Are hybrid riders the most miserable?

shm_uk

UndercoverElephant wrote:

When I ride in, I see a selection of the same faces every morning, when I'm going along I say, "Good morning" as I pass them. Now, the roadies always at least nod and shout "Good morning" back, some wave. The MTB riders are also, generally very friendly, again with a smile and a, "Good Morning."

However, a good proportion of the hybrid riders are real dour-faced, miserable swines who rarely even acknowledge me. Weird bunch.

Just let me correct your last sentence for you:

"However, a good proportion of people are real dour-faced, miserable swines."

There you go. What they ride is irrelevant.
That's life. I wouldn't be too offended if people don't respond to your greeting.

jonginge

SecretSam wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Peeps who're just using the bike as a mode of transport probably think 'who is that weirdo smiling and waving at me?'

Now, that's just rude and prejudiced. If you ride a hybrid, it's because you are ill informed and just want to get around, whereas the intelligent and pure choice of the discerning rider is a 'proper' bike.

What utter bo11ocks.

Manners come from the person, not the bike.

Ok. The above quote was a general point not about the type of bike a person rides. What I was getting at was folks who ride bikes at the weekend tend to acknowledge other bikers. They're used to that sort of camaraderie. It's a bit more mich uber alles* on the commute. After all, if you just ride the commute why would you wave at someone? Do you wave at someone driving the same model of car? Another AA member? etc etc


* or people are trying to concentrate on the traffic

Edit: scalped by notsoblue

cjcp

Anyone who's seen my face at traffic lights will realise that I make David Starkey look happy, let alone hybrid riders.

MonkeyMonster

daviesee wrote:

Having had one, I would have to say - yes.

Their bikes are sh!t off road and slow on road. A compromise is always the worst of both worlds, not the best.

you guys gives the most grump when we really slow slick mtb's take your scalp...

I smile on mine A LOT cos its a lot of fun to ride. Taking scalps and going fast are merely icings on the many cakes I both have and eat.

secretsam

JonGinge wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Peeps who're just using the bike as a mode of transport probably think 'who is that weirdo smiling and waving at me?'

Now, that's just rude and prejudiced. If you ride a hybrid, it's because you are ill informed and just want to get around, whereas the intelligent and pure choice of the discerning rider is a 'proper' bike.

What utter bo11ocks.

Manners come from the person, not the bike.

Ok. The above quote was a general point not about the type of bike a person rides. What I was getting at was folks who ride bikes at the weekend tend to acknowledge other bikers. They're used to that sort of camaraderie. It's a bit more mich uber alles* on the commute. After all, if you just ride the commute why would you wave at someone? Do you wave at someone driving the same model of car? Another AA member? etc etc


* or people are trying to concentrate on the traffic

Edit: scalped by notsoblue

Fine, get your point now, but the OP sort of comes across as a polemic against us hybridians*, some of whom are also roadies at other times. Frankly, when I'm riding in London, there's only one type of wave that gets given out and that's in no way a friendly gesture IYKWIM :oops: . At the weekend - yeah, I've got time to nod/say "hi"/smile/etc. But not when I've got a bendy bus up my ar5e and some seeyounextTuesday on a honda f&ckblade zooming round me like a demented hornet.

* Well, there's Roadies and Knobblies so why not have a generic name for Hybrid riders?

ooermissus

MonkeyMonster wrote:

daviesee wrote:

Having had one, I would have to say - yes.

Their bikes are sh!t off road and slow on road. A compromise is always the worst of both worlds, not the best.

you guys gives the most grump when we really slow slick mtb's take your scalp...

I smile on mine A LOT cos its a lot of fun to ride. Taking scalps and going fast are merely icings on the many cakes I both have and eat.

Try sailing past a guy struggling to clip into his fixie... on a (super low-geared and thus v quick off the mark) Boris Bike. Then repeat at each of the next three traffic lights. The reaction can be priceless.

notsoblue

cjcp wrote:

Anyone who's seen my face at traffic lights will realise that I make David Starkey look happy, let alone hybrid riders.

Bit OT, but doesn't David Starkey come across as a bit of a cnut lately? I preferred him when he was just narrating history programmes.

rjsterry

notsoblue wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Anyone who's seen my face at traffic lights will realise that I make David Starkey look happy, let alone hybrid riders.

Bit OT, but doesn't David Starkey come across as a bit of a cnut lately? I preferred him when he was just narrating history programmes.

I think he revels in it. I particularly enjoyed the irony of him on Question Time a while back, lambasting others for courting the media, as though the very thought wouldn't even occur to him. Like you said, stick to the Tudors.

notsoblue

rjsterry wrote:

notsoblue wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Anyone who's seen my face at traffic lights will realise that I make David Starkey look happy, let alone hybrid riders.

Bit OT, but doesn't David Starkey come across as a bit of a cnut lately? I preferred him when he was just narrating history programmes.

I think he revels in it. I particularly enjoyed the irony of him on Question Time a while back, lambasting others for courting the media, as though the very thought wouldn't even occur to him. Like you said, stick to the Tudors.

