Surf-Matt

jairaj wrote:

geordiefreerider wrote:

Absolutely, maybe I didnt think that one through properly, I meant more the "spirit of adventure" rather than the ability to do so if you know what I mean .....

+1 I totally agree with this, thats almost the perfect phrase. I find with my peers there is a lack of "spirit of adventure"

Surf-Matt wrote:

but sports they do get into a lot is football (but not much rugby, especially Asians), boxing and athletics.

i think this is because these sports are more likely to be taught at school during PE so they get to try it out and see if they like it. While for me anyway, we didn't do any thing close to mountain biking or climbing etc at school, so it was quite a leap of faith to go out and give it a go.

Good points well made.

Anonymous

bomberesque wrote:

To take another perspective on the issue; 10 years ago, how many women did you see at Coed-y-brenin? I'll tell you how many I saw, 1. She's my wife.

You're forgetting at the very least, Sian, who worked and rode there all the time.

Generally though, I can;t honestly say there's more or less women riding these days than there was when I grew up riding in Coed y Brenin - but there are more riders in general.
Of the trail centres I've been to, Llandegla has the greatest amount of female MTBers.

Thewaylander

Yes Llandegla is definately liked by the ladies i found.

With the best looking tea and cake serving staff i have seen in my life!

Anonymous

^^Indeed, they are very good looking.
My mate's daughter, who I take MTBing to llandegla occasionally actually asked me last time we were there if they'd only employ really pretty girls behind the counter.

Northwind

A good friend of mine is bengali, moved here when she was about 10... Now, she just doesn't get why I ride a bike, and when her son decided he wanted a bike she was horrified- to her a bike's a poor person's transport, she's worked her a**e off all her life to stop her wee boy having to travel on 2 wheels and even though he wants to ride it's almost a mark of shame to her to have her kid riding (though she's a cool lady and got him one anyway)

I've no idea if this is typical, but there are definately different perceptions of biking in different groups. Same with lots of things, cars, motorbikes... Sure you do see different colours on bikes but if you look around any trail centre it's predominantly white and male, I think it's daft to pretend otherwise. At nevis range at the weekend I don't think I saw a single black face, and only 2 women on bikes.

But here's the thing... People say "I saw a lot of women on the trails" and it still usually means about 10% tops. That's not a lot, that's a hopeless underrepresentation.

dave_hill

geordiefreerider wrote:

If the ethnic minoritys dont ski, mountain bike or do any kind of extreme sport (in general as gathered from this thread) just what do they fill their spare time with ?

Don't get me started.

No seriously, don't.... :evil:

bomberesque

yeehaamcgee wrote:

bomberesque wrote:

To take another perspective on the issue; 10 years ago, how many women did you see at Coed-y-brenin? I'll tell you how many I saw, 1. She's my wife.

You're forgetting at the very least, Sian, who worked and rode there all the time.

Generally though, I can;t honestly say there's more or less women riding these days than there was when I grew up riding in Coed y Brenin - but there are more riders in general.
Of the trail centres I've been to, Llandegla has the greatest amount of female MTBers.

you're right, there was a lady working in the shop. Don't recall knowing her name and didn't see her riding. Perhaps that was her though. Never saw one other woman on the trails though but we *were* only there for a couple or 3 days.

loads of ladies riding in western 7 stanes this summer (if that's what you can call the weather they were having) but still <<<50%. Not ridden Llandegla, I must take Mrs B there to see what she thinks.

Anonymous

Oh hell yeah, the amount of women riding are still way less than 50% of the crowd. Much much less.

The woman working in the Cafe was called Sian, the guy working there was Called Dafydd.
There's a good chance that, were it not for them, most of today's mountain bikers wouldn't be riding mountain bikes.

Inverted8

I think this is one of the most interesting topics to appear for a while.

I am Chinese (HBC - Hong Kong born). I have never come across another chinese person on my mountain bike! trail centre or off road. I've seen some other Asians types but not many. If there are any out there - let me know! Maybe we need a FB group!

Race in sport is a very interesting topic. Why are there not any top black swimmers in the Olympics? Maybe the same can be said of why not many black people ride bikes. There are also sports that asians that do not suit Asians well. Having said this, the Chinese are catching up in a lot of sports they had never competed in the past -including MTbking. Isn't there a top Chinese woman XC biker?

The same is true of other extreme sports like skiing. I ski and board, again I have not seen many asians either on the pistes. I do agree most mountain sports are middle class sports. You need to have the means to travel, get kitted out etc. But this should be a reason for more asians to get involved. Most asians I know are professional 'middle class'. Ahh maybe they're to busy running their corner shops or take-aways on the weekends! :P

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Just reading bits of this thread has made a question jump into my mind...

Why isn't cycling included as part of the PE curriculum at schools?

During my childhood, my family moved around much more than the average family, yet not once did I encounter a school that included cycling in my time until leaving school at 18 in 1992! :?

Maybe things are different now, especially given the sucess of our professional athletes in recent times?

