First confrontation.

[kingsknight]

Cycling to work this morning I stopped at the lights and another cyclist stopped next and randomly called me a cheater.

"Oi that's cheating riding that"

Yeah.... it was 6.30am and I hadn't had my coffee so I didn't really deal with it the best way....

I may have got a bit angry, got a bit sweary and he road off quite fast.

Not sure what response he was after to be honest, he wasn't joking that is for sure!

What's with the anti ebikes vibe from other cyclists? I don't get it!

Anyone else have these kind of issues before?

 

[Gubbins]

Welcome to our world, Although to be fair, a lot of the coments I get are more like banter than confrontational so I receive them as such. Things like, "You cheaning bstd! Where can I get one?" Mostly the cheating is followed by an apraisal of the bike, sillt questions about charging when riding and general agreement that they are a good thing. I havnt had many really negative "meetings" with other bikers.

 

[kingsknight]

Welcome to our world, Although to be fair, a lot of the coments I get are more like banter than confrontational so I receive them as such. Things like, "You cheaning bstd! Where can I get one?" Mostly the cheating is followed by an apraisal of the bike, sillt questions about charging when riding and general agreement that they are a good thing. I havnt had many really negative "meetings" with other bikers.

this was 100% negative sure. He seemed almost pissed off at me lol

 

[Benjahmin]

It's not just cyclists tbh. Perhaps, in this circumstance, one repost might be, 'Yeh, you're right, think I'll go back to the V8'.
I had it sitting outside a pub one night. I said, 'I've just cycled 12 miles for my evening meal, how did you get here?'. The conversation went no further.
The comments seem predicated on the ignorant view that the bike does all the work, so at best comes from lack of knowledge and understanding. From cyclists I think it's more of a 'I'm suffering and in pain, why aren' t you', kind of thing.
Here's one I've got in waiting.
May I suggest that a large helping of Allbran would help with your problem.

 

[wheeliepete]

Probably not the best time of day for you to engage in the virtues of ebikingIt's prob. happened to almost everyone here at some point, so don't worry about it too much. Sounds like he was pissed off with not having one himself.

 

[JPGiant]

If he was serious, tell him to F off and he's also cheating - he should be walking!

 

[kingsknight]

If he was serious, tell him to F off and he's also cheating - he should be walking!

Yeah.... i may have said "what the f has it got to do with you? who the hell am I cheating??"

I think I was pissed because he made me take out my earphones. First off I thought he was telling me something was wrong with my bike. I can deal with banter but this 100% wasn't!

I've been lucky 99.999% of all my interactions has been positive since being back on a bike.

So who are we cheating? I spend most of my time above 16mph so I'm working harder due to the bike weighing the same as a small car lol

 

[daveboy]

You might look like the bloke who's shagging his wife.

 

[Nev]

Someone posted a nice reply to people giving the cheating comment on here the other day. They said they shout back "It's only cheating if I'm competing". I thought that was quite good.

I went for a ride on my non ebike the other day, and was riding slowly up a fairly steep hill, next thing someone on an ebike came flying past me with a cheery hello.

I had to resist the temptation not to shout out something like cheater and I suspect if I did not have an e bike too I may well have done. Instead I just about had enough breath to reply with a hello too, he was going so quickly he may well have not heard it though.

I think if your struggling on a conventional bike up a steep hill and someone on an ebike flys by then you will understand why you sometimes get the cheating comments from people. I don't think we should take them too seriously, I like the way Gubbings deals with it.

 

[Gubbins]

He is sugesting you are lazy, and you took the bait, so try a sugestion of your own..
You could look his bike up and down and with a grimace of disdain on you face say "I bet you wish you could afford one!" If the response is "how much was it?" say "If you have to ask you definately cant afford one" and if he tells you how much his was say "Really? they saw you comming!"
Keep it smily and pleasant as though you really dont care, as this is often disarming, but if you become anoyed then he has won.

 

[kingsknight]

He is sugesting you are lazy, and you took the bait, so try a sugestion of your own..
You could look his bike up and down and with a grimace of disdain on you face say "I bet you wish you could afford one!" If the response is "how much was it?" say "If you have to ask you definately cant afford one" and if he tells you how much his was say "Really? they saw you comming!"
Keep it smily and pleasant as though you really dont care, as this is often disarming, but if you become anoyed then he has won.

it was 6.30am lol but I think I'll go with this response if it happens again!

 

[Artstu]

just agree, that's the end of it then.

 

[Gubbins]

I once told one that I only have one leg. He looked down, then looked up and rode away!
But, I am one that enjoys the banter, I even look forward to telesales to see how long I can keep them on the line.
Yep... I know.. too much time on my hands..

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[Fat Rat]

Last person who did it to me I pushed him off his bike and pinched his lunch money

Well that’s what I felt like doing as that seemed the mentality and age group I was dealing with

But in reality
I just generally ignore narrow minded people so don’t normally have in issue

 

[Kate page]

I had a conversation with 2 very fit friends about how using an Ebike cheating.
I had travelled about 40 km to get to the place to see them.... they used a car... I was like WTF??!???

 

[flecc]

As I've posted before, it's our fault we get called cheats.

It's because as well as using pedals we still call them bikes, bicycles, cycles and call it cycling, even officialdom joining in by terming them EAPCs (Electric Assist Pedal Cycles).

If they had another name, (Moped was the ideal one before it got stolen by things that don't have pedals) we wouldn't get accused of cheating.
.

 

[Nealh]

I now just smile at them and reply ' ah well ' .

Intelligent ones are usually respectful and often a civilised enquiring chat can be had of the merits with pro's & con's.

Remarks by others are to bait you, they like fishing so as to annoy or upset.
Make it work the other way keep your thought's to yourself and nonchalantly ignore them.

 

[flecc]

Or just respond with a puzzled frown, "No speak English".
.

 

[LeighPing]

You could say "I've got 3 minutes to live. Would you rather I boiled you an egg!"

Life's too short to spend it all on the couch.

 

[Gubbins]

Last person who did it to me I pushed him off his bike and pinched his lunch money

Well that’s what I felt like doing as that seemed the mentality and age group I was dealing with

But in reality
I just generally ignore narrow minded people so don’t normally have in issue

School bully [emoji16][emoji16]