kites & bricks

This Dictionary of Roadie Slang hasn't been updated in almost a decade. Still, it has two terms of particular interest to me this morning. The first is "brick":

brick -- Bad climber, good descender. Opposite of: kite.

The second, of course, is "kite":

kite -- Good climber, bad descender. Opposite of: brick.

I don't think everyone who struggles up a hill is a brick, although there are riders who are fearsome on the flats, who just crumble when they come to a hill.

But I'm a kite. I'm good (for my class) on an uphill, and terrified that I'm going to lose control on the downhill. My goal for the year is to gain some brickish skills without losing my kite characteristics.