I sort of sometimes read New York City Bike Snob but after a post or two, his blog makes me get all head-punchy. His “your bike sucks, you sucky hipster” shtick gets really tired. Sure, fixie evangelicals can get super annoying, but what sort of zealot doesn’t? There are annoying people in pretty much every walk of life, and especially in cycling, which let’s face it, attracts the cream of the kook crop.
There are the Yehuda-Moon type commuters who act like recreational cycling is a waste of a noble machine. There are the mountain bikers who act like anybody who rides anywhere but on dirt and on less than 2″ wide tires is a total pantywaist. There are the roadies who act like if you’re not out for max speed, you’re doin’ it rong!!! There are the aforementioned fixie true believers who act like coasting is the work of the DEVIL. There are all sorts of other pains-in-the-butt whom I haven’t yet slagged and stereotyped, but I’m sure you can fill in pretty much any gap I missed if you know anything about the bike community. Heck, the mini-rant you just read is basically the reason I no longer read bikeforums.net.
Thing is, I LOVE ALL OF YOU BUTTPAINS! Part of what I dig about being a cyclist is that it still is kind of a nerdy, “fringe” activity, even as it becomes more popular and common. Cyclists, on the whole, are dorks, and dorks are my kind of people. I’m willing to overlook, accept, and even embrace all kinds of foibles within my “tribe.”
That doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate a really good rant about some of the more egregious annoyances within that culture, and Schultz, the guy behind Tokyo Damage Report, wrote up a hell of a doozie rant about San Francisco bicycle zealots. While his rant was inspired by SF, I think it can be applied just about anywhere there’s a self-righteous cyclist subculture. It certainly applies on the Internet, where self-righteousness knows no bounds. The Internet is quite the Great SubCultural Leveler. Anyway, go read it, nod your head, and consider the choir thoroughly preached to. Sing it, Schultz!
I’m with you. If you’re out there on human-powered wheels, my helmet’s off to you. One of the things that fills my heart about cycling is there are just so many ways to do it. Let’s all save our ranty energy for trying to end things like this.
BF forums is where I know you from. I check out your blog from time to time — I enjoyed reading about your honeymoon bike tour.
My BF user handle is “Fissile”. If you like rants, you’ll like my BF rant against hyper aggressive roadies — it goes on for 7 pages.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=486839
God, I went and read that thread, and was re-re-reminded why I don’t read effin’ BikeForums.net
The obtuseness…it burnsssssss!
Damn near everybody in that whole stinking thread was being belligerent, stupid, persistent, and frankly pointless.
To appreciate the genius of such a thread, you need to get in touch with your inner Neanderthal.
BTW, I hope I was the most obtuse, stupid, and pointlessly belligerent poster on the entire thread.