|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Cyclists clumsily shoot a better future in the foot
At
http://groups.google.ie/group/rec.bi...34d9a22?hl=en# is a photoshow of Interbike by Steve Scharf and then a discussion of how "shopping bikes" can lead to the bicyclification of the world. That is quite a reasonable assumption, because the the ten speed fad became the exclusionary and offputting roadies -- like one of those gyms you can only join if you're already whippet-thin and unsmiling, mountainbikes have split into various hardcore niches, and the rest of biking is for kids and mostly male kids at that. But the way the discussion proceeds is totally counterproductive, very revealing of the exclusionary mindset that grips cyclists even as they discuss broadening the appeal of their hobby and lifestyle vision. The Dutch, and other enlightened folk, call a commuter with good visibility from the seated position and protection for decent clothes, and luggage capacity, and which is at least not as masochistically uncomfortable as a racing bike, a city bike. The cyclists on RBT, pretending to save the world by proselytising for bikes, unconsciously sneer at that respectable city bike as "a shopping bike". One has to wonder who they think will be persuaded to buy a grown-up's bike if the cycling community, which the new cyclist thereby willynilly joins, greets him with a curled lip and downgrades his responsible commuter bike to "a shopping bike" before he has even laid out the grand necessary to put it on the road for year-round use? I doubt the late Sheldon Brown would have made this kind of dumb error. You guys want to take a tip from Sheldon, go to a few concerts, sing in a choir, get involved in the drama group, so that you can become sensitive to how others perceive you. You might even come to resemble human beings. Sheldon always referred to that kind of bike as "a roadster", and indeed the modern Dutch stadsfiets and stadssportief are *direct* descendants of the English Roadster: Gazelle, keepers of the flame, once made Raleigh bikes under license for the Dutch market. "Shopping bikes". Jesus save me from amateur publicists for pressure groups. I condemn them all pejoratively as lobbyists, and cycling lobbyists are the clumsiest of the clumsy. Next time, before you use words like "shopping bike", stop and think who would want to join a group so determinedly unwelcoming and judgmental. Andre Jute Mass Motivator |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Cyclists clumsily shoot a better future in the foot
Andre Jute wrote:
At http://groups.google.ie/group/rec.bi...34d9a22?hl=en# is a photoshow of Interbike by Steve Scharf and then a discussion of how "shopping bikes" can lead to the bicyclification of the world. That is quite a reasonable assumption, because the the ten speed fad became the exclusionary and offputting roadies -- like one of those gyms you can only join if you're already whippet-thin and unsmiling, mountainbikes have split into various hardcore niches, and the rest of biking is for kids and mostly male kids at that. But the way the discussion proceeds is totally counterproductive, very revealing of the exclusionary mindset that grips cyclists even as they discuss broadening the appeal of their hobby and lifestyle vision. The Dutch, and other enlightened folk, call a commuter with good visibility from the seated position and protection for decent clothes, and luggage capacity, and which is at least not as masochistically uncomfortable as a racing bike, a city bike. The cyclists on RBT, pretending to save the world by proselytising for bikes, unconsciously sneer at that respectable city bike as "a shopping bike". One has to wonder who they think will be persuaded to buy a grown-up's bike if the cycling community, which the new cyclist thereby willynilly joins, greets him with a curled lip and downgrades his responsible commuter bike to "a shopping bike" before he has even laid out the grand necessary to put it on the road for year-round use? I doubt the late Sheldon Brown would have made this kind of dumb error. You guys want to take a tip from Sheldon, go to a few concerts, sing in a choir, get involved in the drama group, so that you can become sensitive to how others perceive you. You might even come to resemble human beings. Sheldon always referred to that kind of bike as "a roadster", and indeed the modern Dutch stadsfiets and stadssportief are *direct* descendants of the English Roadster: Gazelle, keepers of the flame, once made Raleigh bikes under license for the Dutch market. "Shopping bikes". Jesus save me from amateur publicists for pressure groups. flame bait prior examples of publicists and pressure groups having brought us the next big thing would be: 1. helmets. 2. cut-out saddles. surely they know what they're doing and are acting in our best interests???? I condemn them all pejoratively as lobbyists, and cycling lobbyists are the clumsiest of the clumsy. Next time, before you use words like "shopping bike", stop and think who would want to join a group so determinedly unwelcoming and judgmental. Andre Jute Mass Motivator |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Cyclists clumsily shoot a better future in the foot
On Sep 27, 8:18*am, Andre Jute wrote:
