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No more hippies and explorers

Old 04-13-16, 02:56 PM
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Originally Posted by canklecat
"Hi, I've gotten older and my life and perspectives have changed, therefore I believe the entire world has changed and nobody else noticed so I'm going to complain about it. Also, analog film, vinyl records, real paper books..." --Clickbait Columnist of the Month

Meh.

I'm an old hippie. I see plenty of folks just riding for the sheer joy of it. Their bikes aren't festooned with gadgets recording every bit of minutiae.
This. If anything, the author is so out of touch (or eager to suck up to other grouches) that he's missing the explosion in cycling-for-the-fun-of-it. My city is now swarming with people riding bikes to socialize, and not win imaginary races in their heads.

Whining about Lance & company taking the fun out of cycling is so 15+ years ago.
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Old 04-13-16, 04:01 PM
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I still see plenty of hippies, but they seem more to be fashionable hippies if you will. I don't think we will ever see real hippies anymore where I live. As for explorers? I think that material advancements made it easy to explore anything, so the last true explorers can only go ultra far north or south, which there's not many of those people around.
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Old 04-13-16, 04:12 PM
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Originally Posted by MightyLegnano
One of the best reads I ve had this year. Surely, this is going to cause great controversy, but I agree 100%. What do you think?

No more hippies and explorers: a lament for the changed world of cycling | Tom Marriage | Environment | The Guardian
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.
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Old 04-13-16, 07:10 PM
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Originally Posted by big chainring
Funny article. I agree with the author. The face of cycling has changed. "Bicycling" articles from the 70's were about touring. Making your own bags. Making panniers from 5 gal gas cans (really, that was an actual article). Much more of a hands on, self reliant, casual approach to riding and enjoying the outdoors. I miss that aspect of cycling. Who knows, it may come back. Till then I can jump into a group ride on Sundays, hold on to a wheel, and ride like bloody hell.
Well, the cover story of the May issue says:

"Outside is Free!
101 ways to explorer your world, ride more & really get out there"

so I'm not sure I'm seeing that.

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Old 04-13-16, 07:20 PM
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Originally Posted by downtube42
It's easy to fall into the trap of lamenting for the ways of the past. Some people get so stuck in the mode, they miss the rest of their lives.

Worrying about the future isn't much better.
good point
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Old 04-14-16, 03:45 PM
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Old 04-14-16, 04:53 PM
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Originally Posted by MightyLegnano
The author basically says that corporations and marketing turn bicycle, the magical adventure machine, into a money sucking ego booster.
Pretty much. Of course it's what corporations will do to anything given a little time (Remember rock n roll)?
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