I’ve been around the cycling industry for more than a decade now and I’ve seen a few trends come and go. What I’m still waiting to see catch on is the bicycle as a legitimate form of transportation. Most of the bigger companies (Trek, Specialized, etc) seem to be catching on with their newer city style bikes. It is a step in the right direction. It’s has been my personal belief since I was a child that the bike is more than a toy, but we as an industry haven’t figured out the way to get that across to the masses here in the States.
Perhaps that is a product of our urban planning. Maybe we are fat, lazy slobs. Maybe I’m just a crazy nut, who’ll one day be run over by a pick up truck as I fight for that little bit of asphalt space I feel I’ve earned.
Any way you slice it, it would be a better place to live, drive, and raise kids if there were more people riding, and less people driving.
That’s what the Snot Rocket is all about.
5 comments:
I wish I could understand the avoidance of what seems second nature to me- no, first nature like breathing, eating and sleeping.
we make excuses too easily, we don't like being told something is good for us, we get caught up in a lifestyle that's about giving up because giving up is easier to do than trying and trying might mean failing or having to try harder so why bother, it's easier to laugh and deride people who try and fail and that makes negativity easier.
pretty sad and you wonder if anyone realises this might be the only chance they have and they're going to WASTE it by disengaging from the world outside their cars and houses. fuck you and your "busy" lives. your lives aren't "busy" I gaurentee you that! riding a bike has got to be the easiest way to re-engage with a world that will carry on without you, despite you, but it wants you as part of it anyway.
word
I put at least 500 miles on my car last week, and none of them were worth a damn. Your post made me realize that the part I miss most about my "former life" is riding away from my problems - school, work, the dentist, etc.
Hey, I love bikes too. I would love to ride a bike to most places but the huge megalopolis in which I live makes it life threatening at times.
Our society is based around the automobile and it is going to take more then a passionate, grassroots bike nerd movement to make modern day America see it any different. You can be riding in a bike lane, but the jackass that cant drive while talking on his/her phone is just going to use it up and turn you into a hood ornament.
The oil and automotive corps have a powerful lobby to keep things the way they are. The bike industry has nothing that even comes close. Since the bike industry's corporate and political pull (ie, how much do you think
Giant is kicking into Hillary's campaign fund? How much do you think GM is throwin down?) is not even a blip on the radar, how are things going to change? Unfortunately that's how things work here. Bikes Belong needs to get there ass into gear. But will the Burger King eatin lazzy asses of America embrace it?
word, my days in detroit taught me these things of which you speak.
dp
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