Should You Wear Team Kits?

[durianrider]

This is me wearing my team kit whilst out training with some posers.

Wear what you want, just dont make it the silver glitter body suit the guy down the beach wears whilst riding his TT bike at Semaphore...

 

[Anonymous]

I still find it a bit weird. I certainly never wear current kit on the bike (and wearing full kit with shorts and socks is just downright odd)

Dont know why, i will wear my old pdm shirt out on the bike, but would never dream of wearing the sky kit out on the bike, i would just feel odd. Im just weird.

 

[craig1985]

I'm personally happy when I'm at the bike shop I hang out at, and seeing somebody buying a team jersey so they can go riding in.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

It's strange. I would proudly go football with my friends in my favourite team's jersey. But i'll never buy a cycling team jersey.

 

[NashbarShorts]

I bought the Mercatone Uno kit once. Yellow shorts were X-rated so I had to return the whole kit

As for cool team jerseys I still own and think look very sharp:

Festina ('99 blue)
Vitalicio Seguros (red)

 

[Bob Sanders]

There are team kits and then there are national champion team kits.

Of the latter I saw a Saxo Luxembourg champions jersey out in the hills last week-end and had to cringe. Team kit I can stand, champions kit should be earned.

In my opinion that is the best looking National Champion jersey in the peleton. I think it should be an exception to the rule due to sheer awesomeness, especially since everyone knows that the Schlecks win it every year so mistaken identity is unlikely. As an American I cringed at the ghastly kit Hincapie was wearing this year.

 

[craig1985]

In my opinion that is the best looking National Champion jersey in the peleton. I think it should be an exception to the rule due to sheer awesomeness, especially since everyone knows that the Schlecks win it every year so mistaken identity is unlikely. As an American I cringed at the ghastly kit Hincapie was wearing this year.

Levi's was worse IMO:

 

[CycloErgoSum]

Some serious cyclists are really peculiar.

Imagine someone just starting out cycling, enjoying the air, the effort and the thrill of travel under their own power. They buy a colourful jersey at their bike shop and have little idea it's a current trade team or champions jersey. It's just a nice jersey. Then, out on a ride, some self-important jerk 'challenges' them to ride like a pro. The new cyclist would be dumb-founded and justifiably reluctant to pursue further contact with all these weekend warriors who regard others not as people or moral equals, but as opponents to be beaten, threatened, dominated and vanquished.

And we complain that Lance is a sociopath. He aint alone.

This baloney about 'respecting' the award jerseys and having to earn them; holding this position is a bit precious. What a way to congratulate yourself by association! Denying yourself a champions jersey because you think you have to earn one is far more self-flattering than wearing one. Yellow is just a colour. Those bands sure do look pretty.

Ride and let ride. All the crap cyclists take from other road users, don't you think accepting each other is a better way to go? They're just threads, man!

 

[Marva32]

Some serious cyclists are really peculiar.

Ride and let ride. All the crap cyclists take from other road users, don't you think accepting each other is a better way to go? They're just threads, man!

Chapeauadding to make requirement

 

[nowhereman]

Some serious cyclists are really peculiar.

Imagine someone just starting out cycling, enjoying the air, the effort and the thrill of travel under their own power. They buy a colourful jersey at their bike shop and have little idea it's a current trade team or champions jersey. It's just a nice jersey. Then, out on a ride, some self-important jerk 'challenges' them to ride like a pro. The new cyclist would be dumb-founded and justifiably reluctant to pursue further contact with all these weekend warriors who regard others not as people or moral equals, but as opponents to be beaten, threatened, dominated and vanquished.

And we complain that Lance is a sociopath. He aint alone.

This baloney about 'respecting' the award jerseys and having to earn them; holding this position is a bit precious. What a way to congratulate yourself by association! Denying yourself a champions jersey because you think you have to earn one is far more self-flattering than wearing one. Yellow is just a colour. Those bands sure do look pretty.

Ride and let ride. All the crap cyclists take from other road users, don't you think accepting each other is a better way to go? They're just threads, man!

Bravo!!! well put. You hit the nail right on the head. The thread should end with that comment, but we know better.
BTW, I play tennis too, and I've won tournaments. But I never get confused about my abilities, and I used to wear the same outfits as Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Vilas and more recently Roger Federer.
If the same "rules" were in place on tennis courts, every body would be scurrying about in anonymous sneakers, tank top t-shirts and gym shorts, because hardly anyone would "deserve" to wear the attire of those champions. Cyclists ought to figure out more real things to ***** about, than what someone wants to wear.

