The Chainlink

Biking Advice - Who Do You Listen To?

At times, we can be a stubborn group, us cyclists. I've been reflecting upon how we receive our cycling information and advice and have come up with the following ranking. What do you think? Who would you ACTUALLY listen to and make efforts to change your routine?

Mine ranking (first draft) is: 

1. Close friends who bike

2. Non-cyclist driver friends who have had bad experiences with cyclists

3. Chainlink forum 

4. Bike shop

5. Workshops led or coordinated by cycling friendly organizations 

6. Online tests or quizzes (test my knowledge and show off...)

7. Books by cyclists

8. Brochures from cycling friendly organizations

Non-factors:

1. Media outlets

2. Family (mine don't bike. if they did, bump them up to #2)

I rated chainlink higher than bike shops b/c of the ease of access. Online quizzes may be just me due to my inexplicable love for online quizzes.  

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Apie (11) on November 12, 2012 at 11:04am

9.  People who have more experience than me. 

 

That is impossible to ascertain on websites, blogs and forums, so mostly people who work on bikes/deal with bikes daily.  Just because you read reviews and posts about bikes on the intranets for 10 hours daily, doesn't mean you know what you are talking about.

Permalink Reply by KatieP on November 12, 2012 at 11:06am

Good point, Apie. I tend to give a lot of weight to my friends advice if they worked for a bike shop in the past, too. 

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on November 12, 2012 at 11:24am

I never trust the internet or anything on a forum unless I know the poster or at least a bit about their background.

There may be a million different ways of doing things but far, far less than that are the correct way.

Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on November 12, 2012 at 11:29am

Bike shop and Chainlink queries.

Permalink Reply by Bill Savage on November 12, 2012 at 11:31am

I mostly listen to the voices in my head.

Seriously, I listen to friends who ride and writers I've learned to trust (John Greenfield, for instance).  But listening to other bikers just because they bike is a dead-end: other bikers ride brakeless fixies, ride at night without lights, do all sorts of stupid things.  Unless I know a biker's habits and attitudes, I pay no attention to their advice.

Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on November 12, 2012 at 11:39am

1.  Sheldon Brown

 

2.  All others

Permalink Reply by Gort 12-mile Pinklegneep on November 12, 2012 at 11:55am

I'd probably list "friends who bike" "chainlink forum" and "bike shop" as the same because the overlap there is bananas. 

I do not think in my entire life I've ever heard a complaint from a non-cyclist motorist that wasn't some form of either "Waah I'm being forced to pay attention to my surroundings" or "one time I saw a guy do a dumb thing on a bike, therefor [idiot blanket statement about cyclists]" 

Permalink Reply by Gort 12-mile Pinklegneep on November 12, 2012 at 11:57am

Yeah the thing is the wrenches I know locally often have a pretty good sense of the extent to which Sheldon Brown's advice may apply to where he was living, but not so much to living in the city. 

For example: 



Juan Primo said:

1.  Sheldon Brown

 

2.  All others

Permalink Reply by David Barish on November 12, 2012 at 1:42pm

I think it depends on what you are thinking about.  commuting? repairs? touring?  etc?  Your list should vary depending on what you want to know. The more you read and the more you ride and the more you peruse the various resources that remain a click away from your fingertips...the better questions you will be able to ask when you figure out who to ask.  Many of us have our own gurus. If I have a maintenance or repair question I ask my friend Dave. If I have a routing question I ask someone who has been there. If I have a touring question I would ask my friend Jerry or one of the Kibitzers. If I have an advocacy question I would ask Ethan or someone at Activetrans. If I have a legal question I would ask a lawyer. Once you amalgamate the info you can ask the girl in the  mirror and she will always have the best answer.  A related question that is raised by your list is who would rarely have worthwhile advice.  You put some easy answers there-

2. Non-cyclist driver friends who have had bad experiences with cyclists . - This is pretty self explaining.  Those friends have impressionistic and statistically unreliable feelings,  They have no data and nothing to give.  We have all had a bad experience with [INSERT ANYTHING IN THE WORLD HERE] and that does not mean that [ANYTHING IN THE WORLD] is necessarily bad, dangerous, iillegal or a flaming [INSERT EXPLETIVE HERE]. The same is true for cyclists.  Your Non-cyclist driver friends can't help.

2. Family (mine don't bike. if they did, bump them up to #2) -#2 is kind of high on your  list of two choices.  Does your family ever have much to say other than you are crazy for riding your bike? If your family did ride you may listen to them because they fit into one of the other catagories of sources of real information.  If mom is a triathlete or dad is a commuter disregard all of this.

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