awesome fixie vidz

[quote=iwillbe]Oh sure, responses varied, it was the emotional rollercoaster of reversals when the vlogger asked if there was 8000 bucks worth of difference between a workhorse roadie and a megaaerosuperleggerocarbon “grail bike” that caught my attention.

I’m writing an article about the return of normal road bikes, and how the road bike world disappeared up its own butt when a bit of engineering’materials science and a shitpile of marketing collided. It’s making me pay attention to what mainstream road bikes are actually like these days. They are still kinda nonsense.

I get how sponsorship works, I've ridden a bike with comped parts while wearing a jersey with those parts' company logos on it.  It's what's being sold through the sponsorship that's goofy.  The Low and the Allez less so than the other bikes.[/quote]

I just spent a thoroughly enjoyable day on Emor’s Jamis hybrid. Other than rock-hard 32mm flat-protection tires, it was great. Handled well, stopped well, clicked through the gears (both front and rear) perfectly. I think it had acera maybe? I dunno some basic drivetrain and flatbar v-brakes.

RE: your article. I’d be curious how road biking compares to other recreational activities. (the assumption being that when we are talking about road bikes we are talking about recreation, not utility). Like, is the % price difference between top-end golf clubs, tennis rackets, sailing boats similar to the % difference in road bikes?

It gets me thinking that one of the big confusing factors of bicycles is that they are asked to be both recreational and practical and are often purchased for both reasons. Nobody is buying a practicl commuter tennis racket. That’s recreation only.

Maybe kitchen equipment is a better comparison? Woodworking tools? Is there some other category of products that are often both recreational and practical? (Motorsports comes to mind).

Bikes are indeed weird in that they have a utilitarian and a hobby component, and relatively few bikes are sold as basic transportation tools. of course, cars are also sold to hearts, not heads, so maybe there’s something about vehicles being inherently laden with self-projection?

There’s a very general consumer trend (probably a ramification of Anderson’s “long tail” argument from a decade or so ago) towards fewer people being into any given thing, but the people who are into it are really really into it. As a result, hobby expenditures are being channeled into weird, expensive versions of things instead of spread across cheap but usable stuff for a variety of pursuits.
What I wonder about is the rate of turnover in different hobbies - are bicyclists more likely to stick with their hobby than golfers? than photographers? Firearms enthusiasts? It might explain the ratio of cheap to expensive stuff in a given hobby area (like an aluminum allez with tiagra vs. Venge with Di2).

I’ll post the article (wherever it lands) once I’ve finished it. Right now it’s at the point where I’ve gone from “Ok, there might be a good angle here” to “Oh, no. This is like the Unabomber manifesto, only more rambling”, so I’ve got some work to do.

I’m very excited to read that when you’re finished.

That’s interesting that you mention the hobby hole vs hobby hop. I was talking to a friend about that yesterday.
It all came about because he likes to switch hobbies at least once a year. He doesn’t have as much income so he always buys the cheapest gear he can find and once bored with the activity he abandons the gear and moves on to the next hobby never to return.
For a while I tracked his hobbies to spend time with him but I found it was at odds with my preference for having reliable middle-end equipment that would eventually sit latent after he had moved on.
Now that i’m deep in a hole with cycling it made me think about how our experience in paddling, for example, would have differed if we were hardcore paddle nerds with ripped upper bodies, skilled paddle handling and better quality equipment. Would our enjoyment increase if we had stuck with the hobby and invested more time, fitness training and financial resources? How often does this happen in cycling?
I think about this often when I tell people that I enjoy touring and long rides and they get that cringe face that conveys their only reference to bicycles has been brief, unpleasant experiences.

I think cycling is serious Type 2 Fun for most people, unless there are beautiful vistas or pleasant multiuse paths in nearby parks.

It’s also sort of technically demanding, as evidenced by how many people’s dalliance with bike riding ends with the first flat tire. Throw in a fucked up derailleur or whatever and it adds up to a lot of cheap hybrids gathering dust in garages. Getting to the point where you can competently repair and maintain a bike is no small effort, and the sunk cost of that competence in my life definitely both keeps me into bikes and keeps me from getting into other hobbies (if bikes take an hour a week and at least a few hundred bucks a year of basic maintenance, god only knows what sailboats are like…).
By contrast, stuff like tennis or tubing are not that complicated. Getting the hang of hitting a ball takes about an hour to really start zinging them over the net, and sitting in a rubber donut and drinking beer while getting a sunburn is pretty damn intuitive, at least to me*.
My middle ground is stuff like cooking and home decor. I like to make healthy meals with fresh vegetables and I like living in a tidy home, but it never really occurs to me to do much beyond the basic functional level of effort and competence required to make those things work.

*I’m like, 40% Jimmy Buffett by weight

I thought it was “vang-gey” and not “venj”
It’s venj per my spec bro

The bikes-as-hobby-and-transportation thing is why I don’t mind having decent stuff. Having a 4-bong bike sounds pretty stupid, until you factor in that I save $9 every time I ride to work, plus I don’t pay to go to a gym, plus it gets me to the supermarket, plus it hauls my kids around, plus it means we don’t need to have a second car (which is bongs a year saved right there). Also helps that I can do most maintenance/repairs on my own.

Keen to read that article.

LOW guy was the top DICKIW. Vias guy seemed particularly awful and reminded me why I quit working in high end shops.[/quote]
I am personally biased but that’s to be expected with a sponsorship from Andrew Low. He pretty much only sponsors people he is cool with, they’re all real people. He’s small enough to have that luxury. Notice all the Cadence and Ritchey gear too. They all tend to go hand in hand.

As someone who spent years around barely sponsored bike racers, most know there exists a speed/$ value ratio that is somewhere in between an aluminum allez and a low end carbon frame. The 3 bong plus bikes are strictly for mamils and people who get their shit for free.

I have a buddy who’s a serial hobbyist, and when he moved on and thought I should follow I chuckled. I like bikes, and I don’t find guns interesting at all.

[quote=iwillbe]Bike racers getting asked how much their bikes are worth, how much they paid for their bikes with sponsorships and team deals, then getting asked how much better a $10k road bike is than a $1500 road bike.
[youtube]RmYHGFueteo[/youtube]

I don’t love the whole genre of “fatcat companies want to sell you expensive bikes! I just ride Walmart bikes and they’re at least as good!!” videos, but this is kind of funny.[/quote]

The dude at 5:21 hits it on the head. Pros are going to crush it even if they’re riding on a gas pipe 10 speed.

[youtube]Q8VArzyOIeo[/youtube]

watching this with my kid, telling her that it’s fun, but not safe. She said it’s okay because they’re going around the cars, but that if they ran into one, they might have to go to jail. For a 4 year old, she sort of gets how this kind of racing works more or less exactly.

I was just talking to some friends that raced. Once it started raining I’d have been tempted to just hit the bar and afterparty. Interestingly though nobody went to the hospital this year so maybe the rain slowed everyone down enough to not fucking beef it so hard.

that’s pretty awesome. everyone looks like such dorks.

i’m actually amazed more people haven’t died doing that stuff. All I remember is that one guy in chicago in 2008 or 2009.

Also talked about that today. That’s when Victor ‘cancelled’ monstertrack and made it invite only for a year.

Can’t no one pretend as though that doesn’t look like a ton of fun.

have you ever been to reddit per chance

Dklein’s filming and edits are fantastic

Text description here: Rajneeshpuram Roundup — Our Mother The Mountain

Squirrel, thanks for sharing.
I enjoyed the big tire in the front discussion as well as the thematically aligned snacks.