The ignorance of my fellow Pentland riders!

Sodfoster

After completing a really enjoyable 25km loop of the Pentlands this morning. I came away with a really sad conclusion that the majority of my fellow riders are ignorant f**kers (pardon the french!). In total I passed approx 10-15 riders and in total 3 returned my friendly "alright" or "morning"!! At one point I was forced off the track because two oncoming miserable knobs took both lines of the trail. Was there a "thanks" or "cheers" as I let them pass? was there bollocks!

I usually only expect this treatment from roadies! The joggers, dog walkers and crag rats are all friendly enough!

This has got to be one of the only places I every go riding where fellow riders are not remotely friendly! I guess it must be that Edinburgh is the only southern city in the north!

Seriously what are peoples problems up here, why ride with an attitude? Does it really hurt to say hello?

Rant over, thanks for listening.

Cheers

ilovedirt

Yeah, today at sherwood pines there was a load of lycra wearing weight weenie XC tossers there prepping for an NPS race tomorrow and not even one of them even acknowledged me today on the trail after saying hi. Fair enough they may be out of breath practicing etc but i didn't even get a friendly nod. Bastards.

sniper68

Had you been riding in miles instead of kilometres then they might have understood English and said hello

ilovedirt

We'd just been riding, unfortunately we weren't sporting girly lycra and cleats :roll:
Funnily enough though, it was JUST the racers that seemed to be rude, mid-ride or not. We did meet some nice people there too.

D-Cyph3r

I got shouted at to stop dead in my tracks today buy some poncy horse riders because their 1 ton, 9 feet tall, shit spreading, trail annihilating rides are "scared of bikes".... yeah, well i'm scared of riding into one of your 6lbs surprise packages and having to ride with the taste of shit between my teeth the rest of the day. :evil:

angry_bird

Wow, i've only ever encountered like a handful of b******s when i've been out riding, normally people are always so friendly and are only to willing to stop for a bit of banter at the end of the trail

Warning rant coming, and i've been holding this one up for a while, a bit like brewing a fart, well never mind but yeah, at least you can avoid reading it as opposed to having to smell it :? yeah don't feel too offended if you do get offended, i'm in a really bad mood :evil: and i'm also about to have to go through this rant and remove all my expletives too :roll:

Last time i was out got stuck behind a group of about 7 around cannock chase, all on excessively expensive bikes that i was ridiculously jealous of, all going very slowly and holding a fair few people up, 2 of them moved to the side which was good of them, one stopped in the middle of the trail going uphill and got off to push, fair enough but a) don't do it in the middle of the trail so everyone behind has to stop too and b) at least move off the trail to let other people past instead of making them go snail pace

Wait, there's more, we then got to the end of that section, if you know it, after the fireroad hill climb, go through the short section on the left and its the one after that, it ends snaking nicely up the hill and ends going down that wooden ramp.

They stopped, got off and walked down, not a problem, if you aren't comfortable riding something then you don't have to and i don't mind waiting there for people if they want to walk down, but they stopped right at the bottom of it, meaning it would be impossibe to get down without hitting them at some speed. When someone pointed it out to they just turned their noses up and shuffled aside a little, they caught up a while later while I was chatting to a guy about some forks, got a nice sneer from a couple as they went past

Obviously they were roadies who'd just blown loads of money on expensive mountain bikes *runs and hides from any roadies/anyone taking offense from this* But seriously i got a road bike in the sales before xmas just for my fitness more than anything else, in this time i've only been aknowledged about twice by other roadies despite enthusiastic waves, grins and friendly hellos.

Rant over

And they were about the only b******s i've ever met mountain biking, sure occasionally some people don't say hello or may not nod, but it normally seems to be out of preoccupation rather than deliberately/unintentionally being a cock/inconsiderate

angry_bird

Wow didn't realise how long that rant was, oh well i feel much better for it

Northwind

It was cold and windy today, even I'd have been a miserable **** if I'd been up in the pentlands

counterculture

i agree about the pentlands, i make sure to give a nod/smile/grimace(if caught on a hill) at the minimum, but there are folk up there who seem to just growl at you, it does my head in.

i was up there this morning, didnt see many folk to be honest but those i did got a nod, where do you go when your up there, sodfoster?

stubs

Well I was up at Rivington Lancashire today and everyone was on happy pills. Walkers, cyclists and horse riders everyone was smiling the sun was shining and the day was good.

angry_bird

stubs wrote:

Well I was up at Rivington Lancashire today and everyone was on happy pills. Walkers, cyclists and horse riders everyone was smiling the sun was shining and the day was good.

it is so much nicer when everyone is in a good mood and actually considerate towards eachother, if only it was like that all the time :roll:

Sodfoster

Northwind wrote:

It was cold and windy today, even I'd have been a miserable **** if I'd been up in the pentlands

It was a cracking morning only had a little light rain. There is no excuse for ignorance its judt bloody rude!

antfly

I overtook someone in the woods today, he was the only other cyclist there, I gave him a cheery "morning" as I passed him and he just looked at me and didn`t say a word, not even feck off.. some people just don`t like being overtaken cos it threatens their masculinity. I don`t particularly like being overtaken but i`m still polite to people even if I don`t mean it.

Northwind

Sodfoster wrote:

It was a cracking morning only had a little light rain. !

Ah, fair enough, I was in bed still. Wasn't very nice by the time I left the house

In defence of pentlands riders, I've had a lot of good chats and generally good experiences, some people are just a***s but to me it seems like a pretty standard distribution of a***s to good people.

