Is Bicycle commuting Hip?
09-11-13, 02:52 PM
#51
Prefers Cicero
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09-11-13, 04:32 PM
#53
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If you are instead like me, and you are fat, wear bike shorts and an athletic shirt from Target, and have a Trek hybrid that you commute on and carry your crap in panniers and wear a dorky helmet and can't ride anywhere without becoming drenched in sweat, then no you are not hip.
09-11-13, 06:37 PM
#54
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The other evening I was riding past a little park where some kind of fair or festival was going on. It was getting dark and I had my helmet headlight on. I've always considered having a headlight on my helmet to be the very paramount of bike commuter dorkiness, but I'm old enough not to care anymore. Anyway, there was a group of teenage girls sitting at a picnic table near the street. They looked at me and one of them called out "nice headlight" with (I'm 99% sure) no trace of irony in her voice. I got to bask in the glow of teenage girl approval for a minute, which isn't something that has happened in many a year. 
Now I need to know, does this make me hip?
Now I need to know, does this make me hip?
09-11-13, 07:02 PM
#55
Senior Member
If you are a hip person and dress hip and have a hip bag and a hip bike and you can ride to work without becoming a sweaty mess, sure bike commuting can be hip.
If you are instead like me, and you are fat, wear bike shorts and an athletic shirt from Target, and have a Trek hybrid that you commute on and carry your crap in panniers and wear a dorky helmet and can't ride anywhere without becoming drenched in sweat, then no you are not hip.
If you are instead like me, and you are fat, wear bike shorts and an athletic shirt from Target, and have a Trek hybrid that you commute on and carry your crap in panniers and wear a dorky helmet and can't ride anywhere without becoming drenched in sweat, then no you are not hip.
But I actually ride a road bike when I'm not commuting, I'm faster than almost everyone else, I'm almost 60 but don't look much over 40, and I live in the hippest place on the planet (Brooklyn). I'm also not that fat, just a little overweight and I've lost 10 pound in the past 6 weeks from riding.
09-12-13, 09:36 AM
#56
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It's only "hep" if you declaim poetry, listen to Bird Parker and John Coltrane, and read Kerouac, Burroughs, and Ginsberg. Otherwise, it's just fashion.
09-12-13, 10:11 AM
#57
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On one hand, I am so not concerned with what may or may not be hip.
While on the other hand, I do try to do everything I can to keep from being Fredly. Two sides to every coin and all that.
Rick / OCRR
While on the other hand, I do try to do everything I can to keep from being Fredly. Two sides to every coin and all that.
Rick / OCRR
09-12-13, 10:56 AM
#59
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If you are a hip person and dress hip and have a hip bag and a hip bike and you can ride to work without becoming a sweaty mess, sure bike commuting can be hip.
If you are instead like me, and you are fat, wear bike shorts and an athletic shirt from Target, and have a Trek hybrid that you commute on and carry your crap in panniers and wear a dorky helmet and can't ride anywhere without becoming drenched in sweat, then no you are not hip.
If you are instead like me, and you are fat, wear bike shorts and an athletic shirt from Target, and have a Trek hybrid that you commute on and carry your crap in panniers and wear a dorky helmet and can't ride anywhere without becoming drenched in sweat, then no you are not hip.
09-12-13, 11:30 AM
#60
Prefers Cicero
09-12-13, 06:33 PM
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09-12-13, 06:40 PM
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09-12-13, 08:43 PM
#64
Senior Member
The other evening I was riding past a little park where some kind of fair or festival was going on. It was getting dark and I had my helmet headlight on. I've always considered having a headlight on my helmet to be the very paramount of bike commuter dorkiness, but I'm old enough not to care anymore. Anyway, there was a group of teenage girls sitting at a picnic table near the street. They looked at me and one of them called out "nice headlight" with (I'm 99% sure) no trace of irony in her voice. I got to bask in the glow of teenage girl approval for a minute, which isn't something that has happened in many a year. Now I need to know, does this make me hip?
Now I need to know, does this make me hip?
09-12-13, 08:46 PM
#65
Senior Member
I think I'm going to change the TREK logo on my bike to spell FRED instead. It won't take much. Cut the left tail off the T and put it in the middle, turn the angles on the K around. Or maybe TREK just spells FRED anyway.
I'm such a FRED that I couldn't do this on my Macbook.
I'm such a FRED that I couldn't do this on my Macbook.
09-12-13, 09:30 PM
#66
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Maybe I'll shoot for "Fred." I can likely manage that....
09-13-13, 08:07 PM
#67
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No! Not hip but real beat, man..........................
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Bacchetta Giro A20, RANS V-Rex, RANS Screamer
Bacchetta Giro A20, RANS V-Rex, RANS Screamer
09-14-13, 06:49 AM
#69
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Given a choice between being "hip" or of being "Fredly", I am solidly in the Fredly camp.
I can't remember the last time that I really cared what others thought of me. Might be an age thing.
I can't remember the last time that I really cared what others thought of me. Might be an age thing.
09-14-13, 09:59 AM
#70
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I think I'm going to change the TREK logo on my bike to spell FRED instead. It won't take much. Cut the left tail off the T and put it in the middle, turn the angles on the K around. Or maybe TREK just spells FRED anyway.
I'm such a FRED that I couldn't do this on my Macbook.
I'm such a FRED that I couldn't do this on my Macbook.
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“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
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Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
09-14-13, 10:02 AM
#71
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As to hipness, yes and no. Yes, a lot of hip people are doing it, but not everyone doing it is hip. It is also hip because the rate of increase in people doing it is extremely high. From every year to the next in the last five or so years, you see more. I think the rate of increase (the third derivative of this curve) may be higher now!
On the Hudson River Greenway, there are tons of very fit people riding very skillfully, but there are also wobbly people who clearly haven't ridden much in recent years until now. There are also some very flat and flabby people. They can't have been doing this for long, and it melts my heart to see them, faster than it's melting their fat.
On the Hudson River Greenway, there are tons of very fit people riding very skillfully, but there are also wobbly people who clearly haven't ridden much in recent years until now. There are also some very flat and flabby people. They can't have been doing this for long, and it melts my heart to see them, faster than it's melting their fat.
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Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
09-17-13, 11:35 AM
#72
Count Orlok Member
