This. Even reading some of the comments here - the judgment. Seeing some of these things is just baffling - like are people really that worked up about seeing expensive bikes or certain jerseys?
I watch a ton of gravel racing videos on the trainer and Drew Dillman was the absolute worst at criticizing everyone around him during his narration. He plays it off as joking, but the fact he obviously notices these things to point them out is wild. He often criticizes things like bike handling skills, but had also mentioned sock lengths and jerseys⌠in a videoâŚ
At one of the races a U23 (or maybe younger?) national champ was riding near him. In the video he points out something along the lines of, âin case youâre wondering, thatâs not the actual national champ on the Stars and Stripes, but the U23 winner. Not sure if Iâd be wearing that jersey bud.â Like - wth is that kind of comment to bash on a kid who earned that right?
All that aside, safety related things seem like a reasonable pet peeve. Adults are one thing, but mannnn it kills me seeing kids in bike trailers not wearing helmets. I pull our daughter quite a bit, and would never comprehend not putting a helmet on it. Of course she didnât care for it when she was 1, but got over it pretty quick realizing that no helmet=no ride.
Hereâs one. Race profiles show distance from the start, but race coverage shows distance to go. You need to subtract the distance to go from the total distance to see where they are on the profile. Iâd like to see the profiles with the distance reversed, so itâs miles to go.
And. When viewing the race from a moto ahead of the riders, the commentators refer to left and right from the viewerâs perspective rather than the ridersâ perspective. Iâm always thinking from the riders perspective so ârightâ means riderâs right, not viewerâs right.
This morning I was watching the NBC sports recaps for stages of the 2023 TDF. I noticed this exact thing - I really wished theyâd say like, âleft of your screenâ or âon the riderâs left.â
For me this is the real issue. I have a lot of multi-use trails in my area. I occasionally get yelled at if Iâm riding at the 15 mph speed limit on my human powered bike. Now throw in all of the non-bike e-devices, that donât follow the trail rules and usually are above 15 mph and it becomes very sketchy. Anybody not walking becomes the enemy, when itâs that subset that is screwing it up for all of us.
Yea, I stopped watching his videos because most of the commentary was just cringey and condescending. Just felt like he was trying too hard to be one of the cool kids.
Pet Peeves:
1). Ankle socks. Mid-calf socks only. I know this is petty but you asked for pet peeves and this is one. It just doesnât look good on anyone and makes me think they are possibly a triathlete
2). Riding two abreast when cars are stacking up behind you. Yes, I know the law might give you permission to ride that way but there are already too many angry motorist on the road and we should be doing everything we can to create good âimageryâ among the non-cycling public
3). Blatantly running stop signs/red lights when other cars are around. At least pause long enough to let the cars around you realize you are trying to abide by the law a little bit. Again, it just gives the motorists one more thing to gripe about us.
4). Not warning those behind you if you are about to blow a snot rocket
5). Not showing up to group rides with enough water and/or nutrition for the stated distance/time. I had one local rider who would always attempt to do fasted rides. By the time we got to the third hour of riding, she was clearly bonking and one of us always had to share nutrition with her. She did this many times. One of the other female cyclist had to talk to her about bringing nutrition on the rides because I was accused of âmansplainingâ when I suggested she try to at least take in X number of calories per hour.
5). I donât mind ebikes but if someone is on one, and they donât even have to pedal to go up a hill, then that bike should not be allowed on trails.
Going though red lights in my part of London has become the norm, not the exception, exacerbated by the proliferation of electric hire bikes, and food delivery services on illegal e-bikes. I want more people cycling, but generally no helmets, breaking every rule, poorly handling a bike that already handles like a damaged supermarket trolley with a phone in one hand. Weâre making the drivers look good. These are the same streets we share with our policy-makers so eventually weâre gonna get f***ed and all lose. Jumping a quiet light occasionally when safe isnât too bad, but honestly feels like 50% of commuters are stopping at NONE, and lack the skills to really deal with trouble when it comes.
I think this stuff mostly exists in anonymous keyboard warrior culture and hardly at all in real life.
I was in a large road oriented cycling club with everyone from cat 1s to 70 year old guys still trying to hang with the group. Lots of love all the way around with everybody doing their own thing at their level.
The internet has also created the dopamine hit people get for posting a pic of their new bike somewhere or having some big ride posted on Strava. When I started cycling, you could buy the most awesome new bike and youâd get a couple of "nice bike"s at the group ride and that would be it. Nobody would give a crap. You could set a new PR on your favorite climb and nobody would know. The only way for real cycling cred back in the day was winning a big local race and, of course, those achieve are very few and far between or non-existent for most.
I am curious what you are talking about here? You donât think people who break the rules should be called out?
I get it if you are talking about something like sock length but if you are talking about PEDs or course cutting this probably belongs over in the unpopular opinion thread.
I have a feeling weâre talking about different rules.
Yea, the ârulesâ as mentioned above. Thatâs actually why I put them in quotes to highlight how dumb they are. They were meant to be a joke but some people follow them seriously.
You nailed it on so many points. Watching folks like Joe Goettl even after his race is totally screwed because of mechanical. Heâs still out there pushing and complimenting riders all over the place regardless of age, skill, gender⌠whatever. Such a classy guy lifting people up.
Then you have folks like Drew who promote absolutely toxic thinking all over the place.
My pet peeve is folks treating drop rides or hard group rides like itâs the national championship taking huge risks. Leave a little more space than you normally would, take a chill pill, let someone else âwinâ if that means having to choose the safe option. Weâre all there for the fitness and to get home safely.
If its completely dead and no one is around to see you do it
Iâd say it was more like 95% of all bicycle users. Just chuffin wait. I also bet many of these people are the same ones that then jump on social media accusing cyclists of all sorts
Running red lights at congested city intersections is not a new thing. I saw a number of bike messengers doing it ~20-25 years ago in Brisbane, but the number of e-commuters doing it now plus the number of video cameras around does rather make it more visible.
My related pet peeve is the requirement to wait for a green right turn arrow (drive-on-left country) when thereâs not enough steel in the bike to activate the induction loops to cause a green turn arrow, & no buttons around for cyclists to push.
Edit to add: Red turn arrows during times of minimal traffic⌠10pm to 6am for example. If thereâs been less than 50 vehicles through the intersection in the last half hour, turn off the damn arrows!
This!!
I recall one such ninja leading the group around a roundabout, almost got skittled by a car entering the intersection. Driver was looking into the sun, the group was coming out of shade.
My gloves are also dayglo: what use is sticking out my arm if the arm isnât seen? My complexion is quite dark for a caucasian.
Iâd rather look like a Christmas tree than a squashed wallaby.
Even if thereâs a single red flasher on the ninja bike, do they consider if a car driver has an undiagnosed retina degeneration? Or if the flasher itself is in the driverâs A-pillar blindspot but the rest of the cyclist isnât, but is in colors too muted to be seen?
RACING in another teamâs jersey? Sure, thatâs maybe not a great look.
But I donât think the guy on your local group ride wearing an EF Education kit is either convincing anyone that theyâre a member of the world tour team or devaluing the team in any way.
Just like the guy playing pickup basketball in the park in a Lakers jersey isnât devaluing the real Lakers team.
If anything, the more people wearing a World Tour teamâs jersey, the higher value that bring to the team. These teams are marketing and entertainment engines. You buying that jersey puts a couple hundred dollars into the team, brings it and itâs sponsors to the eyes of dozens (or more) people who might never actually see that jersey, etc etc.
