Another magazine bash against audax

[Rig of Jarkness]

+1 to all the comments above saying why should audax/audaxers care whether it's perceived as cool or otherwise.  I like the fact that it's small scale with a minimum of formality.  Long may this continue !

[Si]

Let's face it, even Dawes* have replaced their audax model with a Sportif model....and when even Dawes is pointing at you and laughing at your NHS specs you know that you are not with the in-crowd any more.


Which is what is good about audax, minimal hype/bling/posing, maximal experience and just getting on with it.



*No - I've no downer on Dawes - my best bike is one.

[MSeries]

We perhaps need a 'Strictly Come Cycling' approach.

Certainly. Madison: Wiggins paired with Chris Moyes, Cavendish paired with Gordon Ramsey. Team pursuits with two celebs and two pros on the team. Team sprint, Olympic sprint etc.

[Recursived]

We perhaps need a 'Strictly Come Cycling' approach.

Certainly. Madison: Wiggins paired with Chris Moyes, Cavendish paired with Gordon Ramsey. Team pursuits with two celebs and two pros on the team. Team sprint, Olympic sprint etc.

A group of B-list celebs do LEL for Comic Relief (I'm thinking of the Kilimanjaro trek as the format for this).

[arabella]

I find the best way not to be bothered by comments about audax is not to buy cycling magazines (I get the AUK and CTC ones anyway).

The CTC gang all laugh at me and ask what silly distance I have done/am doing/will be doing.  Some of them do the occasional, local 200, and organise audaxes.  They still find me amusing though.  Personally I rather enjoy it.

Last time I went out with the CTC I went with the easy group.  The leader suggested I may find them a tad relaxed.  I said no matter, I certainly didn't want to ride at the speed of the medium group leader. (She was right though, to my surprise.)

Probably, however, we need a few more articles, like Juliet's C+ one on audax, just so people know what they're dissing.

Strictly come audaxing, surely.  Or maybe not.  I had a lovely conversation with a colleague recently about his LEJoG ride (unfinished due to constand headwind, injury etc.)  He mentioned 90 miles/day. I mentioned about 190 miles/day, but pointed out it was much more fun/easier due to support at controls etc. - I think he was almost persuaded...

[MSeries]

We perhaps need a 'Strictly Come Cycling' approach.

Certainly. Madison: Wiggins paired with Chris Moyes, Cavendish paired with Gordon Ramsey. Team pursuits with two celebs and two pros on the team. Team sprint, Olympic sprint etc.

A group of B-list celebs do LEL for Comic Relief (I'm thinking of the Kilimanjaro trek as the format for this).

Wasn't some female TV presenter supposed to be doing some audax in the South of England and making a show of it ? But yes, some celeb doing LEL would be great IMO. I don't care if they staged the shots and orchestrated incidents for good TV or had a SAG wagon, telling the public that these events exist and are not trivial is a good thing IMO. Would work well on a daily show with a short update on progress each day.

[Greenbank]

If I was generalising I'd say it's only really the Brits and some West Coast USAians that tend to stick to the old-school steel/alu frames with full-mudguards, although there's a gradual shift over to Ti. LEL was chock full of carbon frames (and very few with raceblades) ridden by them foreigners.

(Don't forget that this is a generalisation, I know there are Brits who ride carbon frames on Audaxes, especially the shorter events.)

I'll probably be doing more rides on gears from now on and, if the forecast looked good, I'd even consider doing something like the Dean or Severn Across on the Wilier (if I get the setup right that it doesn't snap me in half).

[Jaded]

Audax style riding (long distance, self supported) may well become significant as a method of transport in 20-30 years time.

You pioneers, you! 

[clarion]

I see this from a slightly longer perspective.  Audax has been around a long while, picking up from Tourist Reliability Trials back in the day, and now there's a pushy new kid on the block in the corm of cyclosportives.  The magazines think it's 'cool', the retailers certainly do, and there's money sloshing around there that's never going to get to the rain-sodden audaxers over their beans on toast.

