Men in Lycra Shorts in Restaurants

[Nil Else]

I was in a restaurant with a bunch of my friends from way back HS days the other day before some golfing. Except for me and another buddy who only ride MTB in his baggy MTB shorts none of them are *cyclist*. Being a beautiful Spring weekend day in the country there were tons on bikers and cyclists out and inevitably a few lycra clad sweaty roadies walked right in front of our table just as we were about to eat.

The exclaim that came out of all of them in disgust were..., to put it nicely, something like "Why the f@$% do we have to see that before we eat?" I ride so I'm used to it. But I have to say that there were clear indications whether some of them were right or left handed and the way we were seated avoiding the full frontal view of them was not possible. I must agree that it wasn't really a pretty site. I joked that I should've brought mine to do some fashion show for them but it did make me think about it.

I don't really go into restaurants much anymore while I'm out riding. When I used to frequent restaurants often I used to carry baggy MTB shorts w/o chamois that folds into nothing in my back pocket to put on when I go into restaurants and some stores... because I sometimes found myself being self-conscious about being the only guy(s) in tights in the restaurant full people with Sunday church clothes etc. I didn't see a single peson doing that that day though. Yep I unavoidably do go into restaurants once in a while in my spandex cycling shorts. I don't think there is as much problem with females as men.

Thoughts?

[d_douglas]

Funny stuff.

I was cycling in Aix en Provence with two friends last year. We stopped at a beautiful outdoor restaurant in a small town where we met up with our spouses and other non-cycling friends. My one buddy (who is a bit 'portly') proceeded to peel off his sweaty jersey, pull down his bibs, take off his HRM and put on a shirt that his wife brought.

I am all about freedom and feeling comfortable with oneself, but that was a bit much! My wife and I were cracking up thinking about all of the people enjoying their lunch and suddenly nearly gagging when they saw this guys sweaty, slightly hairy back three feet away from their plates and wine glasses and small children.

Sometimes too much really is a bad thing!

[false_Aest]

Hommé,

Your hommés need to chill out. (They don't, by chance, watch pro wrestling do they? . . . . yes, that was a joke.) Did they also say "Look at that bunch-o-fags."?


Those "cyclists" need to think a little bit. 1) There are a few too many people that don't want to sit near sweaty lycra clad leg shaving numbnuts 2) Sitting down for food while in lycra is definitely NOT PRO.

[johnnymossville]

Unless it's a Jacket Required place people should just shrug and forget it. Pretty funny story though!

[palincss]

You know, it's funny -- I've been on dozens if not hundreds of bike rides over the years where the ride stopped at a restaurant, and sat down to have a meal. Yet not once have I ever observed "clear indications whether some of them were right or left handed" other than by noticing which hand held the fork.

Now maybe that's because I'm not "pro" and neither is anyone else on a ride I'd be on, so we're obviously less well endowed than "real pro roadies;" or maybe it's because down in the lower rated classes we keep our bananas in seat packs and handlebar bags, rather than sticking them down the front of our riding shorts.

Many of those rides are to seafood restaurants on the Potomac -- in fact, I'm leading one on Memorial Day -- and we often share the restaurant with large groups of motorcyclists. You'd think if anyone would have a problem with lycra-clad roadies it would be motorcyclists, and yet never a word.

Funny world, isn't it?

[JMerring]

i'm with false aest on this, but would apply it to anyone who has done anything really sweaty, not just cyclists. smelly sweaty people in half-clothes near me while i eat is just nasty.

regarding the french, they just do things a little differently. i remember the first time i arrived in nice airport as a teenage boy. i spotted an extremely attractive and sexy young french lady. she raised her arm to signal someone and there in all its glory was her (very) unshaved underarm. definitely detracted from her overall attractiveness, at least to my anglophile sensibilities. still, there is much to recommend about france and the french, so it is a francophile prediliction i have now come to terms with!

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . to upload the infamous "red shorts" photo, but now I'm all jiggy about doing things like that because I'm a moderator. Should I still do it? :rolleyes:

BBD

[Marcusaurelius]

Well I don't think anyone should complain about cycling shorts when half the population wears some form of spandex pants. I don't think pants will last much longer in my neck of the woods.

[MattTuck]

Sure, walking around in bike shorts in public is a faux pas.

BUT, the real faux pas is the clickety clack for walking around in bike shoes.

