In cyclist slang, the use of the term "Fred" is pejorative. It basically refers to a desk jockey who spends thousands of dollars on bike swag and gear, but has no skills, no power. It's basically the fatass with a $2000 titanium bike that he rides once a month, if that.
On the one hand, if he has the money, and riding a superb piece of cycling engineering brings him joy, even if he only rides on rare occasion, then great. However, this is almost never the case. There is a difference between a newbie with money, someone who will grow into a serious rider, and a Fred. Fred will never be a serious biker, because Fred is an asshole. The beautiful bike will never bring him joy. His heart will never animate cold steel into bliss on two wheels. He's a joyless person who brings sadness into the shop, who sucks the oxygen from every room he walks into.
Here's what happens when you walk in the shop - The guys size you up, just like everywhere else. In the Army, they want to know how strac your shit is, what your physical conditioning is like, your attitude. In a code shop, the coders want to know your chops, they want to know your Kung-fu. Is your code spaghetti, or one slick hack after another? In a bike shop, the first thing they do is look at your legs.
Real cyclists have legs like nobody else on the planet. The calves bulge, the quadriceps look like a writhing cable woven from angry snakes. Fred does not have these legs. Fred's legs are flabby. This would not be a big deal - Americans are sedentary and most people have pretty flabby legs, but Fred pretends to be a cyclist. It's the pretending that's offensive. It is offensive to a guy that makes $10/hr and loves cycling to have to listen to the endless pointless griping of a spoiled middle manager who owns a bike that the bike mechanic will never be able to afford. It sucks. You have to earn your bullshit. The legs don't lie.
Nobody is more evangelical about people getting into cycling than cyclists. But there is a snobbery there too, an elitism. People are elitist. Think about the long conversations here on node-fu, and not noding about noding until you've earned it. It's the same in cycling, because it's human nature. It's about people getting things they didn't earn, which sucks and is simultaneously a fact of life.
Nobody likes Fred. But everyone has to deal with him.