At *http://groups.google.ie/group/rec.bi...thread/thread/.... *is a photoshow of Interbike by Steve Scharf and then a discussion of how "shopping bikes" can lead to the bicyclification of the world. That is quite a reasonable assumption, because the the ten speed fad became the exclusionary and offputting roadies -- like one of those gyms you can only join if you're already whippet-thin and unsmiling, mountainbikes have split into various hardcore niches, and the rest of biking is for kids and mostly male kids at that. But the way the discussion proceeds is totally counterproductive, very revealing of the exclusionary mindset that grips cyclists even as they discuss broadening the appeal of their hobby and lifestyle vision. The Dutch, and other enlightened folk, call a commuter with good visibility from the seated position and protection for decent clothes, and luggage capacity, and which is at least not as masochistically uncomfortable as a racing bike, a city bike. The cyclists on RBT, pretending to save the world by proselytising for bikes, unconsciously sneer at that respectable city bike as "a shopping bike". One has to wonder who they think will be persuaded to buy a grown-up's bike if the cycling community, which the new cyclist thereby willynilly joins, greets him with a curled lip and downgrades his responsible commuter bike to "a shopping bike" before he has even laid out the grand necessary to put it on the road for year-round use? I doubt the late Sheldon Brown would have made this kind of dumb error. You guys want to take a tip from Sheldon, go to a few concerts, sing in a choir, get involved in the drama group, so that you can become sensitive to how others perceive you. You might even come to resemble human beings. Sheldon always referred to that kind of bike as "a roadster", and indeed the modern Dutch stadsfiets and stadssportief are *direct* descendants of the English Roadster: Gazelle, keepers of the flame, once made Raleigh bikes under license for the Dutch market. "Shopping bikes". Jesus save me from amateur publicists for pressure groups. I condemn them all pejoratively as lobbyists, and cycling lobbyists are the clumsiest of the clumsy. Next time, before you use words like "shopping bike", stop and think who would want to join a group so determinedly unwelcoming and judgmental. Andre Jute Mass Motivator I don't think that "shopping bike" is a sneer at all. It's pointing out to the people who buy 12mpg SUVs that they can haul stuff on a bike, too. It's an attempt to market the utility of such a bike, which is a good thing. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Cyclists clumsily shoot a better future in the foot
On Sep 27, 11:39 am, Hank wrote:
On Sep 27, 8:18 am, Andre Jute wrote: At http://groups.google.ie/group/rec.bi...thread/thread/... is a photoshow of Interbike by Steve Scharf and then a discussion of how "shopping bikes" can lead to the bicyclification of the world. That is quite a reasonable assumption, because the the ten speed fad became the exclusionary and offputting roadies -- like one of those gyms you can only join if you're already whippet-thin and unsmiling, mountainbikes have split into various hardcore niches, and the rest of biking is for kids and mostly male kids at that. But the way the discussion proceeds is totally counterproductive, very revealing of the exclusionary mindset that grips cyclists even as they discuss broadening the appeal of their hobby and lifestyle vision. The Dutch, and other enlightened folk, call a commuter with good visibility from the seated position and protection for decent clothes, and luggage capacity, and which is at least not as masochistically uncomfortable as a racing bike, a city bike. The cyclists on RBT, pretending to save the world by proselytising for bikes, unconsciously sneer at that respectable city bike as "a shopping bike". One has to wonder who they think will be persuaded to buy a grown-up's bike if the cycling community, which the new cyclist thereby willynilly joins, greets him with a curled lip and downgrades his responsible commuter bike to "a shopping bike" before he has even laid out the grand necessary to put it on the road for year-round use? I doubt the late Sheldon Brown would have made this kind of dumb error. You guys want to take a tip from Sheldon, go to a few concerts, sing in a choir, get involved in the drama group, so that you can become sensitive to how others perceive you. You might even come to resemble human beings. Sheldon always referred to that kind of bike as "a roadster", and indeed the modern Dutch stadsfiets and stadssportief are *direct* descendants of the English Roadster: Gazelle, keepers of the flame, once made Raleigh bikes under license for the Dutch market. "Shopping bikes". Jesus save me from amateur publicists for pressure groups. I condemn them all pejoratively as lobbyists, and cycling lobbyists are the clumsiest of the clumsy. Next time, before you use words like "shopping bike", stop and think who would want to join a group so determinedly unwelcoming and judgmental. Andre Jute Mass Motivator I don't think that "shopping bike" is a sneer at all. It's pointing out to the people who buy 12mpg SUVs that they can haul stuff on a bike, too. It's an attempt to market the utility of such a bike, which is a good thing. Agreed. It's a Marketing drone's coup; to merge something bad that people do