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

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

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.

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.

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