Cyclist Tan

Kieran_Burns
Kieran_Burns Posts: 9,757
edited July 2011 in Commuting chat
what the hell?

Okay, I can live with the fact that I look like an inverted panda (just) but what is it with one leg being significantly darker than the other???? :shock:

I look like a chicken drumstick that's been left on the bloody barby too long.
Chunky Cyclists need your love too! :-)
2009 Specialized Tricross Sport
2011 Trek Madone 4.5
2012 Felt F65X
Proud CX Pervert and quiet roadie. 12 mile commuter

Comments

  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    :lol: Do you cycle S->N in the morning and end up with your right leg getting all the sun? Or N->S and it's your left leg?
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • EKE_38BPM
    EKE_38BPM Posts: 5,821
    I quite like my cyclist's tan, but its not as strong as I would like it as I'm not on the bike enough.

    My cyclist's tanned legs were my Facebook profile picture for a while.
    FCN 3: Raleigh Record Ace fixie-to be resurrected sometime in the future
    FCN 4: Planet X Schmaffenschmack 2- workhorse
    FCN 9: B Twin Vitamin - winter commuter/loan bike for trainees

    I'm hungry. I'm always hungry!
  • dhope
    dhope Posts: 6,699
    what the hell?

    Okay, I can live with the fact that I look like an inverted panda (just) but what is it with one leg being significantly darker than the other???? :shock:

    I look like a chicken drumstick that's been left on the bloody barby too long.

    Riding into work when sun is up, one leg in the sun, another not? Riding back once sun has gone down?
    Rose Xeon CW Disc
    CAAD12 Disc
    Condor Tempo
  • Kieran_Burns
    Kieran_Burns Posts: 9,757
    bails87 wrote:
    :lol: Do you cycle S->N in the morning and end up with your right leg getting all the sun? Or N->S and it's your left leg?

    This is the thing...

    It's my right leg that is darker and I cycle sw -> ne in the morning, catching the morning sun and ne -> sw in the evening catching the evening sun.

    I may have to cycle backwards for a while.

    God if this keeps up I'll look like I've been dodging alien spacecraft on the road.... :?
    Chunky Cyclists need your love too! :-)
    2009 Specialized Tricross Sport
    2011 Trek Madone 4.5
    2012 Felt F65X
    Proud CX Pervert and quiet roadie. 12 mile commuter
  • dhope
    dhope Posts: 6,699
    EKE_38BPM wrote:
    I quite like my cyclist's tan, but its not as strong as I would like it as I'm not on the bike enough.

    My cyclist's tanned legs were my Facebook profile picture for a while.

    Have I missed the joke or am I about to fall into a "black people can't (visibly) tan" cliché that's entirely false?
    Rose Xeon CW Disc
    CAAD12 Disc
    Condor Tempo
  • king_jeffers
    king_jeffers Posts: 694
    My cyclists tan gets much lulz from the Mrs however I have fairly even coverage on legs, arms, face... (only those areas everywhere else if brilliant white). :oops:

    That one leg thing is just weird. Possibly a bit personal but do you wash one leg more than the other? :P
  • SimonAH
    SimonAH Posts: 3,730
    My favourite bit is the darker squares on the backs of the hands from wearing track mitts.
    FCN 5 belt driven fixie for city bits
    CAADX 105 beastie for bumpy bits
    Litespeed L3 for Strava bits

    Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
  • EKE_38BPM
    EKE_38BPM Posts: 5,821
    edited July 2011
    dhope wrote:
    EKE_38BPM wrote:
    I quite like my cyclist's tan, but its not as strong as I would like it as I'm not on the bike enough.

    My cyclist's tanned legs were my Facebook profile picture for a while.

    Have I missed the joke or am I about to fall into a "black people can't (visibly) tan" cliché that's entirely false?

    No joke.

    When I used to play baseball, my shoulder would be (relatively) light under my t-shirt, dark (tanned) bicep and forearm, a light strap where my watch was, dark until my wrist then light from the strap of my baseball glove, the back of my hand would be dark and light fingers which were in the glove. All of this only on my left hand.

    Generally, black people are not stupid enough to sit in the sun for ages trying to get skin cancer, so don't get tan lines. And (I think) we are less likely to get skin cancer anyway due to increased pigmentation.

    Edit:
    I think I should point out for that I'm not the lightest skinned black person ever.
    FCN 3: Raleigh Record Ace fixie-to be resurrected sometime in the future
    FCN 4: Planet X Schmaffenschmack 2- workhorse
    FCN 9: B Twin Vitamin - winter commuter/loan bike for trainees

    I'm hungry. I'm always hungry!
  • Kieran_Burns
    Kieran_Burns Posts: 9,757
    EKE_38BPM wrote:

    Generally, black people are not stupid enough to sit in the sun for ages trying to get skin cancer, so don't get tan lines. And (I think) we are less likely to get skin cancer anyway due to increased pigmentation.

    Well, that's just rude :wink:
    Chunky Cyclists need your love too! :-)
    2009 Specialized Tricross Sport
    2011 Trek Madone 4.5
    2012 Felt F65X
    Proud CX Pervert and quiet roadie. 12 mile commuter
  • SimonAH
    SimonAH Posts: 3,730
    Baseball EKE, are you of septic extraction?
    FCN 5 belt driven fixie for city bits
    CAADX 105 beastie for bumpy bits
    Litespeed L3 for Strava bits

    Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
  • mudcow007
    mudcow007 Posts: 3,861
    dhope wrote:
    EKE_38BPM wrote:
    I quite like my cyclist's tan, but its not as strong as I would like it as I'm not on the bike enough.