 

[luckyboy]

Just got this

 

[slowoldman]

Grown men in sports jerseys of their favorite teams look ridiculous. That's my opinion, it doesn't make me a self important jerk anymore than yours. I wouldn't wear a team jersey, period. It is quite different than wearing the same tennis attire of your favorite professional. (That would be comparable to wearing some black Castelli clothing which is perfectly acceptable to me).

Don't be this guy........

 

[CycloErgoSum]

That would be comparable to wearing some black Castelli clothing which is perfectly acceptable to me

Cycling pret-a-porter

So you don't feel happy when you see a fellow cyclist unless they subscribe to arbitrary dress codes?

Okay, a bit limiting, but okay.

I guess H.G. Wells got it wrong. He should have written: When I see a man no more than 70kg riding the latest carbon rig (but not in pro-team livery) and wearing the latest season Italian-brand racing jersey and lactic-acid reducing compression bib and brace shorts with his helmet straps underneath his limited edition Rudy Projects (non-rainbow stripe edition) and socks of certain narrowly-acceptable height, colours and brands, I feel optimism for not merely mankind, but also capitalism, fashion, snobbery, pettiness, craven desire, division, misery and enslavement, for all other proprieties are naff.

He would have really nailed it then.

 

[slowoldman]

Cycling pret-a-porter

So you don't feel happy when you see a fellow cyclist unless they subscribe to arbitrary dress codes?

Okay, a bit limiting, but okay.

I guess H.G. Wells got it wrong. He should have written: When I see a man no more than 70kg riding the latest carbon rig (but not in pro-team livery) and wearing the latest season Italian-brand racing jersey and lactic-acid reducing compression bib and brace shorts with his helmet straps underneath his limited edition Rudy Projects (non-rainbow stripe edition) and socks of certain narrowly-acceptable height, colours and brands, I feel optimism for not merely mankind, but also capitalism, fashion, snobbery, pettiness, craven desire, division, misery and enslavement, for all other proprieties are naff.

He would have really nailed it then.

You're reading into my post things I didn't say. I would ride with them, in fact I do almost everyday, they make me neither happy or unhappy. I just think they look silly as do grown men in basketball, baseball, hockey, football (either american or other) et al.

 

[King Of Molehill]

It's not what you wear, it's how you wear it.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Some of you guys sound sillier than teenage girls gossiping about fashion in the school cafeteria,..

OMG! did you see what she was wearing? Who does she think she is? Yeah only if she actually earned the right to wear that. We should tease her until she develops an eating disorder.

Just sayin'

 

[M Sport]

You're reading into my post things I didn't say. I would ride with them, in fact I do almost everyday, they make me neither happy or unhappy. I just think they look silly as do grown men in basketball, baseball, hockey, football (either american or other) et al.

And that's exactly my opinion on the topic as well, makes be neither happy nor unhappy and some of our riding group does wear team kits. About the only time I do have something to say is when we pass a group with a country champion kit wearer, I just can't resist letting fly with the 'there goes fabain out the back door comments, or cadel, or boonen, pozatto, etc , etc.

So in line with other peoples comments, yes national champion gear does draw more friendly fire

 

[CycloErgoSum]

Hey, look what I found...

The opening paragraph of Tim Krabbe's seminal cycling novel, The Rider, aptly sums up the perspective of people like SlantyCampy and the group whose members are called serious cyclists.

'Hot and overcast. I take my gear out of the car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me.' (p.1, 1977).

Groups maintain their identity in many ways; for the serious cyclist it is by competition and group hierachy is rigidly maintained through this practice. All value is perceived via the prism of winning and losing. Serious cyclists (known colloquially as 'Cat 2' or higher) tend to exhibit macho exterior socially, but are often earnest, anxious rule-followers psychologically. Tendency to employ military argot, such as 'does draw friendly fire' (context unknown to this author). The serious cyclist also seems unaware that such life as constructed by him is nasty, brutish and short.

It's not liberal-minded and scorns individuality, dissension or difference. As a corporate entity, it resembles not merely a clique, but a cult. Like a cult, significant moral and social values are constructed by the area of interest and shared among its members.