Sodfoster

stubs wrote:

Well I was up at Rivington Lancashire today and everyone was on happy pills. Walkers, cyclists and horse riders everyone was smiling the sun was shining and the day was good.

Im from Bolton! The friendly attitude is what im used to! I have be in Edinburgh for a year and since cycling in the Pentlands I just keep coming across miserable mountain bikers (I dont mean to offend everyone. I have no doubt there are some great bikers out up there).

Btw Counterculture, Dont always have a set route sometimes start at Flotterstone sometimes Harlaw and occasionally Carlops. I was on the white cube with the knackered girlfriend on the pink GT following about quater of a mile behind! You where probably one of the 3 peeps to say hello!

Sodfoster

If anyone fancies hooking up for a ride in the Edinburgh area (and beyond) give me a shout Im looking for some riding buddies!

counterculture

its usually ok up the pentlands, usually get a fair bit of craic when you bump into other cyclists, you probably bumped into the wrong folks.

i was round harlaw, threipmuir, and bonaly and a few other bits en route today, i didnt see many folks though, i was there from about 7am til the back of 10am, the one advantage of nightshift.

will give you a shout next time were heading up the pentlands, the more the merrier

bike-a-swan

just to be contrary, had a nice chat with a fixie rider out on the roadie today. and I had a nice chat with some random people at cannock last week and by the bike racks outside tesco when shopping after my ride. I must just be lucky...

wavey1490

its amazing I think the stigma that comes along with what discipline you do, wether it be road or xc, or dh. I myself am a lycra wearing xc junkie(so to speak lol) I dont think its the clothes or type of bike that make the people the way they are its just a case of that person or the group they are in

I have passed many a people on single track when out training even though it may just be a shout of "rider" or "passing on the right" on a gap that is maybe not there I still make sure there is a smile and a shout of thanks as I go by ........... its just common curtesy really !!!

on the other hand I have passed lots of DH/Freeriders on the trail and been just as polite and all I get are sniggers back from them, maybe thats my fault for wearing lycra :roll: but thats just the way I am and how I feel comfy

So how can we rsesolve these issue's and get world peace and harmony for all cyclists

Briggo

*News shocker*

People have different personalities, some are friendly, some arnt! :shock:

:roll:

Sodfoster

Funnily enough I was out at Glentress today and virtually every rider/ group I passed were polite and chatty!

Totally different atmosphere!

Broonster

Sodfoster wrote:

Funnily enough I was out at Glentress today and virtually every rider/ group I passed were polite and chatty!

Totally different atmosphere!

GT really is one of the friendliest places for bikers in my experience. I go down there by myself a lot of the time and it's not uncommon to get invites onto group rides when you getting chatting to folks down there. You still get the odd knobber here & there, but that's life!

*AL*

Briggo wrote:

*News shocker*

People have different personalities, some are friendly, some arnt! :shock:

:roll:

nomadicbry

Must be an Edinburgh thing mate

After all it is true that a Gkasgow funeral is more fun than an Edinburgh wedding.
The famous reposte from Edinburgh...you'd have had your tea!. As most Scots will know Edinburgh is full of miserable buggers though there are exceptions to every

Aye, best get yourself over to the west coast niothing but people wanting to say hi and chat.
Was up around the Arrochar alps today and apart from some bemused walkers as I pushed my bike up the steeper parts of the path to the top of the munro it was all good.

Most also waved as I hurtled past them on the way down shouting BIKE ON YOUR LEFT CHEERS ENJOY YOUR WALK!!!!

nomadicbry

Totally agree about GT...Always friendly folks whatever their age, bike or clothing

Northwind

nomadicbry wrote:

After all it is true that a Gkasgow funeral is more fun than an Edinburgh wedding

I'm trying to do some joke about life expectancy and murders and how dying young means everyone else at the funeral is younger too and so has more energy. But I can't make it work. Someone else do it would you?

nomadicbry

Aye, some of the ferals in Glasgow can be vcious to eachother but no more than most places and and at least they do it with a smile and a nice wee chat.
In edinburgh they do it with a briefcase and steal your house, your pension and liveliihood... Give me the neds anyday at least they didn't bankrupt an entiire economy haha

But aye the eastend's stats are quite grim but a short happy life may be better than a long miserable life and hopefully us cycling weegies will have a long and happy life

counterculture

You rake in the bucket for something to eat
You find a dead rat and you think it's a treat
In your Glasgow Slums

seriously though some of glasgows alright, just thought id stoke this up a bit

nomadicbry

LOL all in jest...some bits of Edinburgh are all right as well

Atomic

My mate and I went to the quantocks for the first time this weekend.

First time that we've really gone somewhere where there's been lots of other people out enjoying the trails, be it on bikes, horses or just out walking.

We were expecting a lot of grief as there happened to be a horse event on, not helped by the fact that our chosen route seemed to follow the horse event route backwards!!

To our amazement (except the odd toff tw*t) the horse folk were really nice and we even got a nice cup of tea and a bacon roll halfway round - real nice surprise

(I work on and off in the city, so I've got pretty used to walking past ignorant c*nts on a daily basis so coming across nice friendly folk as you pass them is a treat for me!)

It must have been the weather, cos usually the horse riders we pass on our usual rides look like they'd rather kill you than share the countryside with!

.blitz

Lots of smiling happy faces on Cannock Chase at the weekend.

Apart from one moustachioed flat-capped tw&t who thought it would be a larf to let his sheepdog run at me. I cogged it up, took a firm grip on the bars and went for it. The mutt's nose was literally 10 cm from my front wheel before it baled. I made sure I was less than 10 cm from its f*ckwit owner as I went past.