Max Key still lives at home with his dad, the Prime Minister, but thinks he knows about "real men".

OPINION: Never mind the overt sexism. Or the homophobia. Never mind the blatant disregard for the law forbidding using your phone while driving. The First Son's cat call about what a "real man" rides reveals something else entirely.

You might well wonder how a guy who has not yet cut the apron or (let's be honest) purse strings is an authority on anything, let alone what constitutes a real bloke. But Max Key has actually highlighted our national guilty pleasure: bagging cyclists.

We love discussing the fury induced by being stuck behind well-padded, bouncing lycra-clad buttocks riding two or three abreast. We're apoplectic with rage watching a cyclist switch seamlessly from a being a road user to a pedestrian the second the lights go red. We hate them so much the backs of buses must be emblazoned with images reminding us that cyclists are, in fact, human.

SCOTT McAULAY Nadine Chalmers-Ross: "It's high time we got over our collective loathing of cyclists – and not solely because I've reached max Max Key."

I think it's high time we got over our collective loathing of cyclists – and not solely because I've reached max Max Key.

READ MORE: PM ticks off son over "real men" blurt

I know they can be arrogant. But perhaps they wear their arrogance like armour because they aren't afforded the arrogance implied by a tonne or two of Beemer surrounding them.

REMIX MAGAZINE Max Key thinks "real men" smoke cigarettes and ride women.

But to bastardise and misappropriate JFK's famous quote: ask not what cyclists are doing TO you, but what cyclists are doing FOR you.

Given our penchant for commuting alone, every cyclist on the road is a car off the road. That alone should make any congestion-weary driver want to kiss the next poor cyclist they see battling through a blizzard in their wet weather gear. That's one less car to drag race at the motorway on-ramp lights, and one fewer jerk to take the last carpark when you had your indicator on first.

There's approximately one car for every adult in the country (I checked the stats) so I'm going to go out on a limb and say cyclists still own vehicles and they still pay fuel excise taxes that help pay for our roads – they just don't put the same wear and tear on them as you do.

If you're perhaps of the "why are they spending my taxpayer/ratepayer dollars on bleeding cycleways" school of thought, consider that cyclists, by keeping themselves fit and healthy, are one less drain on an overburdened health system in a country increasingly full of lard arses.

The fit and healthy cyclist theory works well right up until the point you knock them off their bikes. And it is you who does that – cyclists are only to blame for a fifth of crashes they're involved in. Guess who is responsible for the vast majority? Drivers.

So please cut the lycra brigade a bit of slack, they're helping you more than they're holding you up. Plus this real (wo)man rides a bike, and her Mum would like her to get home safely – to her own home that is. (Sorry Max).