Is Bicycle commuting Hip?
09-08-13, 05:06 PM
#1
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Is Bicycle commuting Hip?
I got the current copy of L.L. Bean and on the cover is a woman with a very nice commuter bicycle sitting beside her. (Lights, rack etc.) Is bicycle commuting getting so hip it appears on a national mail-order catalog? I just thought what we are doing is fun.
09-08-13, 05:16 PM
#2
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It's run and it's hip.
09-08-13, 08:35 PM
#3
Super-spreader
It's hip for those of us who do it. For others, it's dorky and weird.
09-09-13, 07:21 AM
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ride for a change
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Cycling is being used in a lot of marketing messages these days. It's becoming an aspirational symbol of health and eco friendliness. Not that it convinces people to do it or try it, but symbolizes the idea that by purchasing a certain product or brand they will be associated with those that do.
Also as an aside, Mpls is a big ad town a lot of people in the ad business are avid cyclists and completely embrace the concept as "cool" so they repeatedly incorporate it into their concepts and their work. Bike culture here has trickled up. It's not a bad thing.
Also as an aside, Mpls is a big ad town a lot of people in the ad business are avid cyclists and completely embrace the concept as "cool" so they repeatedly incorporate it into their concepts and their work. Bike culture here has trickled up. It's not a bad thing.
09-09-13, 07:52 AM
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It's hip unless you care if it's hip, then it's not hip 
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Work: the 8 hours that separates bike rides.
Work: the 8 hours that separates bike rides.
09-09-13, 08:09 AM
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Now that cycling isn't underground, I'll have to stop doing it.
09-09-13, 08:15 AM
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I'm older and a Manager. It's not considered hip with 99% of my peers, and I could care less.
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When I ride my bike I feel free and happy and strong. I'm liberated from the usual nonsense of day to day life. Solid, dependable, silent, my bike is my horse, my fighter jet, my island, my friend. Together we will conquer that hill and thereafter the world.
When I ride my bike I feel free and happy and strong. I'm liberated from the usual nonsense of day to day life. Solid, dependable, silent, my bike is my horse, my fighter jet, my island, my friend. Together we will conquer that hill and thereafter the world.
09-09-13, 08:35 AM
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It's a symbol for being "green", healthy, independent, and prudent. That's how I see it at least.
The hip crowd doesn't care about any of these. Maybe 1.
The hip crowd doesn't care about any of these. Maybe 1.
09-09-13, 01:06 PM
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09-09-13, 01:28 PM
#13
Banned
commuting around europe has always been hip.
Just did some cycling around the Scottish highlands last weekend ... here are a few photos of the SO and I (none of the bikes as they were just rentals).
Just did some cycling around the Scottish highlands last weekend ... here are a few photos of the SO and I (none of the bikes as they were just rentals).
09-09-13, 01:45 PM
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I question the major premise of your argument. Do you really think L.L. Bean is hip?
09-09-13, 01:47 PM
#15
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09-09-13, 02:20 PM
#16
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Precisely, I have been seeing a lot of advertising around town that I would consider bike washing, which is the new green-washing. Bank ads with bicycles in them, ads for new homes in subdivisions dozens of miles away from anywhere with shopping and jobs showing people riding their bikes, bike washing.
09-09-13, 02:27 PM
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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.
09-09-13, 03:17 PM
#18
Senior Member
Bike commuting in the rain and snow is definitely hip. Fair weather, not so much. Just the other day, while waiting at a light during a downpour, someone on the sidewalk told me they thought what I was doing was really hip, and asked how could they be more like me. I just smirked, and rode on.
09-09-13, 03:31 PM
#19
High Plains Luddite
Signed,
Ol' Sweaty, who will never be hip.
09-09-13, 04:25 PM
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Precisely, I have been seeing a lot of advertising around town that I would consider bike washing, which is the new green-washing. Bank ads with bicycles in them, ads for new homes in subdivisions dozens of miles away from anywhere with shopping and jobs showing people riding their bikes, bike washing.
09-09-13, 05:17 PM
#21
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Cycling is being used in a lot of marketing messages these days. It's becoming an aspirational symbol of health and eco friendliness. Not that it convinces people to do it or try it, but symbolizes the idea that by purchasing a certain product or brand they will be associated with those that do.
Also as an aside, Mpls is a big ad town a lot of people in the ad business are avid cyclists and completely embrace the concept as "cool" so they repeatedly incorporate it into their concepts and their work. Bike culture here has trickled up. It's not a bad thing.
Also as an aside, Mpls is a big ad town a lot of people in the ad business are avid cyclists and completely embrace the concept as "cool" so they repeatedly incorporate it into their concepts and their work. Bike culture here has trickled up. It's not a bad thing.
09-09-13, 05:36 PM
#22
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Bike commuting in the rain and snow is definitely hip. Fair weather, not so much. Just the other day, while waiting at a light during a downpour, someone on the sidewalk told me they thought what I was doing was really hip, and asked how could they be more like me. I just smirked, and rode on.
/thread
09-09-13, 05:51 PM
#23
In the right lane
It garners a lot more admiration than it did 10 years ago... although I suppose that depends on where you live. Where I work now it's seen as a great way to keep fit and a lot of people talk about doing it.. although a much smaller number actually get it together.
09-09-13, 06:06 PM
#24
Senior Member
Plus, this is obviously first-world advertising. For 99% of the world's population, bike riding is an unpleasant and dangerous activity, and a stigma of poverty. Everyone really lusts after a BMW 7XX.
My caucasian pal who after a visit with his in-laws in China, was coached with 2 key messages: that we eat meat we are not seen out in the 'hood on bikes. Poor people eat veggies and ride bikes.
09-09-13, 06:24 PM
#25
I don't get out enough
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