people get way too stirred up over nothing. gordiep's reaction was completely normal for someone who thinks riding bikes is fun as long as you're not endangering anyone. they could have broken some hips going through peds like that... and in that situation you're not some valiant knight facing the iron dragons on your noble steed, you're a psycho trying to win a race at any cost to yourself and those around you.

which is cool, sure, but definitely irresponsible and if you don't understand why it would be looked down upon by a 'normal' person well, that's your own failure to access the situation properly.

street racing like this in cars makes me want to shoot people. i don't have a gun, but it makes me want to be a very violent and vigilante ******* who puts hurting on people who are too hopped up on adrenaline to respect other people's safety. the only thing different here is:
1. the skill it takes to perform the acts (car street races often require less skill than actually lacing up your shoes in the morning)
2. the size and destructive capability of the vehicle. i don't get angry seeing it, but someone's seriously going to get injured and it doesn't make me happy seeing **** like that go down for a bag and props. though the bag was ****ing sweet.

maybe i've been in a hick town for too long, but the alleycats here aren't like that unless you want them to be... hell, we stop at red lights if there's traffic in the alleycats i've been in. maybe this is like the world series of alleycat racing, but it was worth getting upset over. saying something incendiary like 'i want to run over them with my car' was pretty uselessly rhetoric and got a lot of people all butt-inflamed for no reason, but the argument that this kind of **** is dangerous and disrespectful still stands, and by getting pissed off, the people who posted back only made things worse for themselves... especially the 'don't bike get a car it suits you' comment. **** that dude, the more who want to bike the better. and i'm going to bet that most of us on here have cars that we regularly use. i go many days at a time without using mine, but i still love it and use it. you sound more asinine and polarizing than a fundamentalist christian religio-political republican.




about the video... they were REALLY REALLY fast going through checkpoints and starts/stops... they were also really really fast going through certain intersections. they also displayed a huge skillful ability to assess the manifest and figure out routes while at the move at what seemed like near full-speed...

all of those things are, i'm sure, what makes someone crazy fast at this kind of race... however, other than that it looked like a bunch of people frantically going medium-fast through traffic in a panic, not necessarily with any finesse or huge speed, with the only distinguishing characteristic of any athletic value being stamina. which is cool and all, but it wasn't awe-inspiring the way a race should be or even the way a really cool trick competition is.

i've seen ice racing videos where the cyclists were more impressive as cyclists... and messenger films where the messengers appeared to have their **** together on a much more esteeming level.

the fancy edits were cool, but it wasn't raw like previous films and the quality of the editing wasn't to blame, it was the style of editing. quality doesn't mean you can't have a raw style... this was much more of a hipster 'holy **** it's so cool check out this tunnel from twenty of our ultra sick hipster angles.

so after two more pages of ridiculous posts, i'm adding mine into the fire. bike for fun, do it at your own pace and no one elses, but don't be a jerk. if you're putting other people in danger, you're not biking to your fullest potential. it takes more skill and prowess to bike safely than it does to bike like a ****ing jerk.