Well i started back at university last monday and i was pleased to notice the gym were running mountain bike courses over this weekend (4/5 oct). the course was aimed at ppl that dont really ride much but fancy a go (even bikes were provided!)
the ride they were doing was from the uni down to cardiff on the taff trail, which if you dont know is pretty much flat all the way and only about 20 miles and getting a mini bus back.
having previously compleated the ride on my coker i thought i would sign up to do it with the group and meet ore people to ride with.
so i turned up to the gym on my coker (compleat with 110 cranks) on sat at 2pm and walked up to the guy who was organising the ride. he looked at me strangely and said ‘oh thats different’ and started to walk away. i called him and said i was here for the ride, he looked at me again and very sturnly and rudely said ‘you cant ride that’ i said i could and the ride was easy for me to compleat and i could probably ride my unicycle just as well as he could a bike. and i said that i have done the intended route many times previously.
but still he said i could not take part even after argueing my point for around 15mins. what a joke ay!!!
i have written a letter to the manager of the gym and to the students union complaining about what has happened.
I will let you all know what happens.
Des
ps if i get an email for the person i should contact about this incident would people email their support?
Number One: Sounds like his deal was a business marketing event. He was hoping to advance the sport of MB and, more importantly, introduce folks to his gym (making him busy and preserving his paycheck…nothing wrong with that).
Problem is: You out-cooled the guy. He shouldn’t have been intimidated. He should have embraced you as instant advertising buzz. Lots more heads turning towards his event. Lots more conversation. But he wouldn’t have been the all-knowing captain, coolest dude in the bunch. You’d have been cooler…that’s just the nature of Uni. There are tons of people who can’t handle that. (jerks) That’s just the nature of people.
Number Two: I assume that the gym did not own the path.
You should have left 1 minute before his group and let them catch you. (But make them work for it). Then THEY would be riding WITH YOU. You would make friends along the way. And he would still be a jerk. You win.
The only problem is the ride back. His group may not own the path, but I assume they own the bus.
So, at some point, during a coincidental water/rest break, you say “I’ve got to turn around now, dude won’t let me ride back in the minibus…” (See if someone doesn’t speak up for you).
Number Three: The most sure-fire method to get your way is to make friends with Jerk-weed. I’m horrible at this. Someone else must provide us with advice here. It really does work. Butting heads and making an enemy, will have long-term negative outcome for your cause.
Elevate jerkwad to “cool dude” in his suroundings, and you will get to do what you want…take an occational ride with some folks on a nice path and catch a ride back.
> but still he said i could not take part even after argueing my point for
> around 15mins. what a joke ay!!!
>
> i have written a letter to the manager of the gym and to the students
> union complaining about what has happened.
I would think The S. Union is a good place to start, shame it was a 20 mile
hike back, else you could have “coincidentally” ridden at about the same
speed but independently along the route. Arguing with him for 15 minutes
was probably not a good tactic, better might have been, “Well may I just
follow along behind for a while, and if I can keep up I’ll join in”. He
would have already been sure in his own mind that you had no chance there.
But of course experienced coker against novice munibikes would then quickly
counteract his experience. Remember you ARE different to his norms, and
there may even have been insurance implications for an organised ride.
I would have probably tagged along behind anyway for a while, if only to
annoy him, and to make the biker contacts. Public route I guess?
I know some DH, dirt, bmx and XC-riders and they have asked me to join them while they are riding around but I haven’t had time for it yet. We have had a couple of conversations about when to go riding together, but both times we decided it rained.
i unfortunatly didnt think about just coincidently riding along the same track unitil i was on my way home. i was gutted.
and if i did ride i could have rode back anyhow. who needs the mini bus.
amature bikers!!!
and i have contacted the student union and university magazine so i may even get an article in the mag! good advertising in the end (for the unicycle!)
Looking at it from the organizers’ point of view though, if I understand correctly, this was an instructional class type of event (though perhaps a rather informal one), and not simply a “ride.” The intent was to introduce people to mountain biking specifically, so coming in with a unicycle might have been a bit like bringing a trombone to an introductory saxophone class. You would be turned away just as firmly, not because you couldn’t play the same music just as well as the saxers, or because you couldn’t jam together under other circumstances, but because it’s just a very different instrument which wouldn’t fit into that particular situation. Little of whatever information and materials that they might have had there for the bike class would have been relevant to you; none of the advice on basic riding technique would have applied to you; and having you in the group just would have taken attention away from the intended topic of their class. Your Coker is likely to be more welcome in a more open kind of tour, mass ride, pedal-a-thon or other less specifically focused cycling event I think.
I dont know how good of an advertising campaign it is for unicycles. To me it sounds like we are a bunch of whiney bastards who cant ride by ourselfs. I mean it sucks that the guy said you cant ride with them but really, f*ck him. If you go out and ride you’ll meet other people that think its cool to ride with. In the end, No body likes a tatle tale.
I think I agree with C-Nuts… only in a less harsh way… I think I would’ve asked and if he said “No”; I woulda shrugged, gave him a “Whatever” and rode off (the key being not letting him get to you)… probably would have p*ssed him off worse that way too, cause he sounds like a self-important creep…