But I was involved in something similar a few years ago.  The Rough-Stuff Fellowship is a venerable institution that's been around a long while, and there was a lot of off-road riding before that (in fact, if you go back far enough, most roads would qualify as 'off-road' in today's criteria ).

OK, so in the mid-80s, there was a wave of Yanks coming over here with flashy bikes that they used for mountain biking.  Hey, what's that?  Haven't we been mountain biking all these years?  Do we need the car-worshipping Septics to show us how to do it?  Surely not.  And, if we let them in, won't roughstuffing collapse?

And yet, for better or worse, MTBing is here to stay, and a popular pastime, generating huge turnover for bike & component manufacturers, and ad revenue for magazines that wasn't there before.  So what of the RSF?  They're still going strong, and riding hard.  You just need to see Simeon's regular posts of the South Lakes Group to see how they are thriving.

But there were times when it was anathema to turn up to an RSF ride with an ATB, and suspension would have been met with gasps and tuts.  Now, they ride all sorts of machines.  And it's fine.

I doubt the readers of MBR, wanting to grab some gnarly air on an awesome downhilling whatever blah blah blah would care about even the existence of RSF, and nor are they likely to be reading MBR.  But they co-exist, serving different groups, and life goes on.

[Jaded]

Enough already! Too many acronyms - my head exploded! 

[amaferanga]

It would appear that audaxers have an inferiority complex 

[Jules]

One thing against cool audax must be the age profile.

I  turned 50 this year and keep noticing how many of the riders are OLD

While waiting in the dentists the other week I read an article on what appears to be the walking equivalent of audax - all weekend, lots of miles, controls and following  a route sheet. The people interviewed were straight out of  audax  - "I  was so exhausted that I fell asleep into my plate of beans on toast at 3am", "I only gave up as my foot had fallen off" etc  - They were treated in pretty much the same way.

It should be pretty clear that anything that involves  large amounts of discomfort,  for extended periods of time, in possibly horrible weather,  is never going to discover mass popularity and, like all minority interests, are a suitable topic  of amusement (like Morris Dancing) for those that don't take part.

A magazine's job is to sell copies and attract advertisers. Any group who are proud of their abilities to manufacture mudguard flaps out of Fairy Liquid bottles are pretty safe to abuse IMHO.

[Greenbank]

I read an article on what appears to be the walking equivalent of audax

Audax isn't exclusively cycling, there are other activities that are covered by Audax (but not Audax UK obviously): walking, swimming, skiing and kayaking. Stick the obvious things in google for more details.

For swimming there are entire swimming holidays: Swimtrek | Swimming Adventure Holidays with up to 6km a day of open-water swimming.

[Redlight]

Stop calling it audax.  Call it something like Endurance Riding or Cycling for Really Hard Riders (no jokes please, Hummers). Stick 'Challenge' on the end of a few event names. Scrap info controls - if  someone wants to "cheat", let them. More 100-150km rides so that younger people who have family commitments can do them more easily (some will get hooked and gravitate to long distances). On line entry so there's no messing around with SAEs.

Alternatively, leave well alone because Audaxing is a nice day out on the bike, often in good company.

[thing1]

Alternatively, leave well alone (except for the online entry / no messing with SAEs bit) because Audaxing is a nice day out on the bike, often in good company.

FTFY   

[Weirdy Biker]

"Pearson says the Audax is good enough to use in sportives once you've taken the mudguards off, and we would not disagree. What's more we would say calling it 'Audax' is a misnomer, because there is so much more that it can do beyond randonees, and it's a pity to pigeonhole it. Obviously if you were to do those long-distance brevet card stamping rides on it you couldn't hope to be better biked, but the traditional randonee has not been embraced by the new cycling boom, and may put off more fashionable customers new to cycling who don't want a bike that links them to an 'uncool' scene".

Actually, rereading this, it is a fair statement.  They aren't saying there is anything defective about audaxes, just that it isn't popular with new cyclists compared to sportives.  Which is true, given the field for sportives are several hundred (possibly thousands) whereas audaxes (particularly longer ones) are fortunate to get into several dozen.  They mean "cool" as in popular.  You could even read it as a fad.

