[St.Zu]

By lurking on this board for the last 3 months I have come to the conclusion that I am a Fred. I don't care that I am a Fred and I kind of revel in this.
The way I figure this whole riding thing is, I get on my bike and ride I have been doing this in various forms since I got my first bike with training wheels. I am now 39 years old. I am too old to care what others think about me and if I have the latest and greatest. I dont care that I have an inexpensive bike and shop online to get the best deals. My shoes and my pedals are from Nashbar. I will not wear lycra shorts or bibs, I wear mountain bike shorts with the liner. I am not riding to compete, I am riding for fitness and pure enjoyment.
I dont post much on here much because if you dont tow the roadie line you usually get flamed or told your post count is not high enough to have an opinion.
Don't get me wrong, this site is a valuable tool for those of us who like to ride and I have learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. I love this forum. I just wish some would remember that this is a recreational deal for most of us, and most of us will never be Cat 1 racers.
Yours Truly,
Rich aka Fred

 

[Mapei]

Enjoy your Fred-dom. But you will be more comfortable in lycra!

 

[Opus51569]

I think you will find you are not alone in your Fredness. Every time I post a pic of my bike, I catch a certain amount of grief about the high-rise stem and the platform pedals I sport. There is no rule book. There are only people with opinions. And I would wager if you put all of those people (and their bikes) together, you would find that each of them would be able to find at least one thing "wrong" with everyone else but themselves. Don't let it get to you. Enjoy your ride.

 

[JoelS]

Eh, so what? Classify yourself however you like. Or don't classify yourself at all and just be who and what you are.

 

[oroy38]

By lurking on this board for the last 3 months I have come to the conclusion that I am a Fred. I don't care that I am a Fred and I kind of revel in this.
The way I figure this whole riding thing is, I get on my bike and ride I have been doing this in various forms since I got my first bike with training wheels. I am now 39 years old. I am too old to care what others think about me and if I have the latest and greatest. I dont care that I have an inexpensive bike and shop online to get the best deals. My shoes and my pedals are from Nashbar. I will not wear lycra shorts or bibs, I wear mountain bike shorts with the liner. I am not riding to compete, I am riding for fitness and pure enjoyment.
I dont post much on here much because if you dont tow the roadie line you usually get flamed or told your post count is not high enough to have an opinion.
Don't get me wrong, this site is a valuable tool for those of us who like to ride and I have learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. I love this forum. I just wish some would remember that this is a recreational deal for most of us, and most of us will never be Cat 1 racers.
Yours Truly,
Rich aka Fred

You sound like a few riders I know that are some of my best friends. Glad to see you're comfortable with where you are.

Oh, and the funny thing is that my MTB short wearing friends are some of the strongest riders I know. The looks on people's faces when they show up to group rides and then tow the pack at 29mph are priceless

 

[Argentius]

That is usually because the racer-types (who wear lycra and are fast), tend to stay away from this sort of group ride.

For a little while I was too embarassed to wear closfitting lycra. Then I stood up out of the saddle to accelerate, and snaged my baggy shorts on the saddle as I sat down, and BARELY managed to avoid wiping out.

I think as long as one isn't hyper-thin-skinned or oversensitive, you'll find that most people here are fairly accepting of all comers.

Indeed, I have found that trends here are towards the tried and true (32-spoke, 3-cross wheels) over the new "latest and greatest," (carbon fiber spokes.)

Maybe people like to poke fun, because we are largely a bunch of men in tights?

You sound like a few riders I know that are some of my best friends. Glad to see you're comfortable with where you are.

Oh, and the funny thing is that my MTB short wearing friends are some of the strongest riders I know. The looks on people's faces when they show up to group rides and then tow the pack at 29mph are priceless

 

[Brad the Bold]

Nice to meet you Fred, I'm Brad.

 

[nOOky]

You're all doing it wrong, aren't you ashamed of yourselves?!

