Happy to talk. I see very very few 70+ riders on ebikes. The vast majority are either kids or middle aged. I do take note of older riders as I’m getting up there myself. I got my first adult road bike in 1970. I’m only 72 but am really slow. That doesn’t prevent me from riding. I just go as good and as far as I can. For me, that’s a big part of getting older. I just keep at it despite getting slower and having less endurance. I have no interest an ebike.
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I guess just getting back into MTBing my experience with ebikes being a problem on trails is limited. I saw a couple unloading some that didn’t seem malicious and some guys hitting the jump park that were riding up while their buddies walked. No problem with either.
Been on shop group rides and the local chill group with people on them and in both cases they would not have been out there without them. My mom is even considering one so she can go on rides with my dad.
I also see lots being used as just general transportation. Couple parents use them for dropping kids off at my daughters preschool. Getting to work less sweaty is a plus. Getting the kiddo to school with one less car, a plus.
No issue in any of those cases.
What I do see the most and being a problem is the general transportation group being insanely reckless. Flying down sidewalks, riding the wrong way against traffic in areas with curbing and no real shoulder. This guy was at least with traffic but I looked up while getting fuel the other day and saw a guy on an e-scooter in the middle of 3 lanes on an insanely busy road that is hard to drive a car on at times, the chaos he was causing was mind boggling. This is the group the general public sees the most.
I don’t think we need to license them, license the operator etc. But that last group is what is going to cause that sort of thing to happen and be harmful for those who are trying to use them for good purposes.
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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 video…
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, “in case you’re wondering, that’s not the actual national champ on the Stars and Stripes, but the U23 winner. Not sure if I’d be wearing that jersey bud.” 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 didn’t care for it when she was 1, but got over it pretty quick realizing that no helmet=no ride.
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Here’s 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. I’d like to see the profiles with the distance reversed, so it’s miles to go.
And. When viewing the race from a moto ahead of the riders, the commentators refer to left and right from the viewer’s perspective rather than the riders’ perspective. I’m always thinking from the riders perspective so “right” means rider’s right, not viewer’s right.
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This morning I was watching the NBC sports recaps for stages of the 2023 TDF. I noticed this exact thing - I really wished they’d say like, “left of your screen” or “on the rider’s left.”
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For me this is the real issue. I have a lot of multi-use trails in my area. I occasionally get yelled at if I’m riding at the 15 mph speed limit on my human powered bike. Now throw in all of the non-bike e-devices, that don’t follow the trail rules and usually are above 15 mph and it becomes very sketchy. Anybody not walking becomes the enemy, when it’s that subset that is screwing it up for all of us.
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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.
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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 doesn’t 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 “imagery” 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 “mansplaining” when I suggested she try to at least take in X number of calories per hour.
5). I don’t mind ebikes but if someone is on one, and they don’t even have to pedal to go up a hill, then that bike should not be allowed on trails.
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the overuse of acronym
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. We’re making the drivers look good. These are the same streets we share with our policy-makers so eventually we’re gonna get f***ed and all lose. Jumping a quiet light occasionally when safe isn’t 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.
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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 you’d 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.
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I am curious what you are talking about here? You don’t 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 think he’s talking about the fake rules of cycling - The Velominati.
Those rules were started as a tongue in cheek joke. The irony is those that actually take them seriously.
Another “fake” internet thing. Nobody seemed to talk about sock length before the internet existed.
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Ah… never heard of this. Yeah I get how that could be annoying. 
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I have a feeling we’re talking about different rules.
Yea, the “rules” as mentioned above. That’s 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.
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You nailed it on so many points. Watching folks like Joe Goettl even after his race is totally screwed because of mechanical. He’s 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 it’s the national championship taking huge risks. Leave a little more space than you normally would, take a chill pill, let someone else ‘win’ if that means having to choose the safe option. We’re all there for the fitness and to get home safely.
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1000 times this!! The rules apply to all road users! 
Snot rockets and spitting are foul full stop. 
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If its completely dead and no one is around to see you do it 
I’d 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 there’s 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 there’s been less than 50 vehicles through the intersection in the last half hour, turn off the damn arrows!
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