Rollfast

I was unaware that Great Britain had hippies. I knew that barbers and razors were not in favor for many almost 50 years ago.

I don't think it's become more 'corporate' as much as 'the kids' just wanna be cool and FAST. When we were young it was racing bikes, BMX and stuff that looked like the hot cars older people had, with tall shifters on the top bar and rally stripes.

Now some people like to fly down goat trails with nuclear fury and do things that give some of us goosebumps watching.

I doubt that all of that 'sponsorship' or advertising is really bad. Anything that develops into 'sport' needs support.

And tour racers have become heroes in the same manner he described, only they go up all of the steep hills much faster.

It's like Formula 1 for cycling, or NASCAR. Before sanctioning bodies came to drag and 'stock car' racing people looked upon the driving habits that ultimately created the sports as illegal and dangerous. Building tracks and encouraging sponsorship, co-operation with manufacturers and training of drivers and teams of mechanics and others made NASCAR, NHRA and others powerful forces for not only the prosperity and growth of the sport and industries that fed it as well as the safety factors.

And I don't see how this has been any different since the earliest days. Cars grew from the efforts of bicycle makers, ultimately, and in a few cases buggy and wagon makers. The best way for them to get increased sales was to demonstrate speed, durability and reliability of distances because early cars were not only notoriously unreliable, the parts were hard to come by then and it was difficult to maintain them. Racing and touring exhibitions helped to improve this and standard parts and assembly methods made them common.

After that, you had to race to capture the public's imagination. Successful racers need parts and good parts make the racers more successful. People will want to buy those parts or from the company that makes them and advertising keeps everything moving and in business.

It doesn't matter if you have all of this stuff, but even the author chose his bike in some similar mode. Maybe he pulled it from a pile in a junkyard, no matter, he had some image of what he could do with it based on the reputation of the company, it's suppliers and what could be done with the bike vs. others.

Maybe he's tired of being crowded out on his way to nowhere...

This opinion is not unique, it applies to when your secret hot fishing hole is no longer a secret, everyone uses the competition parts you do or your competitive 'edge' is lost when banned. Things change.