Why do cyclists have to wear all that lycra?

[aponi]

I live in Charlotte home of the (cough) NFL powerhouse Panthers

This is this one road in particular, Queens Rd West if you happen to be familiar with the city that everyone calls the "tour de Charlotte". It's in a really nice part of town, very near a park and every cyclist, runner, and walker ends up there. Well it seems like it anyway. If you happen to be out there on a Sunday morning you would get the impression that everyone in town rides or runs. Heck a couple of weeks ago I saw a guy on a unicycle going down that road.

I haven't done any cycling events yet but just about every road race I've run in goes through there. Oh they did have this 24 hours of booty bike event there not too long ago. I do kind of feel sorry for the people who live on that road because they have to get tired of it but I suppose it's the price you pay for living on one of the most beautiful streets in town.

So I think they get tired of bikes.

Then there is the East Blvd project. It was a 4 lane road, one of the busiest ones in town. The city turned it into a 2 lane road by sticking big planters in the median and putting in bike lanes. They did it to slow traffic down, it did not go over well with the motoring public. They seem to use bike lanes as a "traffic calming" tactic. It may calm traffic but seeing bikes using them does not seem to calm the drivers.

People seem to think that just because you happen to be on a bike at that moment, you are not paying your fair share of road taxes and should not be allowed on the roads. The funny thing is that I live IN the city - as in I have a Charlotte address, not Rock Hill, Huntersville, Monroe, Mint Hill... but Charlotte. Most of the time the people I hear complaining about this sort of thing live in the burbs so I'm pretty sure that I'm paying more taxes to support the actual city than they are.

Then there is the, "you cyclists ride down the middle of the road. I wait until traffic is clear to go around you and then when I'm at a red light you go past me in the gutter" kind of thing.

Every now and then there is a news story about a cyclist who has been injured or killed and quite frankly the comments on the Charlotte Observer website have shocked me. Things like, "well now there's one less of them".

The comments on the paper's website are what really scared me off of cycling. When I first headed out I was expecting it to be like riding through a DMZ. Thankfully so far at least people have been very friendly. I did pull a spaz though. My second day on the bike and I wanted to turn left. I'm shinny and new at road cycling and was afraid to look over my shoulder to see if the road was clear, also I'd rather not stop and have to wrestle my shoes back into my toe clips. I solved this by rather abruptly turning right and thinking I would do a U-turn but the car behind me also turned right. I panicked and just stopped. He stopped because obviously some idiot on a bike was acting strangely. I sort of waved and said "sorry its a new bike and I haven't gotten the hang of it." I thought he was going to go off but he just laughed and said "hey I hear it's like riding a bike" (groan). What do you do, you have to laugh at his funny there because heck the guy could have taken me out. I'm just hoping that kind of thing is the norm and the people writing in the paper are just venting trolls.

[lph]

I'm just hoping that kind of thing is the norm and the people writing in the paper are just venting trolls.

For some reason irrational venting about cyclists is socially acceptable to many people. Just yesterday I was at a work seminar, having a relaxed, civilized dinner (on a car- and bike-free island, btw), when a co-worker - a petite little doll of a thing who is cute, and softspoken, and very unaggressive - suddenly started to vent about wanting to run down those awful cyclists all over the place where she lives, who "think they're in the TdF, ride 4 abreast, never let anyone pass" etc etc. Totally unexpected, especially because she must have known that many of us are cyclists. But I don't think she realizes that someone wearing team kit can actually be the same kind of person who rides to work, and works with her.
She was pretty surprised when we didn't all chime in, but started a careful discussion of what actually is legal, good behaviour, how she could discuss the problem with the local cycling club and so forth.

[shootingstar]

Wearing cycling clothing, but nothing like a team kit and road bike whipping down, might have a lot more people responsive. But I don't necessarily dress for impressions. I just focus on comfort, budget and safety.

Honest, I personally have less respect for cyclists who don't have bike lights, wear black jackets, black everything and black helmet. And they hope drivers will see them at night? I've almost crashed into such cyclists.

For last 3 Canadian cities I have lived right near heavily used MUPs. Yes, I'm sure the residents get tired cyclists...and yes, many charity bike rides, runs....use these same routes..near where I've lived.

I get used to it...and also on weekends I make sure I start cycling from home before those big rides, runs/marathons start.

Yes, that is the "price" of living close by...but honest, it doesn't happen every day. We have to keep it all in perspective.

