I listen to music when I ride, so, I have my headphones in. Most of the time I can't hear people. Sometimes, that's good. It gets annoying when every 19 year old frat boy yells "GET A REAL BIKE!" at you. (See above, NONE OF US RIDE FOR THE IMAGE).
But one thing really ticked me off...last summer I had my headphones in, but off. Was at a stop sign, Also at the stop was a crosswalk. If anyone has been to Old Orchard, you know the town center....It's a mess of people. You want to be able to hear when you're on a bike.
So I see a kid, maybe 10 years old, and his father walking across the crosswalk. The kid points "I want to ride that kid of bike dad!"
I smiled, thought "hey kid, stick with it! I don't get paid to ride, but I have fun when I do." His father?
"No! I don't want you getting mixed up with those kind of people!"
Now, I'm usually timid when it comes to people insulting me. I can take it. But this man didn't insult just me. He insulted me, and every other rider. So, I let loose a little bit.
"First of all, sir, I can hear you. Second of all, sir, it's THAT kind of people. Third, what do you mean "those kind of people". What is your assumption about me? I drink, do drugs, dropped out of school, am a failure at life? Well, let me inform you of something. Not everything is the way YOU want it to be. I'm straight edge, I don't drink or smoke. I'm still in school, and got high honors last year, and got a 5 on my AP calc exam, the maximum possible score. And as far as I'm concerned, your bigoted opinions should not stop your son from getting some exercise, sir".
The man was SPEECHLESS. Maybe I could have handled it better, more mature, and I know I could have DEFINITELY made it worse. ;)
So, here's why I'm writing this. The image we get as riders is not why we ride. If the only reason you ride is for the image, you need to rethink what image you want on yourself.
BMX will forever be frowned upon by high society. To them, we're a bunch of miscreants, scoundrels, wasting away our lives! We could be doing something PRODUCTIVE!
We are, we're riding for fun. I guarantee the 45 year old lawyer who told me to "leave the skatepark with that bike or I will have you arrested" has so much fun with her life.
*In my defense, the park allows bikes. I pointed out the sign, and she continued, claiming "the sign is wrong". Her 5 year old son was not wearing a helmet, which is required by the park.
So, keep riding. People will constantly give you a hard time. Let it go.
Old or young, people will target you to look better to their friends, especially of the other gender. They’ll give you a hard time to make themselves feel better about themselves…Let them go. Whenever I get a hard time about riding or my tiny sprocket (30t, by the way), I shrug it off. My boss gives me a hard time about riding. Do I let it affect how I work? No. My teachers give me a hard time. Do I let it affect how I write stories, or do math problems? No, and no. And neither should you. I don’t ride for my boss, or my teachers, I ride for me. Whenever I nail something that I’ve been working on, I don’t say “This is for you, Mrs. M!”. I smile, lose myself in my music, and think what I should try next.
Riding isn’t about pleasing your teachers, professors, friends, girlfriend, family, employer, employee, it’s only about pleasing yourself. If you’re happy with what you’re doing, then do it.
If you miss a day of riding because you’d rather sit at home and watch a movie, so? People are getting so obsessed with riding that they feel they HAVE to ride, which makes them not like it. Why? They aren’t happy with it.
Were there sunny days that I was sitting inside thinking “I could ride today…but I would rather go out with my camera, or go for a run, or just sit around outside and do absolutely nothing”? Yes, and I did!
Other days in my free time, I really wanted to ride…so, I did.
Ride for yourself, not for anybody else, and you’ll love riding, Just as much as I do.
As a side note, school is walloping me right now. Between school and work, I have barely any time to put into the website. The time I DO have, goes straight towards finding a POTM. I'm not writing nearly as many articles as I want to, not doing nearly as much CADD work, or doing anything with the site I want to! :( It's depressing. My AP class ends (literally. it's online, so after the AP test, it's a black hole of what used to be a class) in early May. I'll most likely want to get some stuff in order, though, since I've had almost NO free time, but after that I hope to be writing more.
Take it easy, keep riding.
-Rob