Significant irrational value is placed upon clothing and bicycle speed. New members and non-members are scorned and regarded with a mixture of pity and suspicion. Fellow cult member identification and discrimination can be very poor, leading to obnoxious outbursts at perceived cult members over their clothing choice, often in conjuction with their speed. Some kind of inverse relationship, perceptible and sensible to cult members exclusively, may be relevent in this regard.

The cycling cult's high-status or otherwise committed members also tend towards endogamy: their close friends are serious cyclists as 'only they can understand me.' The endogamy can even go as far as career and marriage-partner selection.

Kool-aid scenarios for this group can be avoided by getting out more and by having a good read and a think.

from The Modern Golden Bough or Why Our Society is So Fvcked Up
by Sir James Frazer Jnr
Introduction by Sir David Attenborough

- Look for this in your local bookshop or check out Amazon.

 

[CycloErgoSum]

It's not what you wear, it's how you wear it.

Levi sure is an open-faced handsome dude. Actually, with the wig he looks like CVV. In addition to doping, are these guys being cloned?

 

[redtreviso]

I want a Katusha jersey..I think it would raise the blood pressure of a certain type of people.

 

[9000ft]

Some of you guys sound sillier than teenage girls gossiping about fashion in the school cafeteria,..

OMG! did you see what she was wearing? Who does she think she is? Yeah only if she actually earned the right to wear that. We should tease her until she develops an eating disorder.

Just sayin'

Isn't this what most Internet forums - especially when they are populated by self proclaimed "experts" in their fields - are about?

 

[nowhereman]

Hey, look what I found...

The opening paragraph of Tim Krabbe's seminal cycling novel, The Rider, aptly sums up the perspective of people like SlantyCampy and the group whose members are called serious cyclists.

'Hot and overcast. I take my gear out of the car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me.' (p.1, 1977).

Groups maintain their identity in many ways; for the serious cyclist it is by competition and group hierachy is rigidly maintained through this practice. All value is perceived via the prism of winning and losing. Serious cyclists (known colloquially as 'Cat 2' or higher) tend to exhibit macho exterior socially, but are often earnest, anxious rule-followers psychologically. Tendency to employ military argot, such as 'does draw friendly fire' (context unknown to this author). The serious cyclist also seems unaware that such life as constructed by him is nasty, brutish and short.

It's not liberal-minded and scorns individuality, dissension or difference. As a corporate entity, it resembles not merely a clique, but a cult. Like a cult, significant moral and social values are constructed by the area of interest and shared among its members.

Significant irrational value is placed upon clothing and bicycle speed. New members and non-members are scorned and regarded with a mixture of pity and suspicion. Fellow cult member identification and discrimination can be very poor, leading to obnoxious outbursts at perceived cult members over their clothing choice, often in conjuction with their speed. Some kind of inverse relationship, perceptible and sensible to cult members exclusively, may be relevent in this regard.

The cycling cult's high-status or otherwise committed members also tend towards endogamy: their close friends are serious cyclists as 'only they can understand me.' The endogamy can even go as far as career and marriage-partner selection.

Kool-aid scenarios for this group can be avoided by getting out more and by having a good read and a think.

from The Modern Golden Bough or Why Our Society is So Fvcked Up
by Sir James Frazer Jnr
Introduction by Sir David Attenborough

- Look for this in your local bookshop or check out Amazon.

I just caught up with this. That was GREAT! BRAVO!!!!

 

[NashbarShorts]

Should grown men wear FULL team kits, including gloves and socks?

I'll agree, probably not. But what I find amusing and IRONIC, is that usually the ppl who feel strongest about this issue, are CLUB cyclists...

These are the ppl who joined a local club, by paying the membership fee. It was not based on any merit or ability. They were not "selected" or "invited", or chosen based on results. Instead, they paid a membership fee, then were directed to the club's website. And then they whipped the credit card out and bought the COMPLETE club kit -- even down to the matching socks and shoecovers.

Now, they wear the kit religiously. Everytime you seem them, they are dressed to the hilt. Socks, shoecovers (seriously, is there any argument to EVER wear shoe covers??), gloves, windvest, even cap under their helmet.

And yet they laugh when they see somebody wearing a 'team kit'. "Look at that dork!"

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

 

[NickBVK]

I picked up a BMC replica kit in Geelong for $80, I thought why not for 80 bux.

I wear the bibknicks with just a plain or random jersey, as they are far more comfortable than my shorts.

Am yet to wear the BMC jersey and probably only would as a joke if my group ride decided to tackle a harder route or stage a 'race'