Terms which differentiate between cyclists

EvaTheDiscTrucker
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Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby EvaTheDiscTrucker » Thu Jun 07, 2018 11:24 pm

Hi BNA Think Tank!

This might seem like a stupid question but I've been away from the cycling scene for nearly 30yrs and not up to date. Back in my day a 10 speed bike was a "racer". Over the next 2 years I will be writing extensively and making vlogs about my ride, so I just thought I better get the correct terminology down early :)

What terminology do you use to say what kind of cyclist you are?
I'm taking off on a 2yr ride around Australia in summer (Tassie first) and have been wondering if the pannier outback kinda touring cyclist has a more specific or succinct name.
What other types of terms are used for other forms of cycling?
Is there an easy way of talking about being a cyclist without always needing to say bicyclist so not to be confused with motor cyclists? Or is bicyclist a perfectly acceptable generic name to establish i am human-powered?

Cheers!

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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby AUbicycles » Fri Jun 08, 2018 4:54 am

Depends.... there can be different ways to describe.

If you are decribing bikes, on the drop bar / performance side you generally talk about road bikes, TT bikes, gravel bikes and CX bikes. For road bikes you may talk about an endurance or Gran Fondo bikes and use terms like relaxed geomtry and comfort bike for road bikes suited for longer distances. For shorter distances and race performance you could use terms like aggressive or crit bike.

Road style bikes for touring can be called touring bikes but a touring bike can also be a flat bar bike. Looking in the Touring Australia section - there are a couple if brands like Surly and Vivente with bikes well suited, but discussions there will help you with context.
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andrewjcw
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby andrewjcw » Fri Jun 08, 2018 7:56 am

I wouldn't worry about cyclist vs motorcyclist. It might be different elsewhere but in Australia I can't imagine someone ever saying cyclist to mean a motorcyclist. You would never say someone out on a motorbike ride has gone cycling. Some normal terms for types of riders I might use are:

Recreational cyclist - Sunday ride to the jetty with flowers in the front basket
Regular cyclist - lights/shoes riding to work or training for a charity ride
Club cyclist - club lycra with group training rides. Weekend racing or training for a big ride
Competitive/elite racer - Goes to state/national meets and has a coach/training plan
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outnabike
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby outnabike » Fri Jun 08, 2018 8:31 am

I reckon it is at times a position of perspective and we ought to be called "vehiclists." I mean a vehiclist in a car dressed in lycra is still a vehiclist isn't he? Or is he suddenly a Lyca vehiclist?

We see the pedelec which is a bike with a motor on it....So it is a pedelec right?

If a bike has a petrol motor even though it operates to the same parameters as a pedelec, ie. speed etc and needs to be peddled it is a motor bike person that has gone cycling.

Hence the blurring of the terms, and is responsible for Vespas and Harlie's in the bike lanes. When traffic is busy , I find even motor cars turn into bicycles and come into the bike lanes erroneously, not realizing they are in a motor car. :)

Similarly car drivers do not realise that a bicycle is a vehicle...Probably why they keep screaming "gid orrf da road" That is why they try to clarify a cyclist with signs that have a picture of this vehicle thingo with two wheels telling other vehiclist persons to "Share the road"

"Share the road" is a common term to ensure that the two wheeled vehiclists ride in the gutter. :D

Of course :) I might be wrong .....
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby P!N20 » Fri Jun 08, 2018 9:11 am

EvaTheDiscTrucker wrote:Back in my day a 10 speed bike was a "racer".
Well that explains all the 'racer' ads on Gumtree.

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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby Arbuckle23 » Fri Jun 08, 2018 11:13 am

I do remember the term "Semi Racer" from when I was a boy back a couple of centuries ago

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Thoglette
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby Thoglette » Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:00 pm

EvaTheDiscTrucker wrote: Back in my day a 10 speed bike was a "racer".
Three things happened since then. In order, roughly by decade.

a) MTB and racing bikes ruled the Anglosphere. Everything else went extinct, or nearly so. Racing tyres got down to 19mm, with bikes designed around a 23mm training tyre. The UCI banned "funny" bikes. As a result tri-bikes evolution diverged away from road bikes.

The TdF is haunted by doping scandals. Australia introduces MHLs

b) In the next decade, hipsters climbed out of some primordial soup, somewhere, bringing their fixies along with them. MTBs evolved from 26" to 29er, becoming a diverse phylum (hard/soft, XC/downhill, dropper, single). With race bikes being, like, bloody useless for anything other than racing, "hybrid" bikes evolved from MTBs.
This prompted a whole bunch of people to re-evaluate their biking needs, looking to Holland, Copenhagen & Tokyo and wondering about bikes for the rest of us. Small manufacturers proliferated and small businesses started importing stuff direct from Europe, Japan and Taiwan. The words "650B" were no longer just whispered in dark corners. The S24O takes off.