[SoCalSteve]

. . . to upload the infamous "red shorts" photo, but now I'm all jiggy about doing things like that because I'm a moderator. Should I still do it? :rolleyes:

BBD

If you do, I may have to close the thread...

[Steve in SLO]

To quote a friend's wife:

Some men should not wear lycra
Some men should wear nothing else.

I believe she was talking abut black shorts, not junk-exposing colors...yecch.

[snah]

. . . to upload the infamous "red shorts" photo, but now I'm all jiggy about doing things like that because I'm a moderator. Should I still do it? :rolleyes:

BBD

In the name of all that's good about cycling, please don't upload red shorts photo!!!! :help:

[SEABREEZE]

I beleive its more common to see folks post ride in a bistro in europe with there lerica's on than you would see here in the usa

Folks in europe are use to seeing it , that they dont pay to much attention, where as in usa, it catches there attention

I will say taking off your top portion to get into something dry inside the bistro , where is the persons coth. Thats why they have resrooms, or for that matter, go outside, do what you have to do, then come back in

There are some that would do it, just to piss the other patrons off.

[BumbleBeeDave]

If you do, I may have to close the thread...

. . . that sounds suspiciously like a Triple Dog Dare! . . . :p

BBD

[cmg]

wear black shorts and the offensiveness is reduced. wearing bright colored or white shorts is a no-no..........

[rugbysecondrow]

It is just pretty uncool to be in a restaurant like that. I wouldn't come from the pool in my speedo nor would I expect that I would go from my ride to a sit down restaurant.

It is also the sweaty, smelly and overall unpleasantness of that state of dress that should not be welcomed in most restaurants. Frankly, most people don't like to see "fruit salad" pressed into bike shorts while they are drinking a beer, taking down some calamari and waiting on a nice bisque and sandwich...

[r_mutt]

it depends on the restaurant. in the usa, it's more of a problem as cycling is a fringe sport.

[Ahneida Ride]

. . . to upload the infamous "red shorts" photo, but now I'm all jiggy about doing things like that because I'm a moderator. Should I still do it? :rolleyes:

BBD

Don't provoke Uncle William !!!!! :eek: :help:

[palincss]

It is also the sweaty, smelly and overall unpleasantness of that state of dress that should not be welcomed in most restaurants. Frankly, most people don't like to see "fruit salad" pressed into bike shorts while they are drinking a beer, taking down some calamari and waiting on a nice bisque and sandwich...

Maybe those beer drinking, calamari-eating fastidious diners ought to stop crawling around under tables on their hands and knees looking to see if they can spot "fruit salad" in the bike shorts of the cyclists sitting at their tables. In my experience, if you're sitting at a table minding your own business there's no way you're going to see up any skirts or down any lycra shorts.

Of course, at Southern Maryland seafood restaurants, you don't find many calamari eaters, although there's certainly a lot of beer swilling going on. In the summer time, anybody coming in from outside is definitely going to be sweaty: you don't go out of doors in summer around here without kicking your cooling system into overdrive. However, most folks don't go around smelling people in restaurants or crawling around under tables, so it hasn't been a problem I've ever experienced.

[rugbysecondrow]

I was in a restaurant with a bunch of my friends from way back HS days the other day before some golfing. Except for me and another buddy who only ride MTB in his baggy MTB shorts none of them are *cyclist*. Being a beautiful Spring weekend day in the country there were tons on bikers and cyclists out and inevitably a few lycra clad sweaty roadies walked right in front of our table just as we were about to eat.

The exclaim that came out of all of them in disgust were..., to put it nicely, something like "Why the f@$% do we have to see that before we eat?"



Maybe those beer drinking, calamari-eating fastidious diners ought to stop crawling around under tables on their hands and knees looking to see if they can spot "fruit salad" in the bike shorts of the cyclists sitting at their tables. In my experience, if you're sitting at a table minding your own business there's no way you're going to see up any skirts or down any lycra shorts.



I think you have taken a few liberties with the situation the OP described.

Just because we ride and are desensitized to lycra doesn't mean it is acceptable in all places. Like I wrote before, should I go straight from the pool in my speedo to the restaurant? Is that considered acceptable?

IMO, people should act and dress a certain way when they go out to eat. I waited tables most of my way through college and I can say I never had anybody come in like that. At a restaurant, it is not just about you, it is about others and their experience as well.

[palincss]

IMO, people should act and dress a certain way when they go out to eat. I waited tables most of my way through college and I can say I never had anybody come in like that. At a restaurant, it is not just about you, it is about others and their experience as well.