Thats the specific incident I'm talking about actually. I mean, I'm all for people cutting through dry "towing the line" ministerial rhetoric, but he was just being an argumentative *rsehole. Plus, I'm not sure if it was just posturing demagoguery on his behalf but either way his opinion of the poor is morally abhorrent.

Anyway, yeah, aren't people who ride hybrids a miserable lot? :P

sicknewt

I ride a flat bar road bike and am generally friendly to those I pass.

Something that bugs me is that there is one bloke that cycles home the same way I do (on some sort of hybrid/tourer) and if he catches you up, as he gets alongside he practically yells 'evening' or similar. He has scared the cr@p out of me more than once.

AndyOgy

I ride a 'Hybrid' and I love it.

I've ridden mountain bikes for years, and I still do.

A few years ago, I decided to commute 11 miles each way to work, so I got a road bike. It was perfect for that commute.

I no longer have that job. I now have a job where I have to get around Brighton and Hove, carrying massively varying quantities of gear, and thus had to build the perfect bike for that.

I've now got a steel framed Kona 'Hybrid' with 700x28mm Marathons on it and it does a bang up job. P2 fork and a half decent steel frame, which is strong enough for the trailer and can take loads of weight on it's sturdy rack. Still pretty fast when it's unladen. Copes with off road riding far better than it looks like it will. And I'm nearly always smiling when I ride it.

I LOVE MY HYBRID!

But I also love my road, mountain and BMX bikes.

soundninjauk

sicknewt wrote:

I ride a flat bar road bike and am generally friendly to those I pass.

Something that bugs me is that there is one bloke that cycles home the same way I do (on some sort of hybrid/tourer) and if he catches you up, as he gets alongside he practically yells 'evening' or similar. He has scared the cr@p out of me more than once.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4AvLnt3P6Q

W1

I might get a decent road bike at some point but:

- that will increase my FCN
- I like having panniers rather than a rucksack
- I don't like doing maintenance
- London's streets are a nightmare
- I prefer to sit more "upright" in traffic whilst still being able to reach the brakes
- I often need to leave my bike locked to lamposts, so the tattier/cheaper looking the better
- it somewhat goes against the money saving principle of cycling to work
- as I stop for red lights I don't acutally think I'd be any faster to or from work
- I love chasing down tarts on their tart bikes and scalping them

DonDaddyD

Irony strikes back, by Bikeradar

The cycling God of Awesome wrote:

W1 wrote:

I might get a decent road bike at some point but:

- that will increase my FCN
- I like having panniers rather than a rucksack
- I don't like doing maintenance
- London's streets are a nightmare
- I prefer to sit more "upright" in traffic whilst still being able to reach the brakes
- I often need to leave my bike locked to lamposts, so the tattier/cheaper looking the better
- it somewhat goes against the money saving principle of cycling to work
- as I stop for red lights I don't acutally think I'd be any faster to or from work
- I love chasing down tarts on their tart bikes and scalping them

Roadies get road bikes simply beacuse they're fun and not because of some logical equation that helps rationalise and justify miserable.

Also the multiple riding positions give greater prowess in bed and they like that too!

This has been a DDD production.

I thank you.

It's always just a little bit of fun.

W1

DonDaddyD wrote:

Irony strikes back, by Bikeradar

The cycling God of Awesome wrote:

W1 wrote:

I might get a decent road bike at some point but:

- that will increase my FCN
- I like having panniers rather than a rucksack
- I don't like doing maintenance
- London's streets are a nightmare
- I prefer to sit more "upright" in traffic whilst still being able to reach the brakes
- I often need to leave my bike locked to lamposts, so the tattier/cheaper looking the better
- it somewhat goes against the money saving principle of cycling to work
- as I stop for red lights I don't acutally think I'd be any faster to or from work
- I love chasing down tarts on their tart bikes and scalping them

Roadies get road bikes simply beacuse they're fun and not because of some logical equation that helps rationalise and justify miserable.

Also the multiple riding positions give greater prowess in bed and they like that too!

This has been a DDD production.

I thank you.

It's always just a little bit of fun.

Or because they aren't capable of logic or rationality perhaps?!

Anyway, it's horses for course I love my commute, and I love it more for the fact that I scalp roadies every day. Now that is fun.

Stevo_666

Another happy hybrider here

Although my bike has been described as a 'flat barred road bike', so should I start getting a bit more miserable and antisocial?

PBo

Stevo 666 wrote:

Another happy hydrider here

Although my bike has been described as a 'flat barred road bike', so should I start getting a bit more miserable and antisocial?

My flat barred road bike has disc brakes too, so when you've worked out how miserable and antisocial you need to be, can you post it up so I can be just a tad more miserable and antisocial? ta!

soundninjauk

PBo wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Another happy hydrider here

Although my bike has been described as a 'flat barred road bike', so should I start getting a bit more miserable and antisocial?