[aponi]

I wear THE most obnoxious colors when I run because I'm heading out the door early in the morning when its still dark. It was fun during the summer to actually get to wear other stuff, but alas I'm back to neon and carrying a light especially since school started this week so the buses are out and of course parents driving like maniacs to get the little darlings to school. I've seen a few ninja runners out there and it astonishes me that more of them haven't been hit. I have black tights for the winter too but I wear them with a bright yellow jacket.

Back in the winter I had a guy out getting his paper ask me where I got my jacket. His wife was doing a couch to 5k and he said he never realized how dark it was out there until she started running.

I guess people don't think about these things.

[velo]

This is a really curious question to me. I started cycling seriously in the very early '90s and raced for years. For a number of years, I had ridden a bike for transportation up 'til then, many of them exclusively using a bike as transportation. I took a break in my serious riding while raising a family and am back to it full tilt but have close to two decades of cycling under my... chamois . I have ridden in small towns, big cities, all over the world. Not one single time has anyone asked about my cycling kit. Not once. And if anyone did say something, I'm old enough now to pretty much tell them to put their opinions in their pipes and smoke 'em. I truly wouldn't care what other people say or think. Do what you feel like doing and don't worry about it.

[nuliajuk]

In all the years that I've been commuting to work on a bike, I've heard the range of reasons from co-workers why they don't bike commute. Number one was fear of traffic, followed closely by lack of time or showers. I don't ever recall someone saying they wouldn't ride because they were afraid they'd have to wear lycra.
Most people already know they can ride without lycra. They've always known it. The "lycra scares people away from cycling so we'd better not wear it" argument is bogus.

[malkin]

Why do swimmers wear bathing suits?

You could swim in jeans and you could ride a bike in jeans. Certainly not my preference, but suit yourself.

[shootingstar]

During the lst 10 years of returning cycling, starting @32 yrs., I wore walking shorts and T-shirts for cycling. I didn't want to be identified with the cycling jersey pack. I wanted to cycle more "anonymously" if that makes sense. At that time, I didn't consider myself a competent cyclist....when in fact, I did my longest self-loaded bike tour trips during that time in my life!

Keep in mind, I did several bike tours 800- 1,200 km. each over several days-weeks, plus this was what I wore commuting to work. It's been such a long time I was such a "rebel". I moved over to wearing mountain bike shoes after within the first 5 years. I always wear (mtb) cycling shoes.

My partner actually didn't move over to cycling shoes until 8-9 yrs. after he returned to cycling.

These days, I split my time maybe 40% wearing lycra shorts and rest of time between walking shorts and a running skort on the bike.
I always tend to wear cycling jerseys except in the winter i'm wearing a turtleneck for light local riding.

I would tend to agree the fear of car traffic and showers has been voiced to me. However, we have to remember that some women (I don't know about guys) are very self-conscious about what they wear and fear looking "stupid".

[lph]

I thought the OP was referring to questions asked by non-cyclists, not by budding cyclists or people otherwise genuinely interested.

I don't think I've ever been asked point-blank why cyclists wear so much lycra, but I've certainly heard lycra ridiculed a million times in anti-cyclist posts. It never fails - any article writing anything at all about cycling, whether it's positive or negative, about commuting or racing or little old ladies, will get a rash of comments saying something like "what the bleepitybleep do they think they're doing out there anyway, wagging their fat fannies in multicoloured shiny condom suits* "

*the epithet of choice in Norwegian

[aponi]

I thought the OP was referring to questions asked by non-cyclists, not by budding cyclists or people otherwise genuinely interested.

I don't think I've ever been asked point-blank why cyclists wear so much lycra, but I've certainly heard lycra ridiculed a million times in anti-cyclist posts. It never fails - any article writing anything at all about cycling, whether it's positive or negative, about commuting or racing or little old ladies, will get a rash of comments saying something like "what the bleepitybleep do they think they're doing out there anyway, wagging their fat fannies in multicoloured shiny condom suits* "

*the epithet of choice in Norwegian

^^this

[NbyNW]

Why do swimmers wear bathing suits?

You could swim in jeans and you could ride a bike in jeans. Certainly not my preference, but suit yourself.

These days there is a little bit of lycra blended into cotton denim, so they move with you a little better than the denim of yore that felt like cardboard when it was new. Most of my rides are under 5 miles these days -- in cooler weather jeans are perfectly comfortable, sitting on a Brooks B67.