 

[buck-50]

By lurking on this board for the last 3 months I have come to the conclusion that I am a Fred. I don't care that I am a Fred and I kind of revel in this.
The way I figure this whole riding thing is, I get on my bike and ride I have been doing this in various forms since I got my first bike with training wheels. I am now 39 years old. I am too old to care what others think about me and if I have the latest and greatest. I dont care that I have an inexpensive bike and shop online to get the best deals. My shoes and my pedals are from Nashbar. I will not wear lycra shorts or bibs, I wear mountain bike shorts with the liner. I am not riding to compete, I am riding for fitness and pure enjoyment.
I dont post much on here much because if you dont tow the roadie line you usually get flamed or told your post count is not high enough to have an opinion.
Don't get me wrong, this site is a valuable tool for those of us who like to ride and I have learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. I love this forum. I just wish some would remember that this is a recreational deal for most of us, and most of us will never be Cat 1 racers.
Yours Truly,
Rich aka Fred

Lighten up, Francis.

 

[mohair_chair]

How do you feel about manscaping?

 

[Tommy Walker]

Been on here 3 months and you only have 49 post, how dare you even have an opinion. You mean you don't go to your LBS and pay twice as much for the same item. Shoes and pedals from Nashbar, why you must not have spent hardly anythng. What do you mean you don't ride to compete, isn't there anything else? You can't have any fun riding in the countryside looking at the beauty of nature, no you must have your head down looking straight at the road in front of you and spining those legs as fast as you can. Mountain bike shorts, what do you mean you don't like lycra? You have to look like everyone else. You need a HRM, you need a Livestrong jersey, you need an aero water bottle, what do you think that you can just walk into 7-11 and get a cold one? By the way, what is pure enjoyment?

 

[Hooben]

Now I have been in and around serious road bikes since 1983. My knowledge tells me that if you love bikes and ride them, then that automatically takes you out of Fred Dom. If you have loved bikes all your life, then you are a bicycle lover, and that does not constitute a Fred at all. There's a guy in my bike club that I thought was a Fred...but he keeps up and loves bikes.

However, like Tommy Walker said....you're going to have to do something about that low post count.

 

[Dinosaur]

I am a poseur and I am proud

 

[FatTireFred]

me too

 

[martinrjensen]

no Fred

You don't sound like a Fred to me, just a casual rider. A fred (to me) will wear a full team kit on a $3000.00 carbon bike and be 70 lbs overweight, plus (the biggie here) not be able to ride. Maybe that's just a poser but the 2 seem synonymous to me.
You ought to get over your issue with the Lycra pants though. They made them for a reason. I have a friend who said I was a queer if I rode with lycra, he said I could get mountain bike shorts (more "manly" I'm sure) to wear and I succumbed and did, for almost 2 years. Finally the chafing got to me and I bought one pair of Lycra. Never looked back since and I don't care what he calls me now and in fact am a little pissed at myself for worrying about what he thought. but, just to clarify things, I do care what I look like. I do not subscribe to the view that many here profess to own that says "I don't care what I look like".

 

[Oxtox]

I dont post much on here much because if you dont tow the roadie line you usually get flamed or told your post count is not high enough to have an opinion.

it's a harsh world...learn to deal with it.

 

[buck-50]

The sad part of fredliness in the eyes of others is that, generally speaking, the other riders who won't talk to you because you are a dorky fred on a really expensive bike don't know how or why you came to have that really expensive bike, and just assume you didn't earn it.

For example:

Years ago, I got a Klein Q-pro xx with full campy record components and custom paint as partial payment for a job done for Klein. Many late nights on a tight deadline, much trying to make crappy photos that we couldn't shoot ourselves work, many hours agonizing over copy, many, many hours at a press check making sure the thing printed perfectly.

I f**king EARNED that bike.

Didn't matter that I was overweight and have never raced, I earned the bike. Literally.

But that's not something you can really explain to the folks at the group ride who won't talk to freds...

Eventually parted it out and sold it off, got something more appropriate for a humble non-racing fred.

 

[waldo425]

Can a Fred be self aware? At what point does it move from being a Fred to the everyday fashion statement? Tube socks will be the next fashion rebellion.

 

[Hank Stamper]

By lurking on this board for the last 3 months I have come to the conclusion that I am a Fred. I don't care that I am a Fred

Nor does anyone else. I think the thought that the guy who has the latest and greatest stuff on the road gives a flying fck one way or the other about someones Fredness might be a product of an oversensitive imagination.

 

[Coolhand]

A true Fred has no clue what the term Fred means. Nice try.