Did you ever wait tables at a Southern Maryland seafood restaurant?

[rugbysecondrow]

Did you ever wait tables at a Southern Maryland seafood restaurant?

My experience excludes the restaurant rich area of southern Maryland.

[victoryfactory]

Sure, walking around in bike shorts in public is a faux pas.

BUT, the real faux pas is the clickety clack for walking around in bike shoes.

Guilty as charged. I am old, fat, and Lycra doesn't like me.
But I gotts to have my coffee.
So I do the Frankenstein bike shorts stomp into the local restaurant and
try to appear unaffected by the gawkers who are thinking:
"man, does that guy know what he looks like?"

It's the tradeoff for those rare moments on the bike when I forget my limitations, age and appearance and become the ride......
When I might reply to the gawkers: "Man, do you know what this feels like?"

VF

[Nil Else]

I remember a mid 50-ish tall gentle man in our LBS group. He's the kinda throw back guy who often just wore a size too small Euro cut bibs (don't remember the brand) over some white base layer. He wore not some old stuff but pretty fancy new stuff however I don't know whether it was the endowment or anatomy or placement or whatever, although we never said anything in front of him, whenever he didn't show for the rides we, guys and gals, all had some snot clearing fun moments talking about his...you know. How do ya tell a guy?

Well it's not everyday I see the clear directionals however, it's not that I try, I do notice some really bad/hideous cases once in a while that makes me check the status of my own. Let me say that may you not encounter such awkward moments in.. umm... not the most opportune settings... perhaps at a dinner getting introduced to your daughters in-laws or some such moments... but in life's probability all misaligned happenstances are possible.

At the restaurant we all just got our plates and were about to reach for our silverware etc and that's when these gentlemen walked right in front of our table.... height of their crotch lined up perfect with our table... literally inches away... and we all pretty much happened to look right at.... My thought was these guys pretty much walked straight in off their bikes without checking/sorting out etc (it was very crowded in and around the restaurant) and couple of them with ill-fitting, stretched, faded, wet shorts just did it... pretty bad.

Oh yeah, btw, half of my hommés are large Harley riding biker bunch (turned businessmen etc) in their late 40s & 50s. Let me say again that may you avoid finding yourself in awkward situation staring at sweaty men in lycra or worse... directionals.

[palincss]

My experience excludes the restaurant rich area of southern Maryland.

Then I'm sure you realize restaurants differ in "dress code" with some requiring jackets and ties, others shirts and shoes. The seafood restaurants of which I speak fall into the "shirts and shoes" category. Furthermore, restaurant managers are prefectly capable of telling people when they feel they're too casually dressed and barring them entrace. (In fact, a restaurant in The Plains, VA, that used to be a low key country sort of place went upscale as the environment became more suburban and less rural, and no longer permits cyclists to eat there. Pity, because it used to be a really nice place to have lunch on the rides from Middleburg.) If they choose not to do so, and make us welcome, then I feel by definition we meet their standards.

In any event, the groups I've been in at those restaurants don't fit the image of cyclists as portrayed here: stinking, dripping, loathesome creatures with their genitals hanging out. Now that may be true for PRO riders, I don't know because neither I nor my friends are even remotely PRO. But I do know we don't stink, we don't drip and our genitals don't hang out, either. Maybe it's that team kit the PROs wear, or maybe they try too hard. Or, who knows, maybe they're following European practice and bathing once a week.

Regarding your Speedo analogy, if it were a restaurant on the boardwalk at Ocean City, I'm sure there would be plenty of customers wearing bathing suits -- although I'm not so sure about Speedos, since as far as I know they're the closest thing a man can buy today to a codpiece and are far more flagrant in their "package display" than other swim suits (not that I know anything particular about swim trunks, being a non-swimmer). If the restaurant were on an island where many customers got there by swimming to the island, then it would be a direct comparison. Otherwise, not so much.

[Louis]

If these are the sort of problems we are reduced to whining about then I think we don't have a whole lot of problems in life and should be thankful for that.

Louis

[Marcy]

My vote,

Very rarely do colors on shorts work. You can never go wrong with black...

-- Marc

[PaMtbRider]

The things I see walking in the aisles at Wal-Mart bother me way more than any lycra clad cyclist in a restaraunt.

[dvs cycles]

Saw this in the window of a shop at the shops of the Venetian.