Grant Peterson says "I told you so".

The TdF is haunted by doping scandals. People ask: If we need MHLs, why aren't the Dutch dying in droves?

c) The MTB crowd discovered 650B and promptly renamed it 27.5. Rear cassette cogs start climbing above 40T, and MTBs grow clutched derailleurs, remote droppers and more. Bikepacking becomes a "thing" with yet more specialist brands and bloggers.
With the UCI minimising innovation (and thus reason to buy a new bike) the big brands and their associated advertising revenue start hunting other pastures. Suddenly, one needs disc brakes on road bikes to allow wide (28mm) tyres. One needs electric shifting and 11 speeds (that's 2 x11). Oh, and road tubeless is going to be mainstream this decade

Eventually someone in head office discovered that a) race bikes and MTBs aren't the whole world and b) market leadership had moved to a whole pile of upstarts. And so "The Industry" discovers "gravel grinders" and "heritage bikes" and "cruisers" and everything else. We now have new categories every week.

Meanwhile, the TdF is haunted by doping scandals. The British Medical Journal says MHLs don't work[1]. Australian bureaucrats aren't listening[2].

[1] Goldacre, B; Spiegelhalter, D (2013) Bicycle helmets and the law. BMJ (Clinical research ed), 346. f3817. ISSN 0959-8138 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.f3817
[2]Hansard, ECONOMICS REFERENCES COMMITTEE, "Personal choice and community impacts" Monday, 16 November 2015
(post script, please discuss MHLs in the MHL thread)
Last edited by Thoglette on Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:30 pm, edited 14 times in total.
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby tcdev » Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:06 pm

This ^^^ needs to be a full-blown article!!!
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby Thoglette » Fri Jun 08, 2018 3:08 pm

tcdev wrote:This ^^^ needs to be a full-blown article!!!
Very kind of you.

Now I wait for the fact checkers! e.g. I've already realised that Grant published his book (and got press coverage for his ideas) in 2012, which means I should really move the reference to him to c)

But as they say, give a good story a day's head start and the truth will never catch up!
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby Calvin27 » Fri Jun 08, 2018 4:48 pm

Thoglette wrote:
EvaTheDiscTrucker wrote: Back in my day a 10 speed bike was a "racer".
Three things happened since then. In order, roughly by decade.

a) MTB and racing bikes ruled the Anglosphere. Everything else went extinct, or nearly so. Racing tyres got down to 19mm, with bikes designed around a 23mm training tyre. The UCI banned "funny" bikes. As a result tri-bikes evolution diverged away from road bikes.

The TdF is haunted by doping scandals. Australia introduces MHLs

b) In the next decade, hipsters climbed out of some primordial soup, somewhere, bringing their fixies along with them. MTBs evolved from 26" to 29er, becoming a diverse phylum (hard/soft, XC/downhill, dropper, single). With race bikes being, like, bloody useless for anything other than racing, "hybrid" bikes evolved from MTBs.
This prompted a whole bunch of people to re-evaluate their biking needs, looking to Holland, Copenhagen & Tokyo and wondering about bikes for the rest of us. Small manufacturers proliferated and small businesses started importing stuff direct from Europe, Japan and Taiwan. The words "650B" were no longer just whispered in dark corners. The S24O takes off.

Grant Peterson says "I told you so".

The TdF is haunted by doping scandals. People ask: If we need MHLs, why aren't the Dutch dying in droves?

c) The MTB crowd discovered 650B and promptly renamed it 27.5. Rear cassette cogs start climbing above 40T, and MTBs grow clutched derailleurs, remote droppers and more. Bikepacking becomes a "thing" with yet more specialist brands and bloggers.
With the UCI minimising innovation (and thus reason to buy a new bike) the big brands and their associated advertising revenue start hunting other pastures. Suddenly, one needs disc brakes on road bikes to allow wide (28mm) tyres. One needs electric shifting and 11 speeds (that's 2 x11). Oh, and road tubeless is going to be mainstream this decade

Eventually someone in head office discovered that a) race bikes and MTBs aren't the whole world and b) market leadership had moved to a whole pile of upstarts. And so "The Industry" discovers "gravel grinders" and "heritage bikes" and "cruisers" and everything else. We now have new categories every week.

