why is that 98% of the cyclists i see every time i’m on a ride refuse to so much as lift a finger from their bars to say hello. it seems totally normal to me to give a small wave or a head nod as i pass folks or see them coming the other way. some vague existential notion of community i suppose. i used to think it was mostly the roadies that were rude, but frankly the triathletes are getting just as bad.
of course there may be times when you’re in a pace line or a very intense workout and are fully focused but otherwise is it really necessary to be such a hardass?
while i’m on the subject of my fellow cyclists, can anyone explain what is “cool” about riding without a helmet? i live in southern california and at least once per ride i see someone cruising down PCH with no helmet in some total deathtrap area like downtown Laguna Beach. why?
I often wonder if others take me as one of those rude types. My typical response is a slight nod of the head and eye contact. Of course that “eye contact” is from behind my Oakleys so it probably doesn’t count. And my head nod could just be me looking down or movement from a bump. I guess the point is, that sometimes the acknowlegement is subtle, but there. Heck, after five or six hours in the saddle, I couldn’t manage much of a wave even if that were my normal greeting. I often wonder at other riders on the road also. But I figure that most at least acknowlege that “kinship of the road” in some small way if they see the other riders.
hey slowas. i guess one for two is not too bad - batting .500 would get me into the all-star game, anyway. despite my argumentative internet persona, i am actually a pretty nice mid-western yayhoo sorta guy (really!) and i always wave and give a little “hey-up” or something. matter-o-fact everybody 'round here does back, too. PCH you say ?? ahem. geography, my friend. move to wisconsin.
but, inexplicably, i often do not wear a helmet. however, there is no ulterior drive for “coolness” such as you postulate in this greiviuos transgression of current cycling ( american, anyway. . . .) mores. more simply, i just don’t feel like it somedays. i have a nice one, and like it fine. i do not need and “excuse” one way or the other, as people often note . . . . . . " blah blah there is no excuseblah blah. . . . ." i just like to not be wearing one sometimes, brother.
now, the acid test - if were out riding with my bald head in the breeze, and we met and i waved and gave you a hearty greeting. . . . . . . . .would you return it ???
Must the area you live in because almost any cyclist I pass, going in the same direction or on the other side of the road, will give a nod, hand wave, or hello. I do the same and sometime go first so maybe I am just getting a reply.
Yea i wave to people all of the time ,even give the thumps up or word of incourgement to people i see running or walking,if i pass someone not wearing a helmet,would i wave?sure i would just think they were dumb,i have been hit twice,once were the driver fled the scene,had many crashs in group rides,but never touched my head to the ground,UNTILL two years age one mile from home after riding 100miles,i hit something on the road going 15mph,boy that new helmet sure exploded,broke my collarbone,did not even know i had hit my head till days after i wanted to see how bad my bike was damaged and there is the helmet sitting in pieces.Lifes to short to be brain dead
.
PCH - Pacific Coast Highway/Highway 1 down the West Coast. sorry for that faux pas. I should no better in that I grew up in Chicago and was always troubled by geographically challenged Californians who think Chicago is “back east.”
anyhoo, I’ve greeted many a bare-headed biker on the roads, but in all honesty I’d be afraid to ride with you for fear of being on the scene when your melon goes splat. I have a cracked Gyro from a bad spill last summer that I keep in my garage to use whenever I need to convince my kid to wear his helmet… but hey, to each his own bro.
Definitely your location. Nothing like what you describe going on here in TX.
I try and avoid stopping for water or a quick bike adjustment at a corner gas station, all these people keep trying to buy me gatorade (or sometimes a beer at the end of my ride) or they want to ask me how far I’m riding, etc. just too damn nice for an anti-social #!@hole like me.
But even being the grump that I am, I always give a head nod or half wave to cyclists or runners. How hard is it to unwrap your fingers from the aerobars for a small wave?
never fear, slowas !! if you come home to visit the folks we could meet and ride the MOO course and i will wear my spiffy boreas as i always do when out with others !!! we will wave to all we meet and all will be excellent. and, you never know - could be those dudes out on the PCH are just midwestern yayhoos on vacation scared completely out of their minds and too petrified by the traffic and socal craziness to wave.
I wave at everybody. Smile to. I did wave at a group of girls riding yesterday, and none of them waved back. I hope they were just being mean, otherwise I might be real ugly.
I really like the guys who say it is too hot to wear a helmet. Then they go and ride wearing a hat, or even worse a doo-rag. Wearing a helmet is cool. Wearing a do-rag is not.
So it appears that we have confirmed that cyclists from Wisconny to Jersey to Texas all have better manners than the locals here in lovely Orange County California.
I for one will continue to buck the local trend; if you’re out in Santiago Canyon this weekend I’ll be the guy on a blue P2K wearing a yellow Garneau helmet. Do me a solid and show a little love ok?
While I do agree with you that cyclists can be somewhat snobby, I don’t think it pertains to just the roadie type. I am/was a “roadie” for years, but hell I’ll wave at anyone from mom out for a trip around the block with junior to the local mt. Bike pro. At the same time, I’ve been snubbed by just about every kind of cyclist known to man.
