Everest, you probably wouldn’t hike to Nepal. Plus, there’s a case to be made that you’re not going on a bike ride as much as you’re embarking upon a wilderness expedition therefore, it’s acceptable to drive your gear. Mountain bike rides are a bit different, for the simple reason that riding mountain bikes on the road is so damn awful-like trying to run in waist-deep water. It’s like going to another city just to eat at a different Applebee’s. There’s no honor in being the farthest-traveled at the group ride. It may also be permissible to drive to a distant group ride, but if it’s more than, say, 50 miles away, then the “training race” qualification applies. You should probably clip out for those.) Or, if it’s dangerously urban where you live, it is acceptable and somewhat aristocratic to take a train out to the countryside, though you might want to get a handlebar bag and augment your wardrobe with some tweed. (Except for coffee stops, flat repair, and pee breaks, of course. It’s a road bike, so unless you don’t live near a road there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to step outside, clip in, and stay clipped in until you get home again. Are you some kind of interstate sandbagger? Are you dogged by doping rumors? Are you no longer able to show your face locally because you’ve crashed out everyone in your hometown? Whatever the reason, it could be time to reevaluate your cycling and life goals-or else just move.Ī race is one thing, but is it ethical to drive to a good old-fashioned road ride? For the most part, no. If you absolutely have to drive because you’re going to training races three states away, you need to ask yourself why you’re going so far in the first place. These events are supposed to be for training, so if the competition is within reasonable riding distance of your home or workplace then you’re duty-bound to pedal there. The ethics get a bit more ambiguous when you’re talking about “training races”-those low-key local affairs at which you’re risking thousands of dollars of carbon fiber and who knows how much skin in an all-out sprint for a pizza coupon. Because of course you forgot your shoes, which you’ll realize about two hours into your drive. Plus you’ll need some way to transport your pail of chamois cream, and your caulking gun for applying said chamois cream, and your nutritional supplements, and your infinite changes of kit for every possible weather condition, and your spare wheels, and your trainer for prerace warm-up.īut not your shoes. I mean, sure, you could ride your time-trial bike 300 miles to age-group duathlon nationals, and I’m sure somewhere someone is about to launch a Kickstarter campaign to do just that, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it. After all, even car racers trailer their Ferraris to the track, and just like a Formula One car your racing bicycle may be impractical if not downright illegal for use on public roads. Whether you ride the track, mountain, road, or cyclocross, if you are traveling to a race then it is perfectly acceptable to use a car. Let’s take a look at a few common scenarios. There are times when this is acceptable, and other situations when it’s a bit wimpy, if not downright hypocritical. Bicycles and cars each have their place, and owning and utilizing both doesn’t need to be a source of existential angst.īut what about using those vehicles together- driving your bike to a ride? That’s an ethical gray area. Of course, the truth is that most of us are both, depending on whether our posteriors are in the bucket or on the rivet at that particular moment. The news media loves to pit drivers and cyclists against one another.
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