When someone thinks you are a newbie... and you have been riding 4 years.

[OakLeaf]

I knew he would never have asked my hubby if he knew how to shift a bike like this! Would he?

Probably he would've. A lot of people with years of riding experience are still new to brifters. It might even be that the LONGER someone's been riding, the LESS likely they are to have upgraded their current bike to brifters. The bike shop guy (and I) explained them to my DH when he went for his test ride - and IIRC we showed up there on our hybrids (with grip shifters).

EDIT: I gotta say this: if someone doesn't take their pulls, I DO assume they're a noob. Less so if they know what to do when they get to the front of the line (someone who peels off at the same time as the one ahead of them has immediately branded h/hself as a noob). But if someone's not trying to get stronger by taking at least a short pull, why are they in that group at all? And if you're pulling at the same pace as the paceline was going before you got to the front, why would you need to look back to know what your computer can tell you? So I can excuse the guy for thinking that.

[Susan126]

I guess I am the unenlightened one here. I know brifters are combo brake/shifters found on road bikes but I guess I didn't realize, at the time, the people the bike shop guys must deal with on a daily basis. So bad of me to think this way. The young man probably sees a lot of novice cyclists in a day and just thought I was another one! He was a nice guy and I was nice to him . . . lucky for me he couldn't read my mind though! Here's where keeping things in has worked for me. I guess there are worse things then being thought of as . . . OMG . . . a NOVICE!