Meanwhile, the TdF is haunted by doping scandals. The British Medical Journal says MHLs don't work[1]. Australian bureaucrats aren't listening[2].

[1] Goldacre, B; Spiegelhalter, D (2013) Bicycle helmets and the law. BMJ (Clinical research ed), 346. f3817. ISSN 0959-8138 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.f3817
[2]Hansard, ECONOMICS REFERENCES COMMITTEE, "Personal choice and community impacts" Monday, 16 November 2015
(post script, please discuss MHLs in the MHL thread)
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I'd add the following:
- Enduro was a real thing in MTB.
- This spread to road bikes that now do enduro geometries
- Tyres getting fatter in MTB
- Everyone claiming their bikes now are x% stiffer, but y % more compliant.
- Electric bikes.

High level categories for me are:
- Roadies
- Mountain bikers
- Downhill mountain bikers (otherwise known as teens)
- Mamils
- Strava warriors
- Weekend warriors
- Hipsters
Heavy road bike
Cushy dirt bike
Very cushy dirt bike
Bike crushed by car (RIP)
No brakes bike
Ebike

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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby RonK » Fri Jun 08, 2018 4:59 pm

Back in those days, any bike with the drops turned down was a racer. Any bike with the drops turned up was a roadster.
Having ridden both types, I can only say how delighted I am that the bad old good ol’ days are in the past and I can now buy bikes that are specific to my requirements.
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby DrShifty » Sat Jun 09, 2018 11:31 am

EvaTheDiscTrucker wrote:Hi BNA Think Tank!

... have been wondering if the pannier outback kinda touring cyclist has a more specific or succinct name.
Bike packing (rare) or touring (common) are the terms used by my friends who do long trips. A mate recently rode solo from Broome to Perth and he used no terms like this at all, he just spoke of 'riding from Broome to Perth'.
EvaTheDiscTrucker wrote: Is there an easy way of talking about being a cyclist without always needing to say bicyclist so not to be confused with motor cyclists? Or is bicyclist a perfectly acceptable generic name to establish i am human-powered?
Cheers!
Bicyclist is a non-word. I've never heard anyone ever say it, and only rarely seen it in print.
Cyclist covers anyone on a bicycle no matter what style of bike.
Cycle, cycling, cyclist etc are never used in the motorbike world (where I also live) unless talking about bicycles. The normal term for somebody on a motorbike is rider. Some people use bikie for 1% club members and biker for general motorbike riders.

I suspect that if you chase up other touring/cycling blogs you'll find out what is the most used terminology.

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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby ColinOldnCranky » Sat Jun 09, 2018 10:12 pm

Leaving aside "leach" and "effing arrogant MAMIL" and the like, about the most common term I hear these dayw iw wimply cyclist.

Which is fine by me, it's sufficiently non-specific as to allow me to be part of the family. :)
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby Trevtassie » Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:13 am

ColinOldnCranky wrote:Leaving aside "leach" and "effing arrogant MAMIL" and the like, about the most common term I hear these dayw iw wimply cyclist.

Which is fine by me, it's sufficiently non-specific as to allow me to be part of the family. :)
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Cyclist ≠ Bike Rider

Postby CrankNFurter » Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:41 pm

I've moved along from "riding a bike" to "cycling". The latter involves an understanding of things like physiology and bike technology, along with a committment level - say the willingness to ride in the rain :? For example a cyclist will understand the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise and spin in high cadence with low resistance. They will also have a saddle set up for fullish leg extension to maximise the leverage on the pedals. Cyclists will select the appropriate bicycle - say not use a knobbly-tyred suspension MTB for commuting. Its socio-behavioural as well, e.g signalling to others and trying to merge smoothly so others' precious momentum isn't wasted. Every time I see bar-end shifters and Brooks saddle on a parked machine I know the owner is a cyclist.

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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby RobertL » Mon Jun 11, 2018 9:28 am

High level categories for me are:
- Roadies
- Mountain bikers
- Downhill mountain bikers (otherwise known as teens)
- Mamils
- Strava warriors
- Weekend warriors
- Hipsters

I'd add:
- Commuters
- Tourers
- Poor people - whose clapped-out 26er hardtail is their only form of transport.

I know that last category is a negative stereotype, but I still see quite a few people in that category around the place.

