Professional Cycling - So how bout them LIVE STRONGS...

My advice? Shut up and ride ;)


AMEN Bro!

Yeah. Gonna get me a bracelet or two at my LBS or something. Some family members have them already (don't really know why - before this happened). Tommorrow's the day, though. Her doc is probably the best that she could get, so I'm praying it'll be OK. Thanks for your support guys.

Still waiting...

. Next its the Ipod trend. Its like jesus christ people, you DONT need 20 gigs of memory.

Ha! My 12 y/o friend claimed he needed 40 gigs. Sorry, off topic.

Just as a side note on the iPod, it will be able to play video with a new peripheral. If so, then I can DEFINTELY use 20-40 Gb! Got a program that rips DVD's down to 200-300 Mb for small devices. All the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Matrix and Indiana Jones movies = 6 Gb. Add in 8Gb of music (and I'd probably rip more if I got an iPod, so maybe another Gig) and using it as a 1Gb flash drive... I could easily use up 20Gb.

I was talking about most of the kids at my school. Not you :p

lol. K :D

I do understand why some people get upset about dolts who don't know what the band means. I personally lost my mother to cancer when she was only 49, my grandmother died from cancer before I was old enough to know her and my uncle has recently survived prostate cancer. My odds are not good and I've already paid a heavy price in my life to this crisis. My band is an honor to my mother's life. I used to get bothered by them becoming a fashion trend, but I figure that the money being generated is great and a large portion of the wearers do know what it is all about.

The thing that dissapoints me more is this new influx of imitators. The stand.org bands, and other colors for different types of cancer and/or diseases. It was too good of an idea for it not to happen, but it seems like it steals some of the power of the thing. Just like the colored ribbons that now there are so many I don't know what any of them stand for.

I do understand why some people get upset about dolts who don't know what the band means. I personally lost my mother to cancer when she was only 49, my grandmother died from cancer before I was old enough to know her and my uncle has recently survived prostate cancer. My odds are not good and I've already paid a heavy price in my life to this crisis. My band is an honor to my mother's life. I used to get bothered by them becoming a fashion trend, but I figure that the money being generated is great and a large portion of the wearers do know what it is all about.

The thing that dissapoints me more is this new influx of imitators. The stand.org bands, and other colors for different types of cancer and/or diseases. It was too good of an idea for it not to happen, but it seems like it steals some of the power of the thing. Just like the colored ribbons that now there are so many I don't know what any of them stand for.

I understand where your coming from here. I appreciate what the purpose of the Livestrongs are for and I really believe in the cause. I was not initially a fan of them becoming a trend, but you're correct in just remembering that it's more money to the cause.

I don't have a problem with the bands that are for legitimate causes. A teacher of mine has one that's pink and says "Believe." It's to raise awareness/money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer organization. I also know someone with the "Standstrong for Israel" band, it apparently raises money to fight terrorism in Israel. I can't see faulting a legitimate organization for trying to raise money like the Komen Society. I have a problem with the "Baller Bands" (is that right?) and the stupid ones that don't actually benefit ANYTHING except the guys selling them. They're greedily piggy-backing on a trend that actually started out benefitting Lance's cancer foundation.

UPDATE: No cancer, and things were looking up. Until she was readmitted into Stanford for something new. Transfered to a convalescent home. Now at Valley Med, where she is close to death. I'm going up to meet my parent there, my aunt'll pick me up shortly. She's on a respirator, and is DNR. She'll die today. Sorry for being off topic, but I just had to get this outta my system.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Feel free to vent it out and get it out there if you need to. God Bless.

Koffee

UPDATE: No cancer, and things were looking up. Until she was readmitted into Stanford for something new. Transfered to a convalescent home. Now at Valley Med, where she is close to death. I'm going up to meet my parent there, my aunt'll pick me up shortly. She's on a respirator, and is DNR. She'll die today. Sorry for being off topic, but I just had to get this outta my system.

I'm sorry to hear about that too. Feel free to vent all you want. This stuff is certainly more important than a raging triple vs double vs compact debate... There's little that can be said to make times like this easy, but hopefully they can be "less difficult". Send me an e-mail or private message if it helps. I wish the best that can be expected for you and your family at a time like this.

Hey, thanks a lot guys. HigherGround, you especially. You've been there for me throughout both of these incidents. She's still alive, but who knows for how long. This was a very sobering experience for me, and I might do it again tomorrow deending on her condition. Thanks again. And by the way, double always beats a triple. Ya triple pansies!

Ssshh - don't tell anyone I'm a nice guy; it will ruin my reputation!

