Photo Shelly Morris
Does the man make the bike or the bike make the man?
This insightful article in the UK Guardian asks that very question: Can a different bike make you a different rider? Switching from his typical road bike built for speed to a sturdy European bicycle inspired Peter Walker to also make a fashion change.
Is it Nature vs. Nurture or Sink or Swim?
In my mind, style defies definition because everyone has his or her own unique way of expressing it.
This totally rad video from the Netherlands nullifies the one bike/one style argument. A Dutch boy on a Dutch bike in a business suit, seemingly commutes to work, but boy oh boy, does that boy have some tricks up his sleeve.
I like what I see! ;-)
May we not judge another rider until we have rode a mile in his chamois.
6 comments:
Can't le rouge et le noir be a on a Dutch bike too? Or maybe these are my colours because of my French rider?
The Dutch Boy is Mark Vos... very talented BMX'r and a lovely person! <3
@drooder - Seeing as how Le Rouge et Noir is my bike (can a bike be on a bike?), I offer you this pic of me with my Rouge et Noir wearing Dutch Oranj (Hup Hup!).
@kristin I can validate your microred and black back for le rouge et le noir Beeing Dutch I can only validate the Hup hup! and the vuvuzella :)
I'd say the man chooses the bike.
If a bike is not made for you, you will never be totally comfortable on it and always be on the lookout. Once you've met YOUR bike, the urge to go bike-whoring, i.e. the constant lurking on people's bikes or on bike-porn websites such as Rivendell, Public etc. simply stops.
In his article, Peter Walker is confusing the consequence with the cause. Wrong bicycle choices are a consequence of bad infrastructure and not a cause of bad cycling behaviour or aggressive cycling culture (lacking infrastructure is).
"Once you've met YOUR bike, the urge to go bike-whoring . . .simply stops."
The bike I choose to time trial on is not the bike I choose to pootle to the library on.
The essential mistake that Mr. Walker makes is thinking of the pootling bike as "anachronistic." It isn't anything of the kind, even in the absence of specific cycling infrastructure.
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