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Re: Cyclist ≠ Bike Rider

Postby RonK » Mon Jun 11, 2018 10:22 am

CrankNFurter wrote:Every time I see bar-end shifters and Brooks saddle on a parked machine I know the owner is a cyclist.
So a complete novice - somebody who has never even ridden a bike before could buy a touring bike with bar end shifters and a Brooks saddle and achieve instant recognition? :wink:
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby BobtheBuilder » Mon Jun 11, 2018 10:26 am

You could also add:

- rich people - people who buy really expensive bikes to show off, but never use for any practical purpose. They usually have a really expensive bike rack so they can drive their bike to wherever they're going. They barely even bother getting it serviced, it just gets stodgy and they buy another one.

I know that category is a negative stereotype, but I still see quite a few people in that category around the place.

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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby RobertL » Mon Jun 11, 2018 10:35 am

BobtheBuilder wrote:You could also add:

- rich people - people who buy really expensive bikes to show off, but never use for any practical purpose. They usually have a really expensive bike rack so they can drive their bike to wherever they're going. They barely even bother getting it serviced, it just gets stodgy and they buy another one.

I know that category is a negative stereotype, but I still see quite a few people in that category around the place.
Absolutely.

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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby redned » Mon Jun 11, 2018 11:08 am

BobtheBuilder wrote:You could also add:

- rich people - people who buy really expensive bikes to show off, but never use for any practical purpose. They usually have a really expensive bike rack so they can drive their bike to wherever they're going. They barely even bother getting it serviced, it just gets stodgy and they buy another one.

I know that category is a negative stereotype, but I still see quite a few people in that category around the place.
Or the opposite (like me): not-so-rich but with a sub $1,000 MTB that has taken it to tour Tasmania, Spain, Ireland, Scotland and recently Brittany, plus thousands of kilometres locally.
I think we are all cyclists.

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Re: Cyclist ≠ Bike Rider

Postby Thoglette » Mon Jun 11, 2018 2:47 pm

RonK wrote:
CrankNFurter wrote:Every time I see bar-end shifters and Brooks saddle on a parked machine I know the owner is a cyclist.
So a complete novice - somebody who has never even ridden a bike before could buy a touring bike with bar end shifters and a Brooks saddle and achieve instant recognition? :wink:
Only if the Brooks is suitably run in. This can be rapidly ascertained from the owner's gait after dismounting :shock:
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby skull » Tue Jun 12, 2018 6:55 pm

I had someone on another forum try and tell me he use to be a cyclist and did speed trials.

This was just after he rubbished cyclists riding on the roads and doing pack rides.

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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby recumbenteer » Tue Jun 12, 2018 7:57 pm

RobertL wrote:
High level categories for me are:
- Roadies
- Mountain bikers
- Downhill mountain bikers (otherwise known as teens)
- Mamils
- Strava warriors
- Weekend warriors
- Hipsters

I'd add:
- Commuters
- Tourers
- Poor people - whose clapped-out 26er hardtail is their only form of transport.

I know that last category is a negative stereotype, but I still see quite a few people in that category around the place.

Velonauts.....

everybody else is a Pleb :mrgreen: you're all commoners!
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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby EvaTheDiscTrucker » Sun Jun 24, 2018 2:56 pm

Thank you :mrgreen:
Very helpful, informative and entertaining.
This will be a useful reference as I become a cyclist, blogging and vlogging the transition from touring on foot to bike.
Understanding bias will help as I ride through cities and off road :D
When I do a maintenance refresher I'll know what they're talking about now :lol:
Cheers!

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Re: Terms which differentiate between cyclists

Postby Ivanerrol » Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:13 pm

Another form of cyclist.

The everyday transport daily rider. Not hipster.

These are those people - often inner city dwellers who don't own a car.
It's public transport or the bicycle.
You see them every where in the northern Melbourne inner suburbs. Kids are transported in seats in a cargo bike.
They don't have a car because :
(a) The don't want one
(b) Refuse to drive
(c) Have never bothered to get a drivers license
(d) There accommodation has no provision for car parking
(e) The accommodation rental or mortgage payments are so high they can't afford a car.

When I was young (50+ years ago)there were three major types of bikes.
(a) roadster - heavy bike with wide wheels and tyres. Sturney Archer three speed hub gears or single speed. Rear foot operated brake.
(b) Semi racer - lighter bike, single speed, thinner tyres and drop bars. Lever brakes
(c) Racer - same as a semi racer but with (exotic at the time) Chain gears and maybe even thinner tyres.

My uncle worked for Healings. They would box up the bikes and label them as roadster, semi race or race.

Roadsters had Northroad bars, low lift flat bars or upturned drop bars. Northroad bars were for girls - a boy wouldn't be seen dead with these. Front wheel brakes were the work of the devil - all the older riders said so. Guaranteed to send you over the handlebars at the first application.

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