15 August 2010

Mamils, Whirls, Cowpoos and other cycling acronyms

The Mintel report that explained the boom in bike sales as middle-aged men buying expensive road bikes has been picked up by the wider media.

As we mentioned here last week, Mintel’s report said the number of bikes sold was in fact going down. The ‘boom’ in sales is in value, not numbers.

But it hasn’t stopped the story taking off. The BBC website, for example, introduces us to the acronym ‘mamil’ – middle-aged man in Lycra.

This blog does not feel particularly aligned to either elastic copolymer fabrics or seven-grand Pinarellos, and so suggests the following Real Cycling acronyms as more in line with our experience:

WHIRL Wears Helmet, Ignores Red Lights

COWPOO Celebrity On Wheels, Photo Opportunity Only

PRATFACE Politician Riding Around Town, Followed by A Chauffeur on Expenses

BIOGRAPHER Blogs Instead Of Going Riding And Posts Hackneyed, Endless Rants

CLONE Cycle Lane Of No Effect

I'm sure you can come up with even worse.

1 comment:

  1. Hello, big fan of ths blog.

    Sorry couldn't find anywhere to email directly.

    Have you heard about the cycle to work scheme changes they are implementing retrospectively? It's going to cost everyone already signed up a lot of money.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/13/cycle-to-work-scheme-bargain-ends?showallcomments=true#end-of-comments

    I think it's outrageous changing it retrospectively .For what it's worth I've started a facebook page called Cycle to work scheme, No to retrospective changes, hope as many people join to maybe get the retrospective changes stopped.

    Many thanks Paolo

    ReplyDelete