Author Topic: Best cycling words and phrases  (Read 4478 times)

finch

  • Hair today gone tomorrow
    • Comicpictures
Best cycling words and phrases
« on: 01 November, 2023, 12:37:48 pm »
I know there’s a lot but probably collectively we know them all but perhaps not one person knows them all - what do we have and what do we think the best ones are ?

Personally the best one I just recently learned was sat on and shat on - which is exactly what my best mate does to me when it’s windy , sits in till I’m “in the bucket” then goes “up the road”

telstarbox

  • Loving the lanes
Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #1 on: 01 November, 2023, 09:34:14 pm »
Rubber side down is a good phrase and aspiration.
2019 🏅 R1000 and B1000

Afasoas

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #2 on: 01 November, 2023, 10:43:18 pm »
Barse. (or Varse).

Well it's anatomy rather than cyclng but it crops up a lot in cycling.

IanDG

  • The p*** artist formerly known as 'Windy'
    • the_dandg_rouleur
Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #3 on: 01 November, 2023, 10:45:40 pm »
Bonked!

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #4 on: 01 November, 2023, 10:58:49 pm »
Wheeeeee!

cygnet

  • I'm part of the association
Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #5 on: 01 November, 2023, 11:13:49 pm »
"Front" and "Back"

There's too much regional variation to describing on road traffic direction when riding in groups.
No one has ever misunderstood either of the above. #heresy
I Said, I've Got A Big Stick

finch

  • Hair today gone tomorrow
    • Comicpictures
Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #6 on: 01 November, 2023, 11:17:43 pm »
I’m quite fond of pedalling squares or going backwards

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #7 on: 01 November, 2023, 11:18:52 pm »
Evens
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #8 on: 01 November, 2023, 11:21:00 pm »
"Front" and "Back"

There's too much regional variation to describing on road traffic direction when riding in groups.
No one has ever misunderstood either of the above. #heresy

Nose! Tail!

That's wot we use here...

Wowbagger

  • Stout dipper
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #9 on: 01 November, 2023, 11:26:23 pm »
Dulwich Paragon!
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #10 on: 01 November, 2023, 11:34:11 pm »
Pedalling to a rhythm only Max Wall could dance to.*

<record scratch, freeze frame>

Yep that's me, out the saddle on a steep climb in a parody of riding à danseuse... :P


* I don't think i can claim prior art - I vaguely recall seeing this one or words to that effect in a Chipps Chippendale piece for a cycling magazine many, many years ago.
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #11 on: 01 November, 2023, 11:44:07 pm »
Dulwich Paragon!

Yes, that is lovely and a complete contradiction, no doubt.  Reminds me of the pretty good North-East amateur football team yclept Billingham Synthonia which sounds wonderfully Grecian until you realise it's a contraction of synthetic ammonia.  It was once considered the ICI works team and boasted the young Brian Clough.  It still exists and has provided several pros, mainly for Boro in the past.

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #12 on: 01 November, 2023, 11:45:30 pm »
"Stopping!" - especially outside a cafe.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
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Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #13 on: 02 November, 2023, 12:00:44 am »
From the P@nd3m1c Pr0duckt10nz™® Tour de France Bingo Card (pat. pending)

Super happy   
Super hard   
Super strong   
Super good   
Full gas   
For sure   
Incredible    
Crazy   
There is still a long way to go   
We will see   
Anything can happen    
A dream   
yeh   
On the limit   
Good legs   
Great team   
No easy days   
Wind!   
Iconic   
Looking forward to Paris Nice
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #14 on: 02 November, 2023, 12:29:26 am »
Merckx

sam

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #15 on: 02 November, 2023, 07:18:51 am »
Freewheeling

Afasoas

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #16 on: 02 November, 2023, 07:41:23 am »
"Pothole!" exclaimed the captain to the stoker.

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #17 on: 02 November, 2023, 07:45:41 am »
Barse. (or Varse).

Well it's anatomy rather than cyclng but it crops up a lot in cycling.

Also Taint.

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #18 on: 02 November, 2023, 09:13:45 am »
"Tuggo"
I have no idea where this word came from, but it was in common usage in Northamptonshire in the 1950s/60s.
It was a somewhat derogatory term for a cyclist who was not a "Clubman".
As in "Oh, it's just a tuggo"
What we would now term a utility cyclist, going to work, shopping, allotment etc.
Has anyone else heard/used the term, and can anyone shed light on it's origins?

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #19 on: 02 November, 2023, 10:16:20 am »
Having done all my club cycling in France, I can only add a few French words to the mix:

Fringale - hypoglycaemia, aka bonk in USAnian.  Used to be the knock in English.  My dad used to carry Fry's Chocolate Cream against it; he never cycled in hot climes.

Tout à Gauche - all to the left: chain on the small ring at the front and the biggest at the back.

En danseuse - standing on your pedals. Honking I reserve for other people's feet.

Ravito - short for ravitaillement, the various snacks supplied at contrôles.

Vieux clou - disreputable old bike

Raidillon - short, nastily steep hill, e.g. the one our bunch encountered in Austria where a dead flat cycle path did a sudden right-angle to kill our momentum and then climbed for 50 metres at 18%

Chute - involuntary interaction with the road.

A droite devant! - bellowed from the middle of the peloton, means I say, you fellows, there appears to be a car approaching from the rear, so would you mind terribly squeezing over to the right a bit?  Or it might mean we need to squeeze over to the right because there's a car up ahead.  In either case, best move a bit rightwards.  And since the results are the same in both cases serrez à droite! - squeeze to the right - will do just as well.  (I prefer to shout voiture devant or derrière as appropriate.)  Serrez les fesses might well be heard when approaching general peril, or when the last pause hygiénique was three hours back.

I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #20 on: 02 November, 2023, 10:48:57 am »
'On the rivet' and 'Chewing the stem/ bars'

Both phrases are synonymous with going 'eyeballs out' with the second particularly applying into a headwind.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #21 on: 02 November, 2023, 12:08:56 pm »
"Tuggo"
I have no idea where this word came from, but it was in common usage in Northamptonshire in the 1950s/60s.
It was a somewhat derogatory term for a cyclist who was not a "Clubman".
As in "Oh, it's just a tuggo"
What we would now term a utility cyclist, going to work, shopping, allotment etc.
Has anyone else heard/used the term, and can anyone shed light on it's origins?
This forum has a former member called Tuggo but I don't know if the above usage was where his name came from. It's a joke he would maybe use about himself.

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #22 on: 02 November, 2023, 01:04:30 pm »
Raidillon - short, nastily steep hill, e.g. the one our bunch encountered in Austria where a dead flat cycle path did a sudden right-angle to kill our momentum and then climbed for 50 metres at 18%
Kopfstand in German or stojka in Czech - both of these translate as headstand. I don't know of an English equivalent for these, probably because of the ubiquity of such hills in this country (certainly in my part of it).

Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #23 on: 02 November, 2023, 01:30:52 pm »
Barse. (or Varse).

Well it's anatomy rather than cyclng but it crops up a lot in cycling.
I once said Aunty Charlotte had a barse. I will never make that mistake again... 

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Best cycling words and phrases
« Reply #24 on: 02 November, 2023, 01:33:27 pm »
"Tertiary ablative braking system"