Originally Posted by
corrado33
I must be uncool because I ride many of the things the younger crowd here says is uncool.
Many of my bikes are bright colors. Why ride a boring black/red striped bike? Every other new bike is black/red striped.
I own a surly. Not because I'm trying to be different, but because I worked at a bike shop and could buy a frameset for cheap, and they're steel. I've ridden the surly more than any of my other bikes, because it's my commuter, and gets ridden thousands of miles every year.
It also is loaded down with a dynamo, IGH, racks, lights, among other things. It's USEFUL.
I also own a few old mountain bikes. Are they useful for mountain biking? No, but they're fun! I installed a kick shift 2 speed on one of them and it's a great cruiser.
I own a bikes direct motobecane. It was the second bike I ever bought. I still use it as a rainy day road bike.
I own a steel Landshark Roadshark. If anything that's the ultimate "hipster" bike. Rare and relatively affordable now-a-day. With that said, I ride the hell out of that bike and have it equipped as a balls-to-the-wall road bike. No single speed bullcrap here. It's my favorite bike.
Lastly, I own a modern Raleigh mountain bike. It's... nothing special.
I like to say that I don't like modern bikes that are plastered with branding on them, but then again, I'd never turn away one of those bikes if it were given to me. I'll ride just about anything that I'll fit on and be happy doing it.
I really don't care if you think I'm uncool.
With that said, bikes with ridiculously high stems (usually using stem extenders) are "uncool." I understand that some people need those to be able to ride at all, but that doesn't change the fact that it looks stupid. I'm not saying you should slam your stem (that's also stupid) but if you're riding a bike with a 4-6 inch stem... buy a different bike more fitting to your needs. I think these people are trying to be "cool" by buying an aggressive racing bike, but then realizing they can't support that posture put a huge stem on it to be able to ride it.
Based on what you're riding and everything you wrote, it sounds to me that you
are cool. You're just not "hip". Big difference.
Don't worry - there are a lot more of us out there than you think. They just don't market to us, that's all. I think after riding bicycles for over 55 years (maybe longer if you include tricycles) and having owned a lot of bikes, you sort of become immune to the fads and trends and just focus on actual improvements (there haven't been that many, really) and
value. It's about the riding, not the bicycle.
That said, cosmetics do count. I once started with an old Rockhopper (one of my favorite bikes now) but the color scheme was that hideous pink/purple that you may have seen from around '95. Even though the paint was in perfectly fine shape, I just couldn't be seen on it so I had it stripped and powder coated. And I do try to choose things for my bikes that at least look like they belong together, like if possible standardizing on either silver or black, that kind of thing. I also don't ever use any sort of "adapter" like threaded to threadless, which looks ridiculous. It should at least NOT look like a Frankenbike.