    My cyclist's tanned legs were my Facebook profile picture for a while.

    Have I missed the joke or am I about to fall into a "black people can't (visibly) tan" cliché that's entirely false?

    ahh but i do believe black people can tan, aswell as get sunburn etc

    (i think)

    its just malanin in the skin isnt it?
    Keeping it classy since '83
  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    EKE_38BPM wrote:

    Generally, black people are not stupid enough to sit in the sun for ages trying to get skin cancer, so don't get tan lines. And (I think) we are less likely to get skin cancer anyway due to increased pigmentation.

    My brother Is much 'blacker' than me (mum's white, dad's black, I'm somewhere in between), but when he's out in the sun for a long time he gets much darker, just like anyone else would.

    My pale bits are darker than a lot of people's tanned bits, but it's obvious I've got (relatively) pale upper arms and legs compared to the lower halves.
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • EKE_38BPM
    EKE_38BPM Posts: 5,821
    SimonAH wrote:
    Baseball EKE, are you of septic extraction?

    Dems fighting words!

    My Grandad moved to the Yankland before I was born and I got into watching it with him when I visited on holiday.

    I imagine that black people can get sunburn but I never have. The skin on my back has peeled once when I spent all day in the Jamaican sun with no top on. I guess under similar circumstances a white person would have burnt to a crisp. I've never even thought about using sun block under any circumstances but I'm also not stupid enough to deliberately sit in the sun. If there is shade available, I'll use it.
    FCN 3: Raleigh Record Ace fixie-to be resurrected sometime in the future
    FCN 4: Planet X Schmaffenschmack 2- workhorse
    FCN 9: B Twin Vitamin - winter commuter/loan bike for trainees

    I'm hungry. I'm always hungry!
  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    mudcow007 wrote:

    ahh but i do believe black people can tan, aswell as get sunburn etc

    (i think)

    Of course, just like indian people can find food spicy, and white people can feel the cold! :lol:
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • EKE_38BPM
    EKE_38BPM Posts: 5,821
    bails87 wrote:
    mudcow007 wrote:

    ahh but i do believe black people can tan, aswell as get sunburn etc

    (i think)

    Of course, just like indian people can find food spicy, and white people can feel the cold! :lol:

    Apart from Paul who I was at university with. When everyone else was in hat, coat, scarf, gloves etc, he'd be in a shirt with the top two buttons undone. If he was particularly cold, he'd roll down his sleeves! He would wear a raincoat if it was wet though, he wasn't mad!
    FCN 3: Raleigh Record Ace fixie-to be resurrected sometime in the future
    FCN 4: Planet X Schmaffenschmack 2- workhorse
    FCN 9: B Twin Vitamin - winter commuter/loan bike for trainees

    I'm hungry. I'm always hungry!
  • chadders81
    chadders81 Posts: 744
    EKE_38BPM wrote:
    bails87 wrote:
    mudcow007 wrote:

    ahh but i do believe black people can tan, aswell as get sunburn etc

    (i think)

    Of course, just like indian people can find food spicy, and white people can feel the cold! :lol:

    Apart from Paul who I was at university with. When everyone else was in hat, coat, scarf, gloves etc, he'd be in a shirt with the top two buttons undone. If he was particularly cold, he'd roll down his sleeves! He would wear a raincoat if it was wet though, he wasn't mad!

    Geordie?
  • EKE_38BPM
    EKE_38BPM Posts: 5,821
    Chadders81 wrote:
    EKE_38BPM wrote:
    bails87 wrote:
    mudcow007 wrote:

    ahh but i do believe black people can tan, aswell as get sunburn etc

    (i think)

    Of course, just like indian people can find food spicy, and white people can feel the cold! :lol:

    Apart from Paul who I was at university with. When everyone else was in hat, coat, scarf, gloves etc, he'd be in a shirt with the top two buttons undone. If he was particularly cold, he'd roll down his sleeves! He would wear a raincoat if it was wet though, he wasn't mad!

    Geordie?

    No, Brummie.
    FCN 3: Raleigh Record Ace fixie-to be resurrected sometime in the future
    FCN 4: Planet X Schmaffenschmack 2- workhorse
    FCN 9: B Twin Vitamin - winter commuter/loan bike for trainees

    I'm hungry. I'm always hungry!
  • Confusedboy
    Confusedboy Posts: 287
    In the 70s I worked (!) for British Rail with an engine driver known as 'Overcoat Joe' who would, in all and any weather conditions and dressed in the big overcoat, gloves, scarf, goggles, and old-fashioned engine driver's hat, lean out of the side window Casey Jones stylee. On freezing winter nights and at speeds sometimes approaching the ton this was no joke for any poor sod who had to ride on the engine with him; it just never seemed right to him to shut the feckin' window and look through the windscreen. This was 10 years after the last steam engines had gone.

    The other anomoly with O/Joe was to see him resolutely huddled in his arctic garb looking like a refugee from the Eastern Front on a hot summer day, and we had a proper heatwave in '76. He never looked uncomfortable, though, or ever complained about either heat or cold. As for his tan, it was difficult to assess. The only bit of him you could see was his face, which was red.