Pepper makes my head sweat. It's so noticeable I even wondered if the increased blood flow it causes to my scalp might mean capsaicin from pepper could be used to treat or prevent male baldness. I looked into it and found that there has been some research of that, but it didn't go anywhere

Or, being a model in a photo shoot for a Catalog, is it Hip?

You stole my post.

The other evening I was riding past a little park where some kind of fair or festival was going on. It was getting dark and I had my helmet headlight on. I've always considered having a headlight on my helmet to be the very paramount of bike commuter dorkiness, but I'm old enough not to care anymore. Anyway, there was a group of teenage girls sitting at a picnic table near the street. They looked at me and one of them called out "nice headlight" with (I'm 99% sure) no trace of irony in her voice. I got to bask in the glow of teenage girl approval for a minute, which isn't something that has happened in many a year. Now I need to know, does this make me hip?

OMG, that's exactly me. Trek 7000, Target synthetic shirt, bike shorts, a rack and a Knog pannier. I wear the same helmet that I use on my road bike though, not dorky. And my mantra is "Steady, not sweaty".

But I actually ride a road bike when I'm not commuting, I'm faster than almost everyone else, I'm almost 60 but don't look much over 40, and I live in the hippest place on the planet (Brooklyn). I'm also not that fat, just a little overweight and I've lost 10 pound in the past 6 weeks from riding.

It's only "hep" if you declaim poetry, listen to Bird Parker and John Coltrane, and read Kerouac, Burroughs, and Ginsberg. Otherwise, it's just fashion.

On one hand, I am so not concerned with what may or may not be hip.

While on the other hand, I do try to do everything I can to keep from being Fredly. Two sides to every coin and all that.

Rick / OCRR

Are hip joint replacements hip? ...

OMG! I thought that was funny, but it's hip...if you thinks so, doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

Well, those particular joint replacements are hip(s).

Well, that's me and I'm sure not considered hip by most standards. Especially with not one, but two helmet lights.

That's so true! People thought I was crazy for riding to work. Then again, I did ride to work during snow storms (changed tires of course) and through the rain. Of course I was prepared for this. Had weatherproof gear and proper tires. When you're serious, you're seriously weird.

If you have to ask, well...




I hope you smirked ironically.

Uh, like no. I live with teenage twin girls and there isn't anything I or anybody my age can do to be hip. Maybe, just maybe, since you aren't "DAD", you'll get half a point.

I think I'm going to change the TREK logo on my bike to spell FRED instead. It won't take much. Cut the left tail off the T and put it in the middle, turn the angles on the K around. Or maybe TREK just spells FRED anyway.

I'm such a FRED that I couldn't do this on my Macbook.

You're right. Just asking the question proves how fundamentally and irredeemably unhip I am....

Maybe I'll shoot for "Fred." I can likely manage that....

No! Not hip but real beat, man..........................

I'm older and also in a leadership role. I'm not considered hip by anyone.

Given a choice between being "hip" or of being "Fredly", I am solidly in the Fredly camp.
I can't remember the last time that I really cared what others thought of me. Might be an age thing.

I have a couple of frames that are logo-less already and a third which is about to be logo-less. You just gave me an idea. There might be more than one FRED sighting in NYC soon.

As to hipness, yes and no. Yes, a lot of hip people are doing it, but not everyone doing it is hip. It is also hip because the rate of increase in people doing it is extremely high. From every year to the next in the last five or so years, you see more. I think the rate of increase (the third derivative of this curve) may be higher now!

On the Hudson River Greenway, there are tons of very fit people riding very skillfully, but there are also wobbly people who clearly haven't ridden much in recent years until now. There are also some very flat and flabby people. They can't have been doing this for long, and it melts my heart to see them, faster than it's melting their fat.

I'm hip to your hep.