Fred Season Comes early to soCal...

[ustabe]

These days I'm an old Fred. Rookie Freds are fine by me as long as they

• Hold a reasonably straight line
• Say something pleasant before taking my wheel
• Go easy on the "woo-hoo's"
• Don't yak on and on about gear
• Don't piss off passing motorists
• Don't tuck their jerseys into their bibs

 

[King Boonen]

Seems that the term Fred is different everywhere.

I'd use it in two ways:

1) To describe the guy riding £8000 worth of bike at 14mph around flat cycle lanes on only sunny Sunday mornings (the cycling golfer as I like to call them). I have no problem at all with these guys, if they want to spend their money that way more power to them.

2) The guys on club rides who have no idea what they should be doing in a bunch and seem completely unwilling to learn. I ride with two clubs, one is pretty much populated with racers, time trialists and guys who have ridden bikes for multiple decades and can comfortably do any ride they fancy. This club is fantastic, it's a lot more like riding with a group of mates as the core 10-20 riders turn up most weeks. We do varied runs, flat and fast or long with climbs and everything in between. Everyone talks to everyone, cafe stops are always a good laugh and everyone has been extremely friendly and welcoming, even when I've fallen off the back and they've had to wait for me! They have been extremely helpful giving me advice on technique, road craft and riding in general (and I take it all on board. I don't mind an irritated voice telling me to get left when we're flying along at 30mph, it's hard to sound pleasant at that speed and I'd much prefer they said something.).

The other club I ride with is much bigger. They have much more well defined pace groups (about 4 of them but sometimes 6-8) and I usually ride with the racers or the one below. These groups are fine but I have ridden with the slowest group in the past for recovery and this is populated with "Freds". Guys who can't hold a line, jump on the pedals as soon as they move across in the pace line, freewheel going downhill so everyone behind them has to brake constantly, randomly brake for things they could just roll through (several crashes have been caused by this) and who will not listen to anyone telling them not to do it. The worst thing is the guys who generally lead the group are some of the worst offenders. I'm not a member of the club so I don't say anything, but I know a couple of guys who ride in that group who have started to complain. To me, that's the cycling club Freds.



The guys who look down on other peoples' equipment, bully them into spending money on unnecessarily expensive upgrades (I ride steel because carbon will not make me faster thank you very much and 105 works perfectly), constantly go on and on about their victories in tiny local racers where they are beating guys who've only just started riding and who have to have the latest and greatest kit are just wankers.



The arseholes in cycling clubs are easily spotted and avoided, it's unfortunate but cycling does seem to attract larger than its fair share of them. I'm very lucky that there aren't any in the clubs I ride with, at least none that I've met.

 

[Boeing]

Re:

Seems that the term Fred is different everywhere.

I'd use it in two ways:

1) To describe the guy riding £8000 worth of bike at 14mph around flat cycle lanes on only sunny Sunday mornings (the cycling golfer as I like to call them). I have no problem at all with these guys, if they want to spend their money that way more power to them.

2) The guys on club rides who have no idea what they should be doing in a bunch and seem completely unwilling to learn. I ride with two clubs, one is pretty much populated with racers, time trialists and guys who have ridden bikes for multiple decades and can comfortably do any ride they fancy. This club is fantastic, it's a lot more like riding with a group of mates as the core 10-20 riders turn up most weeks. We do varied runs, flat and fast or long with climbs and everything in between. Everyone talks to everyone, cafe stops are always a good laugh and everyone has been extremely friendly and welcoming, even when I've fallen off the back and they've had to wait for me! They have been extremely helpful giving me advice on technique, road craft and riding in general (and I take it all on board. I don't mind an irritated voice telling me to get left when we're flying along at 30mph, it's hard to sound pleasant at that speed and I'd much prefer they said something.).

The other club I ride with is much bigger. They have much more well defined pace groups (about 4 of them but sometimes 6-8) and I usually ride with the racers or the one below. These groups are fine but I have ridden with the slowest group in the past for recovery and this is populated with "Freds". Guys who can't hold a line, jump on the pedals as soon as they move across in the pace line, freewheel going downhill so everyone behind them has to brake constantly, randomly brake for things they could just roll through (several crashes have been caused by this) and who will not listen to anyone telling them not to do it. The worst thing is the guys who generally lead the group are some of the worst offenders. I'm not a member of the club so I don't say anything, but I know a couple of guys who ride in that group who have started to complain. To me, that's the cycling club Freds.



The guys who look down on other peoples' equipment, bully them into spending money on unnecessarily expensive upgrades (I ride steel because carbon will not make me faster thank you very much and 105 works perfectly), constantly go on and on about their victories in tiny local racers where they are beating guys who've only just started riding and who have to have the latest and greatest kit are just wankers.



The arseholes in cycling clubs are easily spotted and avoided, it's unfortunate but cycling does seem to attract larger than its fair share of them. I'm very lucky that there aren't any in the clubs I ride with, at least none that I've met.

club ride guys unwilling to learn sucking wheel crossing wheel, surging when they take the front, and sprinting to every landmark. yup these guys are the worst.

 

[BigMac]

Something is not quire right.

Plus the latest innovation in countering magpie attacks.

 

[42x16ss]

I like to tell people like the guy in the top photo that most companies won't insure bikes with more than 40mm of spacers for safety and reliability reasons (which is true in Australia). From time to time you get guys who switch on and either learn what a proper bike fit is, or get a correctly fitting bike.

Seeing people like that makes me nervous for them.

