What makes a participant do these things??

[Raindrop]

I've been a cyclist for a long time and a cycle instructor since 1997 and after reading some of the comments here, I thought I'd ask some of the questions that I have regarding participants.

Why would you insist on riding with your hands behind your back, or crossed over your chest, or just hanging by your sides when I caution that you need to keep at leat one hand connected to the bike unless your wiping off sweat or getting a drink? I've seen pedal spindles break at least six times in the last eleven years and it still amazes me that people want to pedal away (sometimes even standing!) with no hands. When it happened again this last weekend I just said, "I understand they're doing great things with dentures these days" and let it go.

What benefit do you think you'll get by pedalling backwards? This isn't for those brief moments before or after class that I see members doing, this is for those people that are really going at it like it's going to enhance their performance in some way. Then, when I caution them against it...it's a personal affront.

And the last, why come to a class with your friend if all you want to do is talk, talk, and then talk some more during the class. I actually had a member tell me that they had to plan a wedding and this is when they had time to discuss it. I pointed to the bikes out on the general aerobic area and said that was where they could do their wedding plans. Yeah...I get a little testy because I know the majority of people (and I know cyclists are among the top end) just want to get their ride, and their training in.

I guess I'm just venting a little after a week of having too many distractions from the "off the norm" participants and not enough actual riding on my part.

Still, I know a lot of you take classes from the instructors that are filling their classes with contraindicated stuff (hovers, push-ups, a gazillion moves just to fill the hour etc.), but I wonder how many of you realise many instructors face the other side; those that want to do unsafe moves (even if they stem from other instructors) that we need/want to correct without alienating the member?

[crazycanuck]

It's the public & people are stupid...That's my 5 Cents

I'm sure you're a cool instructor

[Running Mommy]

OY! Must be in the air...
No real advice or anything, but MAN do I feel you!
I've been wanting to vent about some things I've had to deal with at the bike shop lately, but I didn't want to send out a negative vibe, or give the wrong impression... (but here I go anyway, hope this doesn't come across wrong)

For example, WHAT on gods green earth would make someone think it's ok to come into a shop and proclaim/ask "Well I buy all my stuff online from like nashbar and Jensen, but the idiots on the phone don't seem to know what they are doing. So if order the wrong thing I can come to you guys and you'll tell me what I need right? So then I'll know what to ask them for when I need to excahnge it"....
My manager who is normally SO restrained actually looked at the guy point blank and simply said firmly "NO"....
Yes, a guy actually said that pretty much verbatim!

Or the guy who rebuilds 80's style bmx bikes. He never so much as buys a tube from us, but he has no problem coming in and taking our mechanics attention away for 20-30 minutes at a time while he asks them to explain to him in detail how to fix something. Or he'll ask to borrow a tool??!!
Ok, I have no problem giving advice, or answering questions, but it has to work both ways. Give us a few bones every once in awhile. I pay my staff PER HOUR whether they are doing something earning me revenue or not. And when you take them away from whatever is on the stand, you are also cutting in front of the person who IS paying us for our services!

WOW. I feel MUCH better!
Sorry to hijak this thread, but it's kind of related as to why sometimes dealing with the public can be so frustrating.
Tho I must say 99.9% of the folks who walk in my door are fabulous!
It's that .1% that grate on my last little nerve!
I'm sure it's the same way in your class.
Sigh.... (shrugs shoulders)....

[Zeek]

It's the public & people are stupid...That's my 5 Cents

That's it in a nutshell.

[Raindrop]

You know...sometimes it just helps to vent...and then read other peoples vents and realise that the simple answer came to us on this forum...from Craxycanuk

It's the public & people are stupid.

I don't even want to mention the guy that takes my class and partakes in ironman competitions...well, yeah I do want to mention him cause it feeds right into this thread

He shows up, and while I'm explaining the process to a couple of newbies, I include the warning not to take their exertion to panting because that leads to puking and it disrupts the flow of the class (my attempt at humor). Meanwhile, the ironman guy pulls the garbage can from the front of the room and tells me, "I don't feel too good, so I might need this." I told him that I'm a sympathetic vomiter and he needed to get his "not feeling-too-good-self" out of my class because there was no way in hell I was going to chance him pukeing (sp?) during my class.

Gawd! What nerve!

[Raindrop]

Oh... I forgot to mention that he did leave. I'm short but aggressive!!!!

[Dogmama]

How about the people who arrive early & "save" bikes for all of their friends by placing towels, spinning shoes, etc. on the handlebars? Then, the working class folks come in & can't get a bike. THAT really p*sses me off.

Or, the guy who does back-to-back classes when others are waiting for the second class? I talked to management & they said they can't (won't) do anything because he's a paying member like everybody else.

Centers of the universe, indeed!