Wednesday 19 November 2014

Who Are You?

It has been widely reported this week that YouGov published a very accessible audience building tool that, amongst other things, allows you to see what people who are into different activities are like.

Of course I instantly checked how this looks for cyclists

So, a lot of people identify as cyclists, they are relatively wealthy and educated men in their forties who live in East Anglia, eat mince pies, keep fish, drive VWs and like Breaking Bad, Kevin McCloud and Dangermouse. They like gadgets, use Strava and read the Guardian. They fantasise about Gillian Anderson and Suzi Perry. To be honest, while there are definitely bits of this I identify with, this seems to fit the image of the nouveau cyclists who have got into road cycling late and love to bang on about it. While they’d be pleasant enough company and recommend you a lovely wine or mechanic they seem a bit, well, dull.

Mountain Bikers are a whole lot more interesting. There are a lot less of them and they are still men over 40, but they have less spare cash and live, it seems, in Wales. Oddly they also read the Scottish paper the Herald, perhaps for news of northern trails, perhaps because they had to move south from their homeland for their blue collar job. Interestingly they are more into cycling than cyclists and have that as their main interest. They have dogs and eat eastern European cakes and Sheeps Yoghurt. Or stewed prunes. They drive a more rugged Skoda, are more family than work focussed, and like Nick Cave. There’s only 42 of them but they seem a lot more eclectic and interesting.

Ok, I realise that the sample sizes skew the results in this case but my point is probably valid that cycling is a lifestyle for the mountain bikers and a hobby for the cyclists and that is shown in some of the results here.

In other news I decided to treat you to what may be the first of many irritatingly self-indulgent videos.


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