Seriously though, life is seldom fair when it decides who's time is up, or when it happens. We all have to deal with losing loved ones sooner or later, so it helps to have a shoulder to lean on.

Doing a little better/the same. She can "talk" now (with a white board) so I think I'm gonna go see her later this afternoon. And sorry for ruining you reputation. Might PM you later. Hope you don't mind a little swearing. Can't do it on the forums...

Is there any proof to this, the selling of fakes? I would think the tooling cost plus labor and material cost to run the injection machine to produce them would equal if not exceed the $1 price that you can buy the "real" one for. But people have done dumber things....

I work for a drug company and among other things buy all the "crap" that we put our drug names on to give to doctors. When the Livestrongs first came out, I must have gotten three dozen of them from vendors trying to sell the concept. I had ones that actually said "Livestrong" right on them in tie-dye, blue, red, green . . . they're apparently very cheap and easy to make.

It doesn't bother me at all to see people wearing them, no matter what their walk of life - I think the whole thing is just plain cool. The counterfeits, though, are basically unthinkable.

Fire away el twe. I'm pretty hard to offend!

sry to hear abpout her twe hope things get better

Things seem to be looking up...

My e-mail showed the "bad news", so it's nice to hear that things are looking up. Please keep us updated. Either way, we're more than happy to listen :)

They seem to be quite cheap to make..I found this site on yahoo that offers custom silicone bracelets: http://www.band-together.com/Pricing.htm

in high enough quantities it's .25 each with no tooling costs.


edit: I didn't read the whole thread before posting, hope all turns out well man.

Yeah, all's well that end's well (I guess), and it is ending well.

What really gets to me are those opportunistic turds who are reselling them on Ebay for a profit. I think that is one of the lowest forms of human endeavour I have ever encountered.

worse is that people pay the e-bay price on them Because they aren't staying in the stores. I have a few that I have thrown in to shippments of cycling thing sold on e-Bay.

The bands are not meant to be exclusive to cyclists.
The wristbands have a symbolic meaning to the wearers, a personal meaning that can be anything. Ask the wearer what it means to them.
To me they represent life, a life gone and one renewed.
And the nice thing is, the reason you wear one can change.

Actually, the band is a reincarnated version of the NIKE Dream-band which never really got off the ground. The whole point is as vintageSteve described. I don't really care who wears them, as long as they are
A: supporting the LAF by purchasing one, or...
B: using it to remind themselves that life is short and to go after their dreams.

To cut them down for having them because they are "in" is somewhat elitist and indicates underlying insecurity in oneself, in my opinion. It is kind of like having to claim that you liked Chipolte before it became cool. So what! This seems snobby and perpetuates the myth that road bikers really are just lycra clad weenies.
;)

Yeah personally I bought a few hundred of them when they first came out and have been giving them out to people who KNOW and DON'T KNOW for a year now.

I could care less if someone has them up and down their arms like Madonna in the 80's, even if they have no clue what they are for.

Do you think the folks who benefit from the LAF and Cancer research in general care WHY people donate to help cure this horrible disease?

the ONLY thing that is important here is that people have purchased millions of these which is helping fun cancer research. Who cares if Paris Hilton wears one and doesn't know why!

I did the same thing only I bought more like "dozens" as opposed to "hundreds." I still wear mine every day, along with a metal bracelet with the name of a Marine who went through boot camp with my son and was killed in Iraq. My father died of complications of cancer treatment and my mother-in-law died of cancer. The LiveStrong bracelet reminds me how to live my life; especially, to appreciate it.

I wore a livestrong band when I wasnt very interested in cycling. My grandma survived cancer, and I wore it keep me focused on what was important in my life and not to be discouraged by hardships. But has anyone seen the new Livestrong products. I just saw them in a finish liine catalog. They all looked pretty awesome... especially the frees. but im not sure if they actually say anything on them, or if they are just the black, yellow, and gray colors. Has anyone else seen them?

You mean that new 10/2 stuff? Yeah, it looks cool, but it's kind of, I dunno, creepy. Don't get me wrong-- I REALLY like the LiveSTRONG movement and support it, but wearing Lance's cancer date on my chest...? That just seems a little too personal. I mean, the yellow band was kind of universal. I can see me talking to my Mom now.

Mom: "What's this 10/2"
Me: "Oh, that's the date Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer."
Mom: "Um, OK. When was I diagnosed?"
Me: "Sometime when I was in high school...?"

Just seems WAY too specific for me. I think I'll be avoiding the 10/2 stuff. Creepy :)