What are your unpopular cycling opinions?

I got a couple of opinions more:

  1. In 2023 is really not acceptable to have cables exposed in your bike.

  2. There’s a bubble in gravel events in the US.

  3. Just because you have been cycling and racing for a while and understand training, It does not qualified you to be a coach.

  4. Unbound is a flat, muddy, humid, chunky and boring race. Vastly overrated.

  5. Gravel in the Alps, the Andes and the Rockies is the real deal, the rest is fire roads.

Enough for today.

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Not interested in 2 hour stem changes.

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To heap more onto the coaching pile:

Elite athletes make terrible coaches.

Coaching is less about the training and more about mentoring & buy-in.

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Holding an “opinion” contrary to validated and testable facts isn’t an opinion, it is just being stupid and obtuse…

My unpopular opinion: bikes that see the most abuse should be carbon… with the following justification, carbon frames typically can be repaired for a reasonable price, and cheaper if you don’t need paint matching. A dented aluminum frame is just a wall decoration…

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Giving you a thumbs up because I genuinely don’t like this.

It’s… I would say “leaking”… But really, the right phrase is “being dumped” into the mtb industry. Even though it’s nearly impossible to hide mtb hoses. So you get the worst of headset routing and still dealing with exposed cables. And with lockouts and droppers, it’s a rats nest at the handlebars.

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Ice cream is better than cake on the coffee stop

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This is unpopular for the lactose intolerant among us!! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Silly Roadie etiquette
You shouldn’t be seen with
A bum bag
Black socks
Long socks
Your jacket tied round your waist or stuffed down your bibs.
Goretex shorts
Hairy legs

Just adding ,I happily have all of these :rofl:

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Unpopular Opinion: If you need help with mentoring and buy in, there’s no reason to have a coach.

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Fixed that one :smiley:

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I prefer Cake :yum:

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Hmm. Middle ground of ice cream cake? With a layer of fudge in the middle?

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Best one of the thread. And this applies to all of life, not just cycling. I have absolutely zero patience for these types…even with myself being a contrarian. But wrong is wrong.

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Actually one might argue those are the one’s who need it the most!

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I would argue what they need is to decide how much investment they want to put into cycling. There’s no right or wrong answer to that question. But I’ve always wondered why anyone would work harder at a sport for someone ELSE than themselves.

This is why I never understood team sports lol…

Could also mean “on your bike”. One incentive to upgrade from mechanical gearing and brakes.

What does this rubber bumper really do anyway?


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Yeah. I’m not interested in stem changes period. I prefer integrated stem/handlebar (aero optimized of course).

If you have your fit absolutely dialled and don’t need to use your bike for anything else then integrated bar + stem is completely fine. Like you said, why do you need to change your stem so often anyway?

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Not really an issue for me at the moment but I would think age (particularly growing age) would be the reason for changing a stem length more frequently. For me I adapt to the bike and the only reason I’ve changed it has been due to a bike fit.

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Unfortunately for many of us, the stock integrated stem/HB combo doesn’t fit…which necessitates a swap, which is, in turn, ungodly expensive or time consuming.

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