DropBarFan

Past few years I've seen more homeless on bikes. Inevitable result of declining incomes & rising housing prices. Localities everywhere in US (& internationally too) stoutly resist construction of low-cost housing 'cause they want residents with high incomes (more taxes) & low social costs ie childless college grads or wealthier retirees. In 60's homelessness was nearly non-existent in the US. I vividly remember an early 70's local TV news feature about a guy who lived in a box on DC's Capitol Hill: this was considered shocking.

boomhauer

For some curious reason I would love to be one of those "Bicycle Bums".

But I have been sticking with my part time professional job and golf addiction.

It's hard to make the plunge.

McBTC

Nothing said needs defending here. I link a casual observation with an evocative title and a few posters have some interesting feedback. A few others get incensed because I used the word "bum" and then hurl ad hom attacks at my supposed insensitivity and feel compelled to inform me about their uncle Festus who isn't a bum.

It's no crime to survive. Some of these new age bike bums obviously have figured out a way to live in tourist towns along the Cal-coast that others can only visit by using their vacation time and paying big bucks. If the bike bums actually looked like bike tourists you might be tempted to believe they've adopted an enviable lifestyle; but they do not appear to me to be enjoying cycling nor is it a lifestyle that appears to place much value on employability.

Got a problem with, bike bum? How about, resort-lifestyle-renewable-energy-conservationism-survivalist-cyclists, who could care less about what I think?

bikenh

You to watch what you say in this regard. Can they only afford a bike or are they smarter than you and decide not to own a car. The secret to life is very simple...it's not how much you make that makes you rich...it's how little you spend that makes you rich. If you make $1 million dollars this year and spend $2 million, did you make anything??? If you make $10,000 this year and only spend $5,000 did you make anything? It's not about how much you make but how little you spend. I gave up driving to stop spending the money and have more free time because I don't have to work as much to support the car. Now I go on three month long bike trips that I couldn't have done while working. Not only did the job limit my time off but it in reality limited the amount of money I had. Look around you at the unnecessary things in life that you own that keep stealing the money away from you...everything electronic, and you will find what it is that is keeping from doing what you would much rather off be doing and becoming. All those electronic devices do is steal money from you and make you have to work more to support the electronic devices, car, cell phone, TV, radio, internet, etc...which man kind didn't have 100 years ago and still got along just fine without them. You've been brainwashed into believing you can't live without them when in reality you can't live a full life with them. They just keep on keeping on taking away your time to do other...better things, by making you have to work more hours at a job you could really careless about.

Just because somebody rides a bike for transportation doesn't mean they are in the lower economic class, it can mean that they are smarter than you. Money can't get you out of a tough situation...only smarts can do that.

350htrr

That was my point. Trying to be anyways... There seems to have been a shift from buggies to bikes for people who used to have buggies... I wasn't talking about the people who are deliberately cutting back using bikes instead of cars...

EDIT;I guess I took the title of this thread literally, and was talking about "real" bums...

EDIT No 2; My son was a bike rider bum riding across Canada, near the end of his ride he sat down near a "real" bum in some city park and the "real" bum turns to him and says... "Man you stink, you need to take a shower" then stood up and walked away...

indyfabz

+1. Same with public transportation. There are many in this country with the attitude that public transit is for "poor people." Many years ago I spent the Christmas holiday in Sweden. One night we went into Gothenberg from the 'burbs for dinner/drinks and a movie. We took the bus, in part because getting busted for drunk driving would not have been a good for my resident host. The bus back home was filled with all sorts of people, including obviously well off, older couples, including some in furs. A guy who lived a block down from my childhood home was European and played violin with the Philadelphia orchestra. I used to see him on the bus in a tux and carrying his violin heading downtown for a performances.

I am not poor. Currently, I don't own a car (A few years ago some kid wrecked my 18 Y.O. car--the only one I had ever owned in my 48 years of life--while it was parked.) but, the GF, who lives with me, does. Despite having car access, we always think "car last." This past Saturday we went to dinner and a movie on our bikes despite strong winds and even some rain.

MassiveD

I wouldn't wear the penny loafers which is just some arrivist fetish of a different kind. But no I wouldn't wear running shorts or a jersey. If I was the slowest person in the NYC marathon, sure, that is a serious endeavour, and probably a lot of the hackers are at least as maxed out as the better runners. But that is the point, riding a bike around town or at the average touring pace is not running a marathon, or even running 10 miles. It is moderate exercise while sitting down. Closer to weeding a garden. There are folks who are going to be motivated to do an activity by the opportunity to play dress up in a new clothes. I fall more into the category of people who are looking for an opportunity to buy new tools. It is probably all equally silly, but at least I know it.

alan s 

No one wears cycling clothes to "play dress up." What is the "average touring pace" you refer to? Wasn't aware there was such a thing. Pretty much any activity can be done at a slow, moderate or fast pace. If you are riding at a beach cruiser pace, then shorts and flip flops are fine. If you are putting in a hard effort for 6 hours then cycling clothing is better.

When you are weeding a garden, do you wear dress pants and a dress shirt, or some old stuff you don't mind getting dirty? Is weeding a garden an opportunity to play dress up in your old gardening clothes?

Doug64

What is your point, and why does it bother you so much?

McBTC

It doesn't bother me. And, there is no single point to it.

If you've ever toured for a week or more it's interesting to consider how you would or could look at life in similar circumstances and how would it be different if you feel you have been driven to such circumstances. For example, as someone who has toured, I can imagine living that lifestyle.

If I was on tour, what would motivate me to look like a bum instead of someone on tour? Wouldn't it actually take some additional thought and effort to look homeless if I wan't actually homeless?