My flat barred road bike has disc brakes too, so when you've worked out how miserable and antisocial you need to be, can you post it up so I can be just a tad more miserable and antisocial? ta!

Hey, that sounds like mine! But I enjoyed my ride home just now, even though it is raining slightly? Am I doing something wrong?

Cafewanda

:twisted:

Retribution shall befall all who knocks the hybridian. You have been warned :twisted:


8)

Now where did I put that pitchfork?

The Rookie

Flat barred road bike stylee Hybrd rider here, with disc brakes, most MTBers I get a cheery greeting from (I usually initiate them) Roadies look at me like something they've ridden through and got sprayed in the face with, if riding a road bike means I have to be that miserable I'll stick to my Hybrid.

Having said that 'hybrids' cover such a broad spectrum as to be meaningless, my bars are about 3-4" below my saddle, so I'm lower down than most roadies I see on the hoods.

Simon

Initialised

Do you wave at someone driving the same model of car?

Err yes, people who drive rarer cars tend to do that. So maybe hybridians don't wave at those on special bikes for the same reasons as most drivers don't let Chelsea tractors or pimped out hot hatches out at junction in heavy traffic.

Stevo_666

PBo wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Another happy hydrider here

Although my bike has been described as a 'flat barred road bike', so should I start getting a bit more miserable and antisocial?

My flat barred road bike has disc brakes too, so when you've worked out how miserable and antisocial you need to be, can you post it up so I can be just a tad more miserable and antisocial? ta!

Sorry matey, I've got disc brakes too so I reserve the right to be just as grumpy as you

PBo

Stevo 666 wrote:

PBo wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Another happy hydrider here

Although my bike has been described as a 'flat barred road bike', so should I start getting a bit more miserable and antisocial?

My flat barred road bike has disc brakes too, so when you've worked out how miserable and antisocial you need to be, can you post it up so I can be just a tad more miserable and antisocial? ta!

Sorry matey, I've got disc brakes too so I reserve the right to be just as grumpy as you

I see your discs and raise you mudguads, rack......and a bell :oops:

jonny_trousers

Is it not more the case that miserable people who cycle tend to ride hybrids rather than those who chose to ride hybrids are miserable.

I was miserable on my hybrid as it gave me awful shoulder pain and the sh!tty disc brakes kept sticking.

EKE_38BPM

My roadbike has died so I'm riding a B-Twin Vitamin atm and I'm miserable.
Looking forward to my first wet ride on it tomorrow as it has mudguards (the first bike I've ever ridden with them) and anticipating my first use in anger of my new Airzound. Sounds bloody loud in the garage, wonder what effect it has on the (not so) open road.

I think generally hybrid riders are not riding for the fun of it. The riders of more specialised bikes enjoy cycling and use commuting as another reason/excuse to be on a bike. Hybrid riders are riding because they are doing it for strictly practical reasons and who wants to be practical?

Some people like shopping. They go out shopping with their mates and are not really that fussed if they don't find what they went out for (a bit like roadies and mud-pluggers).
Others go shopping when they have to, don't enjoy it and look miserable as they do it (a bit like those riding a hybrid).

Stevo_666

PBo wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

PBo wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Another happy hydrider here

Although my bike has been described as a 'flat barred road bike', so should I start getting a bit more miserable and antisocial?

My flat barred road bike has disc brakes too, so when you've worked out how miserable and antisocial you need to be, can you post it up so I can be just a tad more miserable and antisocial? ta!

Sorry matey, I've got disc brakes too so I reserve the right to be just as grumpy as you

I see your discs and raise you mudguads, rack......and a bell :oops:

Feck, you got me there - I have no reply I'd detter get out there tomorrow and scalp some hatchet-faced roadies...

PBo

Stevo 666 wrote:

PBo wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

PBo wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Another happy hydrider here

Although my bike has been described as a 'flat barred road bike', so should I start getting a bit more miserable and antisocial?

My flat barred road bike has disc brakes too, so when you've worked out how miserable and antisocial you need to be, can you post it up so I can be just a tad more miserable and antisocial? ta!

Sorry matey, I've got disc brakes too so I reserve the right to be just as grumpy as you

I see your discs and raise you mudguads, rack......and a bell :oops:

Feck, you got me there - I have no reply I'd detter get out there tomorrow and scalp some hatchet-faced roadies...

.....just make sure you don't smile at them - wouldn't want to ruin the "miserable hybrid-er" tag would you?

desweller

How would you classify a flat- or butterfly-bar expedition bike? Surely these are the most fun of all (since they can get you into the wilds), and they are very much jacks of all trades i.e. hybrids!

rjsterry

If expeditions are just very ambitious touring, then surely an expedition bike is a sub-species of tourer, which is itself a sub-species of road bike.

<gets out large sheet of paper to draw out cycling tree of life, starting with primordial 'boneshakers'>

Alphabet

from reading through all of this i have discovered two facts.

1) people who buy hybrid tend to like them

2) people who don't buy hybrids tend to not like them