Is it ok to be a rubbish cyclist !

[hondated]

Having cycled for many years now but not necessarily loads of miles in a week I still seem to get passed by many other cyclists than I pass myself.
Just recently I went out with a group for a 15mph average ride and needless to say I was left in their dust. Ok a few of them were younger and raced but I still felt that I should have done better.
Immediately after I went out and brought myself a turbo trainer as part of my plan to improve and the next time I went out for aride I put that bit more effort in.
It was only when I got back from that ride when I settled down with a cuppa and gave it a little more thought that I began to reappraise why I cycled.
Its mainly to get out in the fresh air and to exercise and whatever speed I am doing it really does  not matter as I am not out to beat anyone and have never wanted to anyway.
So rather than try to improve my cycling I have reconciled myself to just being one of those that are a rubbish cyclist and if I climb hills at 5mph does it really matter.
Oh and as a result of that the compact chain set has been changed back to a triple.

[Basil]

About 20 years ago, I was a member of the Ramblers Association.  We would go out on organised walks.  It did not involve any racing, drafting, showing off, pointing and laughing at someone else's naff boots.
I now go on rides like that.  Mostly organised through this very place.
I think some of us might take exception to your reference to "Rubbish Cyclists". 

Just go out and enjoy doing whatever you are doing.

[hellymedic]

It's fine to be a rubbish cyclist. I can't cycle at all now, due to MS.
I was never fast and gained a reputation for my noisy, heavy breathing when cycling uphill.

I shopped and commuted by bike for many years, toured in the UK and abroad, then started doing Audax, often alone because I was so SLOW.
I made many friends and covered greater distances than I ever thought possible.

Keep going. Enjoy.
Our family motto is 'Let them win'.

Everyday cycling is not a competition anyway. The winners are those who have a good time or who get to work feeling happy and healthy. The losers are the others...

[Morrisette]

You don't sound any more rubbish than me. I am SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. The secret is not to care!!

[Basil]

About 20 years ago, I was a member of the Ramblers Association.  We would go out on organised walks.  It did not involve any racing, drafting, showing off, pointing and laughing at someone else's naff boots.
I now go on rides like that.  Mostly organised through this very place.
I think some of us might take exception to your reference to "Rubbish Cyclists". 

Just go out and enjoy doing whatever you are doing.

Edit:  OK, maybe we did point and laugh at the boots.

[geraldc]

If I enjoy doing something, I spend more time doing it, not less. We slow cyclists enjoy cycling more than faster cyclists*

*However by that reasoning, I must effing love hill climbs.

[Ian H]

Speed (or lack of it) is not an indicator of 'rubbishness'.

[StuAff]

About 20 years ago, I was a member of the Ramblers Association.  We would go out on organised walks.  It did not involve any racing, drafting, showing off, pointing and laughing at someone else's naff boots.
I now go on rides like that.  Mostly organised through this very place.
I think some of us might take exception to your reference to "Rubbish Cyclists". 

Just go out and enjoy doing whatever you are doing.

+1 to that, and hellymedic's comments, and Ian's. Out on a ride, whether alone or with others, your first responsibility is to look after yourself, and in a group, your second is to look after each other. You won't do that by setting yourself targets you can't reach, or that you can't reach without knackering yourself and/or wondering why you did it.
The only rubbish cyclists are those who don't ride at all, or who endanger others when they do.

[Toady]

Also, there's no real need to be defensive.  If I'm out on my own or with my cycling pal and we get burnt off by a group of faster riders, as we frequently do, we normally exchange a friendly "hello".  They don't shout "eat our dust, LOSERS".

Which reminds me a of a long steady climb this summer when we were passed effortlessly by a group of guys in club kit.  Shortly later we re-passed them having a wee stop.  Then they came past again.  Then we re-passed them changing a tube.  And we won the climb!  Ha!  What a bunch of weeing, deflating, losers!  Then we turned off before they could catch us again.

Mind you, even if you - like me - don't harbour any competitive urge when cycling, being a bit fitter does enable you to enjoy your tootling around for a bit longer.

[Wowbagger]

There's an ancient saying form foreign parts: "Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink or an elephant may bathe".

I think cycling's pretty much the same. It sounds as you are my kind of cyclist, hondated. Where do you live?

[jogler]

You don't sound any more rubbish than me. I am SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. The secret is not to care!!

+1

I take the view that I'm o.k.:It's the rest of the world that's out of synch..

