![]() ![]() While he was asleep, his home exploded due to a gas leak, and the house literally fell on him. He’s now partially paralyzed riding an e-bike lets him get out there and enjoy the sport. My friend Andrew was an elite-level cyclist before he was hit by a car when riding home and left to die in a ditch.Let me list a few of the people I know who ride e-bikes: You don’t get to decide what cycling is, much less how people choose to ride. Look, I understand that being a jerk on the internet is a sport on its own but screw you. “Is there a photo of the lazy dude who rides it? The essence of cycling is enduring difficulty and persevering suffering powered by your own will and your own legs.” Here’s an example of the kind of crap people say about e-bike riders (from Bicycling’s Instagram post about the SRAM Powertrain e-bike motor): Recently, though, things have really gotten out of hand with the rise of e-bikes. Unfortunately, sneering at recumbent riders, triathletes, and tandem riders is a long-standing tradition in cycling. When I started at the magazine, it was in the heart of the roadies-versus-mountain-bikers days. This sort of factionalization has always been part of cycling. Did you celebrate Sepp Kuss winning the Vuelta aboard his glittering $15,000+ Cervélo with SRAM Red and Reserve wheels? Well, a scruffy-looking guy in jorts who rides a haggard Kona helped that happen. Someone I know- Chad Cheeney, founder of Durango Devo-gives more back to cycling than almost anyone and routinely rides pretty beat bikes. Molly Cameron Won’t Stay Silent Any More.It doesn’t even consider how much that person loves the sport or how much they give back to cycling. Those are only examples of making assumptions about someone’s fitness or skill based on equipment. I’ve watched kids on rattletrap 26er mountain bikes send it further than I dare on the most dialed enduro bike. ![]() I’ve seen a guy on a mountain bike dressed in trail gear easily hang with roadies on a group ride. I’ve been aboard the very best and latest equipment and been dropped by a rider on an old Centurion with downtube shifters. Have I done all this? Yes! But the longer I’m around bikes, the more I’m routinely reminded that equipment should not be used as a basis to judge other riders. With this mindset, a quick glance at another cyclist is supposedly all it takes to know everything about who they are, what they stand for, how strong they are, and their skills. Someone on a Crust is a hipster doofus, while the person on a Pinarello is a rise-and-grind alpha-douche. This applies to everything: Riders on less expensive bikes are slower, cyclists in old apparel are Freds, and those with high-end gear are poseurs. Since my focus is on cycling equipment, I notice how we make assumptions about the bikes people ride, the clothing they wear, and even the tiny things-like sunglasses worn arms under or over helmet straps, which is somehow something to ridicule cyclists about-are evidence to categorize people as different or undesirable. We form cliques and freeze out others who we feel don’t fit. And to many of my fellow “real” cyclists, I say: Knock it off.Īs long as I’ve been around this sport-again, my entire damn life-I’ve noticed how we tend to “us-and-them” other riders who don’t fit our vision of what a cyclist should look like. So, I think I qualify as a “real” cyclist. And because it brings me the greatest joy in my life. I am a cyclist because it is how I make my living. I was riding a bike when I experienced the most physical pain and heartbreak of my life. I was riding a bike when I met the person I would marry. I started working at a cycling magazine as an intern in late 1995 and became full-time in 1997. I chose my university for its proximity to great mountain bike trails. When I was a kid, I tagged along with my dad to his bike races. Ever since I can remember, cycling has been the biggest part of all parts of my life.
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