@TwoWheelsDC 123382 wrote:
It has a few, somewhat contradictory meanings, and can be both a term of derision or endearment, although I think very few would use the term derisively with any seriousness or lack of irony. Most often, it basically refers to a) a person who buys the nicest bike in the shop and then rides 12mph on the bike path (or who thinks a freeway overpass counts as a “climb”), or b) the guys that ride with everywhere with 5 mirrors, 8 lights, 3 layers of reflective gear, and an AirZound horn.
Note that there’s actually nothing wrong with or to be ashamed of for either of these definitions, and I fully admit my own fredliness. Frankly, it’s not surprising that a white guy who cries racism at being called a cracker would also take umbrage at being called a Fred.
I had assumed the original name calling of Fred was auto-corrected from “fed” as in “retired fed” and retired federal worker.
Regardless, Fred in cycling circle general is a relative term just like hipster, nutty crunchy,….
Basically a Fred is anyone that has a lower skill & experience to equipment investment ratio than you have. So, when I falsely thought I was quick and skilled while in grad school riding a RSX equipped rusty Specialized Allez, I had a extremely high self-assigned Fred ratio score. Pretty much anyone I saw back than was more Fred than I. If I had had some sort of $18,000 Halo bike, like a Specialized S Work McClaren, my Fred ratio score would have fallen with no change in my skills nor experience.
I thought about posting on the NBC thread this morning, but did not. Yes cracker is a term I have heard other folks from Florida and Georgia both rail against and embrace. The first use was for a poor uneducated white people form those areas, however, the use as of late has ignored the original geographic, class, and educational innuendos.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_%28pejorative%29
I really wanted to point out his hypocrisy regarding the how he promotes the Hilly Bill Roubaix on his media outlet. I have no personal problem with how that organization is run, however, that organization celebrates negative stereotypes of white people living in rural West Virginia. Just look at all the negative stereotypes captured in their logo: https://www.bikereg.com/VirtualImages/EventLogos/26404.png
I was going to ask Jayson to help organize a boycott against business and media outlets promoting that event. You know bike makers such as Cannondale (on the logo itself!) and media outlets like Gravel Cyclist that promote the event and see how he reacted. And to ask him to request Bike Reg to have his name removed from the results and to end his friendship with K-Dogg and Dr. Pain if they did not join this crusade. Of course I do in now way support such foolishness as I have been desperately wanted to do that events for years but something has always come up.
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