Just wondering...

Comments

[Jesse]

Why wouldn't you wear it if you have a clean set? The team kit is probably of much better quality than the performance brand shorts/jersey combo..I'm no clothing expert, but that would be my guess.

Plus, red shorts are f)(*ing hot!

[Mike May]

I'm with you, Jesse. I'm in the 'without fail' category, and have even taken crash-torn bibs to a taylor for repair so I can keep them in the rotation instead of going with basic black. I only ask because I see a lot of folks out there not in their team kits, and am wondering if I'm just a dork.

[Walter]

If I do something dumb or dangerous while riding, I don't want others on my team or sponsors of my team to get irate phone calls. I don't intend to be dangerous or dumb when I'm out on the bike, but sometimes things happen.

[Kmax]

Yeah, I'm with Jesse as well, though running red lights (safely I must say) during my commute everyday I can see Walter's point. I however only have a couple of sets of gear as I haven't been riding long enough to acquire much stuff so I wear what I've got and try to spread out my laundry loads as much as possible.

[Kyle Jones]

I am in Walters Camp. I will ride in team gear if it is a team ride or I have run out of my training gear. Previous experiences with riding in team gear is that commuters and trail rats try to challenge you on the bike. "Oh he's a racer I will race him now." I love being incognito. It is amazing how guys on my team don't wave to me when I am not in team gear along with other teams. I am just some Recreational schmuck. Sometimes I sneak up and start talking to them and to their surprise I am one of them. Plus Black shorts and jerseys are cheaper to wear in multiple years than it is to buy a whole wardrobe of your current team. My old team changed their clothing design every year how freaking expensive can that get.

And when I ride I feel I have to be responsible and would hate to represent my club in a bad fashion, its hard enough to get sponsors of a team. Because I will do the bonehead thing every once and a while like rub against someones side view mirror(happened twice can you believe that). I put my hand up to say sorry but don't want it to reflect bad on my team also.

[MB]

I suppose the Men in Black thing is out of fashion, now . . . .

[Mike May]

Walter and Kyle, you guys ought to swap kits for your training rides then. Don't just avoid suspiscion - deflect it.

[Jim]

I have a running joke going with a friend on one of the local teams who did a Very Bad Thing in response to some commuter who had done a Somewhat Bad Thing. Word got out in the community about the Incident, and Rockville Harley got blamed for it by some recreational and commuting schloogies. My buddy didn't ride for them (or ETS). So every time we talk about doing something wretched - midnight drunk fixed gear sprints and the like - we joke about getting some Rockville (now Battley) Harley jerseys first, since they're going to get blamed anyhow. Man, if I ever see those jerseys on sale to the public, I'm buying some.

Training, I almost always wear the jersey, in a way it gives me a license to go really slow. Biketrail Guys - Christina's wonderful term is "Pathletes" - want to race and I just give them a nasty look, or ignore them like the bulldog Spike ignored the little dog on the old Loony Toons. They see the club gear, assume I'm a complete prick, get huffy that I'm not racing them for pink slips, decide I'm not worth their time, then take off at what passes for a jump in wannabe world.

When I want to get stooopid, however, I prefer not to drag the sponsors' name through the mud with me. They are paying me money to wear their stuff, and _______ (our wonderful restaurant sponsor, best pizza in town) doesn't need to be represented by some sweaty, drunk idiot chucking a gallon of Pabst in the bushes outside Camelot.