Natch, Cycling Active are simply chasing £££ from advertisers.  Pearson will be very happy that their bike is being put out to arrivistes as a good all rounder.  It will make them more favourable to placing hard copy with the mag in the future.

It will be interesting to see if the current cycling boom lasts and the fortunes of the companies organising sportives.

It's excellent that more people are cycling and we should support anything that does that.  After all, the 20/30/40 year olds doing sportives now will be the 30/40/50 year olds doing audaxes in the future.  AUK should (imo) be thinking of ways of increasing its participation on the back of sportives.  Why not speak to cyclosportive.org about an article in their weekly email or a banner advert (after all, they have reliability rides in their calendar)?

[Blodwyn Pig]

Well, HONESTLY I'M GLAD its uncool.
A) about 25 years ago i bought a VW camper, it was just that , a camper. them about 3 years later the BIG vw scene  kicked off in uk, all night drag racing raves at Santa pod  et al. Still big now, There's MONEY in it!

B) about 18 years ago I bought a £500 saracen traverse MTB, A SERIOUS amount of money for a odd type of bike in those days. I was inspired by a program about Maouri young offenders in New Zealand, As part of their PUNISHMENT/ rehab, they had to do IRONMAN type things, running,kayaking, swimming and MTB ing UP mountains. I like that I do!. At the time the mags were basic and informative, then the Fashion of mtbing came, ALL bling , mags with pics of people on the front getting BIG AIR, ecouraging reckless riding, The rest is history! MONEY!

c) about 10 years ago I bought a LWB landrover, I love it, It was just that, an old landrover, But look at 'em now, all tricked up with winches, roll cages, cowboy hats, and mostly for the supermarket run, Its ANOTHER fashion bling thing. There's money in it!

I like audax because were all mildly excentric,compulsive obsessive nerds on the fringe. 'I'm a Red Sea pedestrian and proud of it'
LONG LIVE THE UNCOOL!!!!!!!!!! enjoy it as long as it lasts. Stumpy

[thing1]

Actually, rereading this, it is a fair statement.  They aren't saying there is anything defective about audaxes, just that it isn't popular with new cyclists compared to sportives. [snip]

I also thought this when first reading it, but somehow it still left a tone of superiority about non-audax riding that isn't entirely fair.
Ignoring "coolness" for a moment, the use of "just" randonees, and "Obviously if you were to do those long-distance brevet card stamping rides" has an air of distancing themselves and looking down on "those rides" as inferior.

Put this way: if this sentence is the first thing a reader ever hears about randonees or audaxing, I find it very unlikely they're going to want to go and find out more about them. Which I think is a shame.
Is this taken out of context? Does the previous paragraph of the article praise up audaxing and how the extreme demands placed on the bike result in highly reliable designs, that also double up for solid commuting machine? I doubt it.

First I ever heard of audax was a side bar article in the Thorn brochure when we were ordering our touring tandem, and then read follow up pieces in C+ I believe. These things can be great first-introductions to new riders, and if they are put right off they're unlikely to ever look again which is very unfortunate.
OTOH for a reader who has already decided spotive is where it's at and audax is inferior, I really couldn't care less about spending time convincing them otherwise

[Weirdy Biker]

They don't refer to "just" randonees though?  And "those" strikes me as being innocent.

As I say, if AUK wants to chase members, it should be thinking about how to exploit the sportive audience.  Personally, I'm pleased to be part of a tight knit community where I recognise many of you by sight (if not by name), particularly those who ride in southern England but also across the UK.  I doubt sportive riders could say the same.  That is a pretty strong feature that we could promote ourselves on - kind of social sportives.

I doubt very much if we will ever attract people new to cycling.  And why would we, given the need for self-sufficiency and initiative on our rides.  It would put new cyclists off.  Better they dream of being Lance on sportives and find us over the course of time.  But that requires AUK to ensure the wider cycling community knows who we are and what we do.