Anonymous

Actually, at school, we had one fortnight in 5th form where we got to choose a sport to do, that wasn't normally covered in our PE lessons. Naturally, me and my mates chose mountain biking, so we basically got two weeks off school to do what we normally do anyway!

tjwood

Really interesting thread.

NitrousOxide, I contemplated that recently too (I'm 24, I've just got into MTBing within the last few months, it's the most excercise I've ever done and the only sport I've ever actually enjoyed doing - I hated PE with a passion at school). I guess the logistics of cycling in schools would be very difficult - bikes aren't cheap to buy or maintain, whereas a football or basketball costs a tenner, cross country running costs nothing, and tennis rackets and hockey sticks are still cheap compared to bikes. Also while most schools have access to playing fields and maybe a mile or two of suitable cross country running route near them how many have suitable routes for cycling, either on or off road?

Raymondavalon

Northwind wrote:

A good friend of mine is bengali, moved here when she was about 10... Now, she just doesn't get why I ride a bike, and when her son decided he wanted a bike she was horrified- to her a bike's a poor person's transport, she's worked her a**e off all her life to stop her wee boy having to travel on 2 wheels and even though he wants to ride it's almost a mark of shame to her to have her kid riding (though she's a cool lady and got him one anyway)

Very good point there Northwind. I had this very conversation with a youngish Indian couple who have settled in the UK whilst riding the Bristol-bath cycleway. They had very nice hybrids and their families were shocked and astounded that they even wanted to own/ride bikes, never mind spend so much money on them too. The guy told me in India "a bicycle is bicycle" and it's "the transport for the poor"

Inverted8 wrote:

I think this is one of the most interesting topics to appear for a while.

I am Chinese (HBC - Hong Kong born). I have never come across another chinese person on my mountain bike! trail centre or off road. I've seen some other Asians types but not many. If there are any out there - let me know! Maybe we need a FB group!

Race in sport is a very interesting topic. Why are there not any top black swimmers in the Olympics? Maybe the same can be said of why not many black people ride bikes. There are also sports that asians that do not suit Asians well. Having said this, the Chinese are catching up in a lot of sports they had never competed in the past -including MTbking. Isn't there a top Chinese woman XC biker?

Inverted8, also a valid point.. however when I raced radio controlled cars (whilst living in the US and here in the UK) , there were quite a few Chinese / Asian racers. It seems to be a hobby/sport they are absolutely passionate about and spared no expense or attention to detail on either. If you think MTB'ing can be expensive try racing 8th scale road or rallycross RC!

Perhaps choice of activity is in some way culturally driven?

neil_sheehan2000

Interesting discussion so far. My thought, for what it's worth, is that there aren't really any role models in MTBing for anyone who isn't white. When was the last time you saw someone who wasn't white in a mountain biking magazine, or in an MTB feature on this site? I remember some sort of tutorial in an old issue of MBUK by a black guy, once, but that's it. I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that boxing was not really seen as a viable sport for a lot of Asian kids until Amir Khan came along.

Anyway, I think until there's someone for non-white kids to look at and think 'hmmm, maybe this sport is for me', then 'minorities' (a pretty inaccurate term really, when you take the world as a whole) are going to remain hugely unrepresented in the MTB world.

geordiefreerider

So what your saying is we need fifty cent on a full susser ?

joolsburger

I think you'll find he prefers to be called Fiddy...

Anonymous

joolsburger wrote:

I think you'll find he prefers to be called Fiddy...

Word in the hood is, he's teamed up with Sean Combs, and they've formed...........

Diddy Fiddy

Northwind

NitrousOxide wrote:

Why isn't cycling included as part of the PE curriculum at schools?

The hardware I guess, not every kid owns a bike. We did cycling proficiency classes at my school but you had to have your own bike.

geordiefreerider

yeehaamcgee wrote:

joolsburger wrote:

I think you'll find he prefers to be called Fiddy...

Word in the hood is, he's teamed up with Sean Combs, and they've formed...........

Diddy Fiddy

:shock: WORD !!!

dave_hill

Inverted8 wrote:

Why are there not any top black swimmers in the Olympics?

That's easy - swimming does not come naturally to people of African descent. They are not blessed with the same amount of sub-cutaneous fat as Caucasian (and in some case Asian) races and therefore do not have the same natural buoyancy.

If you ever get the chance to read the book "Black Hawk Down" by Mark Bowden (which incidentally is far more exciting that the film, although that's bloody good), it explains that at the time of the Battle of Mogadishu there were only two fully-qualified black Rangers in the entire 75th Ranger Regiment - this was nothing to do with racial discrimination but was down to the fact that the majority of black applicants failed the rigorous swimming tests which were necessary to gain entry.

There is also a very small number of black Royal Marines for the same reason.

dave_hill

neil_sheehan2000 wrote:

Interesting discussion so far. My thought, for what it's worth, is that there aren't really any role models in MTBing for anyone who isn't white. When was the last time you saw someone who wasn't white in a mountain biking magazine, or in an MTB feature on this site?

Shaums March, anyone? Used to ride for Marin?

What about the bloke from Zimbabwe who rode in the XC race at the Beijing Olympics?

And there was also a guy from Rwanda competing in this years' Tour of Ireland.