 

[winkybiker]

Re:

I like to tell people like the guy in the top photo that most companies won't insure bikes with more than 40mm of spacers for safety and reliability reasons (which is true in Australia). From time to time you get guys who switch on and either learn what a proper bike fit is, or get a correctly fitting bike.

Seeing people like that makes me nervous for them.

Man, that is a tiny frame for him. I hope he got it cheap.

 

[Stingray34]

There is no orthodox way to either ride, set-up a bike or dress. This is an older guy who may have a spinal/cervical injury and can't get low. He seems to do ok - he's wearing a 591km tour shirt I assume he completed. The frame does look a bit small for him, yet his saddle height isn't extreme. It may be a case he has relatively short legs compared to a long torso.

He's out there doing it; he doesn't care for the opinion of a bunch of prissy dilettantes. Your pace groups are worse than a sewing circle!

Why do you only identify with the pros when there's so many ways to roll? We just got gay marriage but some people are still right-wing and conservative with something like cycling? Like Woody Guthrie's guitar, a bike is a machine that kills fascists.

 

[42x16ss]

There is no orthodox way to either ride, set-up a bike or dress. This is an older guy who may have a spinal/cervical injury and can't get low. He seems to do ok - he's wearing a 591km tour shirt I assume he completed. The frame does look a bit small for him, yet his saddle height isn't extreme. It may be a case he has relatively short legs compared to a long torso.

He's out there doing it; he doesn't care for the opinion of a bunch of prissy dilettantes. Your pace groups are worse than a sewing circle!

Why do you only identify with the pros when there's so many ways to roll? We just got gay marriage but some people are still right-wing and conservative with something like cycling? Like Woody Guthrie's guitar, a bike is a machine that kills fascists.

I just want to see people on bikes that are made to fit them from the factory, not an unsuitable bike made unsafe in an attempt to fit the rider. I don't mean to be a snob, I just want to see people like the guy above on something like a Specialised Roubaix or Giant Defy in the correct size and ditch most of that tower of spacers.

 

[Stingray34]

There is no orthodox way to either ride, set-up a bike or dress. This is an older guy who may have a spinal/cervical injury and can't get low. He seems to do ok - he's wearing a 591km tour shirt I assume he completed. The frame does look a bit small for him, yet his saddle height isn't extreme. It may be a case he has relatively short legs compared to a long torso.

He's out there doing it; he doesn't care for the opinion of a bunch of prissy dilettantes. Your pace groups are worse than a sewing circle!

Why do you only identify with the pros when there's so many ways to roll? We just got gay marriage but some people are still right-wing and conservative with something like cycling? Like Woody Guthrie's guitar, a bike is a machine that kills fascists.

I just want to see people on bikes that are made to fit them from the factory, not an unsuitable bike made unsafe in an attempt to fit the rider. I don't mean to be a snob, I just want to see people like the guy above on something like a Specialised Roubaix or Giant Defy in the correct size and ditch most of that tower of spacers.

And I agree with you - yes, he could do with a better fit, and I imagine his flexibility issues may come into that, so he will never have anything approaching a slammed stem. This is something that bemuses me: Hinault, Merckx, Coppi and even Lemond never rode with one as the bike geometry of the day didn't make it possible. I find it an odd fetishism.

I know you're not a snob, mate, and I didn't mean to impugn you as such; I was ranting against a subset of riders I've known down the years. I really shouldn't project like that - you're a good poster and someone who'd be a good ride buddy. I simply know from experience that the strangest-looking cyclists are often wonderful people and, because they love to ride, often amazingly strong and have great stories to tell.

To me, cycling is freedom; it should never be constrained by fashion. That's all. Ride and let ride.

 

[StinkFist]

To me, cycling is freedom; it should never be constrained by fashion. That's all. Ride and let ride.

Amen to that brother -

 

[winkybiker]

Re:

To me, cycling is freedom; it should never be constrained by fashion. That's all. Ride and let ride.

Amen to that brother -

100%. Just as those who care little about how they look should be free and un-judged, so too should those that take care (and spend $$) to look a certain way. Ride a grubby, squeaky beater in in cut-off jeans and cocs - fine. Ride an immaculately tuned and clean $14,000 mega-bike in fully matching Rapha or Assos - fine too. Just ride.

 

[Stingray34]

I agree wholeheartedly with with Winky, Stinky and 42x16y!

 

[DirtyWorks]

I just want to see people on bikes that are made to fit them from the factory, not an unsuitable bike made unsafe in an attempt to fit the rider. I don't mean to be a snob, I just want to see people like the guy above on something like a Specialised Roubaix or Giant Defy in the correct size and ditch most of that tower of spacers.

Except, we can thank Giant for going from 10(?) sizes to 3. So, the whole "fitting the rider" thing is pretty much lost unless:
1. You are that person that needs a custom setup. I'd put this about 20% of all riders, me included.
2. You know enough, or are responsibly advised, what a decent fit feels like.

I want more people on bikes in all kinds of ways I could not imagine. I'm selfish. The more people on bikes, the better my chances at good/improved road access.

 

[Boeing]

tis the season: dudes suddenly copying Tony Martin and the like riding with their forearms on the bars like its a skill set are FREDS I'll go as far as saying the dudes doing that at Coffee and Como this week are too.

 

[ustabe]

Except, we can thank Giant for going from 10(?) sizes to 3.

Actually, it's six.

The guy in the photo looks like he'd be happiest on a Large Defy.