[lantern rouge]

I rode the Ken Laidlaw sportive this year. Got wet and cold, picked up my only two punctures of the year and it cost £25 to enter.
You see that is sooo much cooler than audax.

The pillock at CW reported "All day it rained, sometimes straight down, other times horizontal rain, but always rain. We all agreed that we'd never ridden in such conditions before".

In truth it was 160km in a bit of wind and drizzle.

Perhaps certain journo's like to dismiss audax because they're not up to it. They are quite happy to build themselves up by telling the public what a hard ride the Laidlaw was and by inference how hard they must be to have ridden it.
Lord knows what they would have reported about the scenes at Eskdalemuir control on LEL.

Perhaps they just have an aversion to Brooks saddles and Carradice saddlebags.

[Philip Whiteman]

Audaxes are not the only victims of CW and Cycling Active's sportivisation of the cycling media.  

A fellow member of my cycling club and former BBAR winner has long criticised the cycling media for their apparent ignorance of the time trialling scene in the UK.  I would never accuse time trials of being 'uncool', yet the media are seemingly unaware of the thousands of riders that partake in this activity at either club or open level. So audaxes are not alone in terms of being poorly handled by the hacks.

Beacon RCC, my home club, has a booming membership and organises four very successful events that draws hundreds of riders throughout the country.  The Snowdrop and Sunrise Express audaxes succeed with 200 riders; the Little Mountain Time Trial with 120; The Cotswold audaxes with 500, and our Open 10 TT with a further 100 riders. On top of that we have well patronised club time trials.  So all in all, I am quite happy riding 'cooly uncool'.   Yet the cycling media persist in pushing this nonsense that we are all somehow odd-balls in the cycling community.  

If any hack from CW or Cycling Activity gets to read this thread, I suggest that they actually enter any of our events mentioned by contributors on this thread and see what they are like.  As an open invitation, I will even pay for their entry fee to join one of my own audax events!

[vorsprung]

Just read the article in fully in WH Smith

The review of the Pearson Audax is part of a group test of winter bikes

It ends by saying they could make the bike ( which they liked ) appeal to more people by renaming it

Just how many people would spend 2000+ on a winter bike OTOH remains a perplexing question

The address to email the magazine is "cycling@ipcmedia.com"

[Cyklisten]

I think the notion that renaming the bike to popularise it is indicative of how shallow the audience is deemed to be. Whether it be true or not is irrelevant; take a look at the plethora of fashion magazine with the same image driven messages.

I wouldn't worry about Audax being cool or indeed overly inclusive. I do like it the way it is. Oddly enough, my attention was drawn to our worthy pastime by an advert for a Dawes 'Audax' and thought 'What's that? look like a bike to me!'

If the cycling press choose to marginalise us then so be it. It does make me wonder though, when they repeatedly phone to offer a 'great deal' on subscriptions, just how well they are selling in the 'cool' marketplace. My response is, "I ride Audax, nothing in it for me" (I do miss Michael Hutchinson's pithy column - i'll just have to live without it)

'Cool' for me is having done it. Oh, and the look on non cycling colleagues' faces when I reply to their "Where did you ride to this weekend" - respect!

[Shinna]

What do you mean uncool? Eskdalemuir was the coolest experience that I've ever had, and I've been around a while.

I've participated in sports for most of my life, and that night was the worst and best all in one. I had to dig deeper than I ever had before, survived on beans, eggs and whisky spiced porage.

Cool.

[David Martin]

I rode the Ken Laidlaw sportive this year. Got wet and cold, picked up my only two punctures of the year and it cost £25 to enter.
You see that is sooo much cooler than audax.

The pillock at CW reported "All day it rained, sometimes straight down, other times horizontal rain, but always rain. We all agreed that we'd never ridden in such conditions before".

In truth it was 160km in a bit of wind and drizzle.

Our guys reckoned it was the best event of the year.. From a 'racing' club. (OK, it was our club captain who was one of the first back despite an off)