Before leaving academia I was a sociologitst whose areas included the
sociology of sport. Specifically, (given that I was more consumed by
bikes than sociology), I studied what we called the sub-culture of bike
racing, I once did a journal article called "Equipment as a feature of
social control in the sport of bicycle racing." Anyway, the basic
premise was that "cool" experienced riders would be always monitoring
newbies who joined a group on the road to make sure that they were
competent to ride with. Given the inherent dangers of our sport, freds
were toxic to your health and, as a rule bad were assumed to be bad bike
handlers in close quarters until proven otherwise. So we would look for
clues in many of the things Chuch mentioned to get a sense of whether
these guys were for real or was it time to put the hammer down and get
rid of them for safetelies sake.
Edward Albert
Chappaqua, NY