On your point about helmets, though, I disagree. Like my buddy t-t-n I sometimes go out without my helmet. I truly enjoy the breeze in my hair. It drives my wife crazy, but I don’t really care. It’s my right, as an adult to make the choice about helmet use. I’ve heard the reasons why I should where a helmet. I know what could happen. I’ve had two concussions in my life. One with a helmet on in a race and the other on a warm winter day where I just wanted to feel the breeze. And, as far as the Euro pros not wearing them, remember they are the best bike handlers in the world. They ride easily on stuff that most of us couldn’t ride a full suspension mountain bike on. Yes, accidents happen and riders die, but in the last two deaths in pro races no full proof has been given that either death could have been prevented with a helmet. As for me, I’m not sure if tonight when I’m out for a ride, and god forbid I get hit by a speeding vehicle that a helmet will save me.
Now you are talking! You ride one of those funny bikes, that’s why everyone ignores you!!
Only kidding, up here in the North West even the roadies are kind of friendly, except when they get in huge packs and the testerone is running wild in the peloton!
You know, I pretty much always wave at other people, or at least, give them the friendly motocross six-gun, which is even cooler than waving. You are right though, most of the time they just blow you off. I think they are thinking “Who the hell is that guy?” It doesn’t hurt to be sociable, and besides, sooner or later I’ll probably be working ontheir bike anyway, so it pays to be polite and friendly.
I spend a fair amout of time on the coast highway down in the San Diego Area. There are a lot of riders and runners on that route, especially on weekends. Maybe with the amount of riders it has lost some of the clubiness. I imagine in 1910 people in cars all waved at each other. On the inland routes with fewer riders I find a wave or nod is usually passed. I grew up in the midwest and got my cycling roots there as a kid. I still go visit about once a year and there are definitly way fewer cyclists on the road than what you see on PCH. That said, I do try to offer a nod, wave, grunt or cheery good morning depending on what stage of effort I’m in. If it’s a baggy ass kid on a BMX bike, that doesn’t count. They don’t get a wave. You have to have wheels bigger than 12" in diamenter and at least be wearing a little Lycra. If you’re ever on the PCH north of San Diego, I’ll be wearing a white giro and I’ll give you at least a nod.
I forgot, we have an unwritten rule on most group rides I do. If you crash without a helmet, and whack your head, you are pretty much on your own. We don’t feel we should ruin our ride because somebody was not smart enough to wear a helmet. Just keep your brain matter off my bike. I don’t want to have to wash it.
Mountain bikers are the best bike handlers in the world. I know MTBers who can get on a road bike and outhandle any pro or CAT 1, 2. The difference is amazing. I have riden with pro cyclists, pro triathletes and pro MTBers. The MTBers win hands down. No contest. That being said, andybody can get taken down by a fool in a pack, or some fool who just pops up near you on a ride. I see no reason to risk my life or IQ on a stupid mistake by somebody I don’t even know.
I have come close to posting this exact thing numerous times, most often after getting snubbed on a ride by some posing loser who thinks he is Greg Lemond. I feel you. I always wave to anyone on a bike, and most people who are just out and about.
I have also been in several bad accidents, two that threatened my life. If I had not been wearing a helmet in either one, I would have been dead. Head on collision with a car turning in front of me, hit head on by a truck drifting into my lane = concussion, bruised spine, fluid on spine, compressed vertebrae, fluid on brain, two seizures, severed triceps tendon, etc. If you don’t wear a helmet, that’s great. We have a name for that. It’s called natural selection. Let the stupid ones die out.
As for why cyclists don’t wave, it’s because aerobars are really stealth bars, slap them on your bike and your invisible to the roadies. I wave or nod to everyone and offer to help fix flats on stranger’s bikes. I’m on a road bike, but after all good karma is hard to beat. Helmets - all the time. The 4inch long 1/2in deep gash that ran across my helmet from above the corner of my eye to my ear from a crash in a crit. Could have been my face but my helmet took it for me instead. I love my wife, dogs and cat and my melon intact.
It must be where you live. In our area everybody waves at everybody if you’re riding a bike, and that even includes kids on BMX’s and DUI’s on their way to the beer store. Heck, even the roadies and tri-geeks wave to each other. Of course we’re in a rural village just outside of a small 50,000 city so people haven’t yet lost their small town friendliness.
I wave to cyclists and runners, wear a helmet, and mace dogs and anti-cyclists in their SUVs or silly cars with the boy-racer look. It is really stupid when the rice-rocket guys try to harass me, as the mace makes a nice entrance in their lowered vehicle. An SUV is a hit-or-miss proposition.
Well here in Beautiful Missouri, it’s not uncommon for bikers to turn around and join each other on the ride. Almost everyone wavesand speaks. Lately we have noticed truckers on the interstate will honk at us as we ride on the outer road ( black top road running along the interstate with a 50-100 yard seperation between the two)
Funny story the other day we were passed by some BIG BURLY looking motorcyclist. A few miles down the road they were stopped and one was flagging us down. We stopped (thinking oh s_it) . He started tell us about when he raced bikes and wanted to talk biking. You could tell by what he said that he knew what he was talking about. A few min. later we were on our way.
The closer you get to the large cities the less you will see waves from other bikers. The big team riders are the worst.