[numbnuts]

I'm a bit rubbish and slow, but I enjoy what I do even if it means crawling up hills at 3 mph.

[Mrs Pingu]

One is not slow, everyone else is in too much of a hurry.

[mrcharly-YHT]

It's all relative. What is fast for some of us is snails-pace for others and visa versa.

[ran doner]

Dont worry about speed. Last year Taylor Phinney lost over 20 minutes to Pozzovivo over 8.5 kms in the Giro del Trentino.

From memory his average speed up the climb was about 7-8 km/h.

[TimO]

... and if I climb hills at 5mph does it really matter. ...

Well, you may overtake Wowbagger and Mrs Wowbagger at that speed, they have an ability to take their tandem up hills slower than I can stably cycle.

Welcome to the forum hondated, I think you'll be in good company here.  There rarely seems to be much snobbery over speed amongst cyclists, I've overtaken and been overtaken by far too many other cyclists to worry too much about my speed, unless it's whilst overtaking an "all the gear no idea" commuter in lycra, when I'm on a Brompton, in which case it's important to not look in the slightest bit knackered, until I turn a corner and they don't.

[Pancho]

I've always been a slow cyclist. However, unlike the vast majority of the population, I do cover miles riding a bike. I reckon that makes me an ace cyclist.

[Flynn]

<--- Proud to be a rubbish cyclist.

[Palinurus]

The trouble with being a rubbish cyclist is there is so much competition.

[LEE]

Its mainly to get out in the fresh air and to exercise and whatever speed I am doing it really does  not matter as I am not out to beat anyone and have never wanted to anyway.

You answered your own question.

A racing-cyclist's goal is to get off the bike as soon as possible.
It's much nicer to ride at your own pace and to take in the views, and stay on the bike as long as possible. 
That doesn't make you a rubbish cyclist, it makes you a cyclist.
You MAY be a rubbish racing cyclist...but do you care? 

Also...everyone gets passed by other cyclists.  The problem is that you get "targetted" and used as a Hare.  I'm not a fast cyclist but I notice that although I get overtaken a lot they never seem to pull away from me as fast as they overtook me (sometimes I even reel them back in).   Nothing is quite so rewarding as seeing them check over their shoulder, to see if they dropped you. "No mate..I'm still behind you..and gaining on you....but now you're knackered and I'm not".

Small pleasures.

Anyway..keep plodding along and keep enjoying the views.

[AAO]

No! It is not OK!!!!!!!
Hang your head in shame. And, until you improve to their "I'm actually a pro in disguise" level, you should lower your eyes as these wonderful specimens pass you by without acknowledgement. They are on a mission. You are, you pathetic creature, just on a ride. They know a loser when they see one. So do I.............. every time I look in a mirror.

[cycleman]

my ave is around 7.5 mph at best these days . i can still manage 60 in summer in daylight  . you can walk faster than i climb most hills but what goes up must come down and i like down .planned ride for this year include a night ride in march of around 100km and a camping weekend at long inch which i will ride out to in a long day (4.30- 1900 approx ) and a summer tour in the welsh hill based around buith wells.speed does not affect my enjoyment of cycling . i would be nice sometimes to cover certain sections a a route faster on occasion but as my tag line say's .................

[spindrift]

Its mainly to get out in the fresh air and to exercise and whatever speed I am doing it really does  not matter as I am not out to beat anyone and have never wanted to anyway.

   Nothing is quite so rewarding as seeing them check over their shoulder, to see if they dropped you. "No mate..I'm still behind you..and gaining on you....but now you're knackered and I'm not".

Oh yes. Get this a lot, cycling in normal office gear, they huff and puff like mad to overtake then heave a sigh when they slot in ahead of me and ease off. No. You overtake, you go faster, don't you dare risk a hernia to burn me up then ease off. No way. RUDE. I burn them, I drop them and leave them for dead, cheeky baskets.

[mattc]

spindrift/Paul:
I hope you realise you're showing just as much macho competitiveness as your foe in those battles.

(You're just a bit more successful than they are )

[hondated]

First of all thank you everyone for responding and please accept my apologies if you felt I was referring to any of you as " rubbish cyclists " I should of obviously written I am a rubbish cyclist because the reference was purely of myself.
Well I certainly received many words of wisdom and I think many of you will agree the most poignant words were those written by hellymedic.
What have I got to moan about then . !