What ever happend to the term "Racer "

[youngoldbloke]

Racers go faster, tourers go further. Fixies by and large do neither.

Further to Yello's post - doesn't it depend on the rider? - and a chair becomes a stool when you cut the back off, how does that apply to 'racers' and 'tourers'? - or more correctly 'racing bike'*, and 'touring bike'.
*even more correctly, 'race bike' if you are referring to a bike that is actually raced, be it a 'racing bike', 'track bike' or whatever.

 

[GrasB]

I think you're over thinking this. It's a term which has slowly been replaced as more people have taken to using light weight 'race bred' bike them for performance orientated road riding rather than racing.

 

[yello]

[quote name]a chair becomes a stool when you cut the back off[/quote]


What about legs? How many legs does your stool have? (stop giggling at the back!)

The point is, and we all tend to forget this, is that these words (racer, tourer, etc) have quite particular meanings to the individual. This can result in confusion sometimes. We think we're talking about the same thing when in reality there are differences; sometimes so slight as to make little or no difference in a given context, but differences none-the-less.

I don't think it's over thinking it at all, it's being aware of differences and their potential for confusion. For instance, the term 'race bred' is not one I'd use nor am I really familiar with. I have to more-or-less interpret it into something I understand... and in so doing have probably a completely different mental picture of a 'race bred' bike to the one intended! Whether that matters or not is, as I said, down to context.

The word 'racer' will remain as long as there are people (like myself) that continue to use it. (They're still Marathons btw, not Snickers!) The increasing difficulty for people like myself is that the word's meaning changes (as do all meanings; how many people are 'gay' as in happy these days? Your ageing aunt perhaps) and we have to become increasingly 'bi-lingual'. That is, you recognise the word has taken on a different meaning but you still understand the word in it's different context, no? Wicked!

 

[mickle]

But the word 'racer' was never used by serious cyclists and those in the industry. The problem has occured as people get into serious cycling and bring the wrong word with them.

Just as if you were getting serious about joinery at some point you'd have to stop refering to the stuff you were using as 'wood'.

Or if you were getting into plumbing you'd have to stop refering to the thing in the bathroom as a 'sink'.

I beleive that, at the moment you become serious enough about cycling to become a member of CycleChat, it's time to stop refering to road bikes as racers.



Anyone apart from me think I'm getting a bit OCD about bike descriptions?

 

[Hilldodger]

I thought Mickle banned the term at the same time he banned hybrid?

And anyway, the real term for a racing bike is 'Jigger'

 

[Woz!]

- that's just part of the whole cool, retro, ironic, knowing, single-speed, fixie thing, isn't it?

It certainly looks like a racer.
I guess I'm old-school but if someone showed me a bike that was obviously intended to go fast, I'd call it a racer. If they showed me one that was intended to go a long way in comfort, I'd call it a tourer.
'Road bike' is a bit vague.

I beleive that, at the moment you become serious enough about cycling to become a member of CycleChat, it's time to stop refering to road bikes as racers.

My Brompton, my Charge, My Ridgeback and my GT MTB all go on the road though.
That term is less descriptive than the one that people who are supposedly not in the know use!

 

[yello]

But the word 'racer' was never used by serious cyclists and those in the industry.

Hopefully, the people in the industry know what 'punters' mean by the term though. Otherwise they risk become aloof. Ergo, the term exists and serves a purpose!

As I said, words exist in contexts. Any community has a vocabulary of quite specific words that change outside of the context of that community. I'm thinking here particularly of the sciences but it applies equally to any group of people that have a jargon. People switch contexts and so need to be bilingual.

I beleive that, at the moment you become serious enough about cycling to become a member of CycleChat, it's time to stop refering to road bikes as racers.

There I'd disagree.

 

[mickle]

My Rocky Mountain Vertex Team Scandium is a racer. And I can ride it on the road.

 

[Dayvo]

My Rocky Mountain Vertex Team Scandium is a racer. And I can ride it on the road.

with or without stabilisers?

 

[mickle]