Things Cyclists Love

During my RAGBRAI training, I've come to accept, and often love, the cycling culture. It's a group of people unlike any other, who have some surprising similarities within their diverse levels of commitment. Here are just a few I've become rather fond of as well:

Taco stands: I have been participating in the Twitter event “Bike School” with cyclists from all over the country. Inevitably tacos come up. We like soft shell, hard shell, beef, chicken, fish… I had a turkey taco today. If there’s a question a cyclist doesn’t know, they answer it with “Taco!”. It’s like in Sunday school when the kids don’t know the answer… they just answer Jesus. Most of the time they’re right.

In fact, one of my bike buddies Sam is the proud founder of Tacopocalypse: A Taco stand that will be making an appearance at the Downtown Farmers Market this summer.

Fancy beer and PBR: From my experience, bike snobs tend to be beer snobs. Beer snobs that like Pabst Blue Ribbon… I went to a meeting for my RAGBRAI team, Team Skunk, and when I arrived someone quickly informed me that the biggest issue we were covering in the meeting was, ‘Who’s going to get the beer, and what kind they should get’. Apparently last year there was a mix-up and someone bought bad beer, and the beer that was there had to be rationed.

Hats with tiny brims: I am still working on my T-Chart of the pros and cons of a hat with a tiny brim versus a hat with an average sized brim. If baseball caps are good enough for baseball players, why do cyclists need these special tiny brimmed hats? There’s nothing going on 45 degrees above the horizon that we need to be able to see without moving our heads… Tiny brims are irrelevant… But I want one SO BAD.

Spandex: There’s nothing like a helmet and a padded, spandex onesie to tell the world you’re a serious cyclist.