Using words and names to express a particular style of any object is just a part of human language and communication. Nobody is saying that you can't think out of the box and be creative. However, I am saying that you should be able to state clearly what style you began with, and where you're trying to go with it. Maybe, it will still be within the same category, maybe it won't. Whatever, it will morph into, it will have an altered look or expression. That expression, will impress you one way or another. It will influence your thought process. You may like it or you may hate it. You may even feel indifferent about it. Whatever the case may be, it would have provoked you to have some kind of feeling. That's what art, design, style, and change is all about. How we as humans interact with materials that influence thought, feelings, and behavior. It also can affect how we as human beings interact with one another when we communicate. That is truly a beautiful thing...Art... Creation ...Transformation...Change...Style...Difference....Diversity....Transition.

How beautiful it is when we are better able to express in words the ideas that we execute when we perform artistic transition in the form of design. Designs that are more functional, suit our dynamic needs for living. Designs that are more aesthetic appease our spiritual souls and gives us better reason for a greater hope for humanity and appreciation for nature.

We are all artists in our own way. When we put our creative talents to use, we always end up infusing a portion of ourselves into our creation. We do this on art canvasses, we do it with buildings, we do it with cars, and we do it with bicycles.

I love seeing the changes that individual cyclists make on their bikes. I also love it when we're able to express that which we've done in words. When we say, " road bike", most of us know very well what we're talking about. When we say, " mountain bike", most of us know very well what we're talking about.

However, when we say commuter bike, city bike, or hybrid, suddenly we become perplexed and we want to blur definitions and concepts. Well, that may very well become a good thing as we continue to evolve a change in cycling. Nonetheless, right now as it stands, a commuter, a city bike, and a comfort bike, are all subcategories of a hybrid. A hybrid is a bike that is designed to be something between a road bike and a mountain bike.

Well a comfort bike, a city bike, and a commuter bike, are all bikes that fit somewhere in the hybrid genre of bicycles. Now, as we continue to evolve, we begin to form more clear ideas as to which types of bikes will perform which functions or not and just exactly what better names to call them.

All I can promise you, is that they all will physically change, and they all will experience future name changes.

We won't be just calling them BIKES!

Love,

Slim

PS.

Actually, I think it's forums like this that provides the impetus for change in concepts and names for bicycles. Afterall, we are on the INTERNET!