Similarly, if a homeless person is traveling via bike, couldn't they choose to be fairly indistinguishable from a bicycle tourist? Wouldn't it take just a modicum of effort, despite being homeless? If so, why not put out that little bit of effort? Would it be less fun for the homeless biker to look less homeless?

If I was a homeless biker, I'm thinking I'd have a lot of time to contemplate whether looking like a person with zero options when I didn't have to look that way might actually contribute to being a person with zero options. How many times can I say "No" to what society has to offer without reaching a point where no one cares what I have to offer?

mdilthey

You're essentially saying "Here's how I think others should dress. If they don't, they're wrong."



Look at this bum! Oh wait... That's a $2,000 bikepacking rig with custom bags. Guess he's not a bum!

Sure, he's got long hair, a dirty shirt, a "Dirt Bag" badge on his top tube, and a beard, but he's also got a huge smile on his face. From this thread, I can picture your Scrooge-esque grimace as someone dares ride by without an immaculately preserved cycling kit and still-shiny Ortlieb panniers. That's fine, that's your right, but it's a lot more fun not caring about appearances while on tour.

Doug64

I've toured extensively, close to a total of 15 months in the last 8 years, and think about the plight of the homeless a lot, whether on or off the bike. I don't think any tour that I've ever done can give me the insight into what being homeless really feels like. The closest I came to it was on a 2 month ride this summer when we only had access to a washing machine 5 times. And that was not very close at all; it was a very tiny inkling of how hard it could be to keep clothes clean.

Cyclebum

Wow. What an interesting thread, philosophically speaking.

Living in a small town, off the beaten cycling paths, I rarely get to encounter 'bums on bikes.' I do my best to interact when they show up, offering conversation and assistants. Sometimes there are mental issues, but mostly it's been seemingly a lifestyle choice. The are amazingly adaptable and resourceful. Occasionally, quite helpful themselves, in exchange for offered assistance(one installed a toilet for me, another chopped firewood until I told him to stop.)

While touring, I once told my daughter "I'm having a great time, but with no home or family to return to, it would be miserable." The 'bums' I've encountered didn't seem miserable at all. I met one while touring in Florida. Low and behold, he showed up in my little Texas town a year later, still pedaling the roads. Perhaps we're all a bit jealous of such independance. Just a bit.

TheLibrarian

It's good transport for poor folk. More power to em if that's what they need and where they're at. As cycling goes/ becomes more mainstream you'll see all types on bikes. (1) yes we're poorer as a nation with more homeless. (2) cycling has become less of an elitist sport among adults. It has always been common for kids.

Many people even here cycle to commute and avoid paying for cars. Many are on the raggedy edge and or don't make much as evidence by those who ride box store bikes with a purpose. More or less than ever before idk I havn't been paying attention to the scene that long. Another aside is that as China becomes more mobile and having more cars and fewer bikes than the past we are in an opposite trend.

McBTC

It's perhaps a sign of the times too that some of us moderns look to the care-less instead of the care-full for inspiration, like Erin Wasson of the design/fashion scene who felt obliged to walk-back comments that holier-than-thou thought police branded offensive, explaining what she actually meant:

shelbyfv

Odds are OP watches Fox "News."

Erick L

I'm a bum dressed as a cyclist.

mdilthey

Pack it up, people. We ain't gonna top that.

350htrr

With a grin like that this person must be up to no good...

McBTC

[... or, Big Bang "Theory"]. Correct! Leonard, Howard, Sheldon, Penny, Megan, Maria...

saddlesores

haha, yeah right. lotsa folks wear special clothing to dress up!

*you've never seen the goth chicks all hanging out together in one spot on campus, all dressed
alike, to prove they're "different"? (man, it's expensive to look like life is crushingly depressing
when you're supported by your parents!)

*you've never seen the guys on $10K 2-pound carbon fiber rigs dressed in their matching
spandex, festooned with sponsor ads, with color-coordinated sunscreen stripes on their faces,
posing in front of the starbucks? (after unloading their bikes from the racks on their priuseses!)

*you've never seen the hordes of dentists dressed in leather chaps and black t-shirts,
polishing their harleys in front of the local hooters? (but only after spending three hours
polishing their bikes in front of their mcmansions where the neighbors can watch!)

*you've never seen the "typical" grunge backpacker in southeast asia.....oversize bob marley
t-shirt, dickies brand trousers cut off (jagged edge from blunt scissors) just below the knee,
green-gold-black knit africa-colors shower-cap style hat, heavily-bleached dreadlocks,
scraggly goatee with optional scraggly sideburns, cheap flipflops, chairman mao (optional
che guavara) messenger bag? (like, dude, can i borrow some............)

McBTC

True, true, it's so expensive these days to buy new blue jeans with that designer bottom-of-the-trash-can look. You could make a shirt out of all the denim that is removed from the fronts of those pants. But, why take on the grunge look when you can assume the care-worn visage of higher knowledge by simply wearing peach-colored drawstring pants, a potato-sack pullover top and a necklace of nail parings from the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

DropBarFan

I don't think your original post was intended to be snide. However this Wasson woman is a ******, though I guess with her age & insulated perspective one can't be too critical. Many homeless work or want to; I've read about folks in Silicon Valley who make incomes higher than US avg but live in their cars due to high housing costs. Heh, anybody remember the dystopian dark comedy movie Americathon? Released in '79 but was about US in 1998: US was flat broke, the country was being auctioned off & you were middle-class if you had a car to live in. Upper-middle class if you buy a liter of gasoline now & then.

robow

You need to take this to one of the other forums

indyfabz

Nom nom nom.