NOVEL ALERT! Nobody got a gun to your head, you don't like, don't read it.

Man, Roadies and Knobbies. We have so much in common and yet there are a few areas where we make each other uncomfortable. Some roadies don't feel welcome in knobbie circles, some knobbies don't feel welcome in roadie circles. We gotta recognize our scenes are a little different so we don't take offense unnecessarily. Here's 2 examples where we differ- picture this...

Roadie comes to a MTB race, theres a section of single track 3 miles long where passing is done by permission or it gets aggressive. Back in the middle of the pack, an mtb'er has finally caught back up with a roadie cause the roadie smoked him in the last open area.

It's tight, no one is racing for a podium spot but we all like to do our best so the mtber in back says "Hey man, can I get around you?" Now, you have to understand that in road racing, this just doesn't happen because they don't have single track, so pulling up next to someone is how you issue the challenge. So the roadie is maybe thinking, -this guy is asking to go around? What the hell? No, if you have to ask, you aren't deserving... so he says- nothin, not realizing that by not answering he has issued the challenge. The MTber is now thinking, I asked to go around, this dood is challenging me when we aren't anywhere near racing for a win, what the hell? So the challenge is on with both riders think the other is a being a dink, so it might get more aggressive than it should for this situation.

In truth, neither is a dink, it's just that both riders are behaving according to their own racing scene! Another example- on a road ride, us mtbers talk non-stop and wave hi to everyone and the roadies are kinda laughin to themselves and having fun and thinking -are you ever going to shut up and ride? The rest of the group is quiet and nobody waves back and so the mtber is thinking, these doods are a little stuck up, did I do somethign to piss them off? What the hell?

Roadies have a tendency to get into a little deeper mind zone so they can unplug and focus on cadence and speed, they're not being stuck up, but an mtber might not recognize that. Mtbers are prone to unexpected outbusts of extacy when riding, and roadies kind of laugh at this. Again everyone acting according to what they are used to as being acceptable in their own groups.

There is no reason for this difference in riding ettiquette to stand between us anymore! UNITE I say! Two wheels, 4 brew pubs and one biking community!!

Ok, a little over the top, the point is- How about us FORCers do our part try to make this a year where we make a organized effort to reach out to roadies. I know the 2 groups have reached out to each other before in small ways, but we're still leary of each other so it hasn't been enough. Bex has proposed a mass get together that sounds like a buh-last. Summers just around the corner so we could just have a ton of us show up for one of their rides, meetings, functions and invite them to all of ours not just here, but on their forums too.

I will still poke fun of mtbers by calling them roadies on occasion, but a roadie making fun of a dood who banzaied a corner by calling him a knobbie is fine with me, too. Roadie and Knobbie are terms of endearment, spoken among friends to celebrate the great 2 wheeled cammeraderie we share while still respecting the things make us different, and these terms should be used as often as possible smiles all around.

My road bike hasn't been ridden in years...