too much with something good that people do too little. Roadies have ****ed people off before. People took to mountain bikes (never leaving the macadam) because you didn't need to be a whippet or fast, and mountain bike sales in cities took off. Later those who did go off-road found as they aged that the roads were pretty smooth on their aging joints and road bike sales surged. The young were pulled into this trend by the LA affect. Now, Madison Ave. is simply trying to generate more income by capitalizing on a niche of well-moneyed aging people who can go neither rough or fast. But they can cruise the tony strips and pick up a little something from Williams Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond or McGuckins (hey, it ain't all Portland baby.) Once again, Roadies will do their part to help this wave by ****ing people off. They're Marketing's true patriots. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Cyclists clumsily shoot a better future in the foot
On Sep 28, 3:58*pm, wrote:
On Sep 27, 11:39 am, Hank wrote: On Sep 27, 8:18 am, Andre Jute wrote: At *http://groups.google.ie/group/rec.bi...thread/thread/... *is a photoshow of Interbike by Steve Scharf and then a discussion of how "shopping bikes" can lead to the bicyclification of the world. That is quite a reasonable assumption, because the the ten speed fad became the exclusionary and offputting roadies -- like one of those gyms you can only join if you're already whippet-thin and unsmiling, mountainbikes have split into various hardcore niches, and the rest of biking is for kids and mostly male kids at that. But the way the discussion proceeds is totally counterproductive, very revealing of the exclusionary mindset that grips cyclists even as they discuss broadening the appeal of their hobby and lifestyle vision. The Dutch, and other enlightened folk, call a commuter with good visibility from the seated position and protection for decent clothes, and luggage capacity, and which is at least not as masochistically uncomfortable as a racing bike, a city bike. The cyclists on RBT, pretending to save the world by proselytising for bikes, unconsciously sneer at that respectable city bike as "a shopping bike". One has to wonder who they think will be persuaded to buy a grown-up's bike if the cycling community, which the new cyclist thereby willynilly joins, greets him with a curled lip and downgrades his responsible commuter bike to "a shopping bike" before he has even laid out the grand necessary to put it on the road for year-round use? I doubt the late Sheldon Brown would have made this kind of dumb error. You guys want to take a tip from Sheldon, go to a few concerts, sing in a choir, get involved in the drama group, so that you can become sensitive to how others perceive you. You might even come to resemble human beings. Sheldon always referred to that kind of bike as "a roadster", and indeed the modern Dutch stadsfiets and stadssportief are *direct* descendants of the English Roadster: Gazelle, keepers of the flame, once made Raleigh bikes under license for the Dutch market. "Shopping bikes". Jesus save me from amateur publicists for pressure groups. I condemn them all pejoratively as lobbyists, and cycling lobbyists are the clumsiest of the clumsy. Next time, before you use words like "shopping bike", stop and think who would want to join a group so determinedly unwelcoming and judgmental. Andre Jute Mass Motivator I don't think that "shopping bike" is a sneer at all. It's pointing out to the people who buy 12mpg SUVs that they can haul stuff on a bike, too. It's an attempt to market the utility of such a bike, which is a good thing. Agreed. It's a Marketing drone's coup; to merge something bad that people do too much with something good that people do too little. Roadies have ****ed people off before. People took to mountain bikes (never leaving the macadam) because you didn't need to be a whippet or fast, and mountain bike sales in cities took off. Later those who did go off-road found as they aged that the roads were pretty smooth on their aging joints and road bike sales surged. The young were pulled into this trend by the LA affect. Now, Madison Ave. is simply trying to generate more income by capitalizing on a niche of well-moneyed aging people who can go neither rough or fast. But they can cruise the tony strips and pick up a little something from Williams Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond or McGuckins (hey, it ain't all Portland baby.) Once again, Roadies will do their part to help this wave by ****ing people off. They're Marketing's true patriots. Will you be giving evidence when they reconvene the Warren Commission? Or *are* you the evidence? Andre Jute Even paranoids have enemies |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
unicycle photo shoot (uni-shoot!) | CoreTechs | Unicycling | 2 | September 18th 08 04:16 AM |
Riding the 8 foot and 8 foot zigzag for the first time! fun...fun...fun | Seager | Unicycling | 0 | June 16th 08 12:51 AM |
Pedal grab with front foot or back foot? | skate4flip | Unicycling | 24 | April 10th 06 03:29 AM |
Pedal grab with front foot or back foot? | skate4flip | Unicycling | 0 | January 17th 06 04:00 AM |
Where do I find the guy with a large right foot and a smaller left foot? | Derk | Techniques | 4 | August 6th 03 05:58 AM |