Jan. 18, 2012 at 4:25pm with 14 notes
Reblogged from thecallup
ugh

(via thecallup): Honestly, somewhere along the way cycling culture has taken a frightening and unfortunate turn.  A fairly simple mechanical tool, the bike, has now been twisted into a toy of the super-serious and super-elite.  Either you’re a bike obsessive of the urban kind with $400 rims on your fixed gear and too much grease under your nails busily dodging taxis without a helmet; or you’re a bike enthusiast of the monied kind with a $5000 Pinarello and closet full of chamois, toiling on the weekends.  This used to be an economical and somewhat romantic way to get around, get fit and generally enjoy oneself.  But I don’t want to pay $150 for a pair of shorts.  And I don’t really care if my single speed has its stock chain ring (and brakes).  I want to RIDE MY BIKE, not join a subculture of extreme activity.  Even the commuters become these hard core apostles of cycling; obsessing about tights, fenders and frame flex. You can play basketball, baseball, tennis, or golf with casual indifference.  Why are bikes so different?

Meh. Not sure I agree with you here—you’re assuming there’s absolutely zero middle ground, which is kind of a weird assumption to make (I know User Thecallup has spent time in D.C., where it’s pretty easy to get around by bike and many different types of people choose to do so). I’d say about 90 percent of cyclists I know are bike commuters and bike enthusiasts. We like functionality first, but also dig aesthetics within reason, and it’s fun and worthwhile for us to spend our money on bike-y things that work and look good and increase the quality of our experience on a bike. I just overhauled the Schwinn Caliente I bought on Craigslist and put a Brooks saddle on it, sure, but I went for middle-of-the-road rims and tires.

The reason I have the Schwinn? I wanted a bike I could fuck around with and make aesthetic upgrades to. I also have a Jamis Coda Femme, which is nice-looking, but definitely falls in the “functional” category (to say nothing of its performance, which is essentially perfect). I think you do see a similar range of tastes in pretty much every sport. There are douchebags who will insist they can’t throw a ball without a top-of-the-line pair of shoes, and then there are people who just purely enjoy their chosen activity. They’ve found the products that work for them or satisfy a need, and if some of those products cost more, then they’re willing to shell out for them.

Not-cycling-related example: I have a pair of $50 athletic shorts from Lululemon. I agonized over the money spent, but they’ve held up beautifully over three years of very sweaty wear (I work out ~five times a week) and are, hands-down, the best shorts to wear on a run, to yoga, or to lift. I don’t buy all my workout clothes from Lululemon—my sports bras are from fucking Target—but whenever I run in a different pair of shorts, I sure do appreciate the fancy ones I own, and I’ll be inclined to buy another pair if the ones I’ve got bite the dust.

I’m really glad sites like Lovely Bicycle—which, on its face, definitely appears to be “super-serious and super-elite”—review products like the Rapha goods because cycling isn’t walking, or running, or anything else, and sometimes I want something specifically intended for what I’m doing. I’ve written on here about how fed up I am with crotch blowout; her review of that Rapha bib was helpful to me as I look for a pair of pants that will last longer than a few months.

Riding a bike is a big part of my life and I take it pretty seriously, even though I’m by no means the most hardcore cyclist out there. Just because I buy, and blog about, and lust over, kind of masturbatory products doesn’t mean I’m an asshole who irrationally spends my money on shit just because it sounds cool. Talk to the majority of people who ride their bikes to work and I’m sure they’ll show the same appreciation for well-made products—tempered with a dose of reality. Yeah, I raised my eyebrow at the guy I saw this weekend on a murdered-out fixie (blue Specialized frame, Surly fork, purple rims), but I’m pretty sure he’s a fucking minority.

EDIT: If the only people you know who ride bikes are people who are douchebags about riding bikes, you probably know terrible people.

(Source: Flickr / lovely_bicycle)