Freedom
Modern society is pretty much fucked. The world is made up of vacuous, self-centered morons brainwashed by the internet and mainstream media, who in turn are no more than puppets of .ooo1% of the population who own 99% of the wealth and pull the strings of every major government, bank, business and institution. 1984 is a reality, we just don’t realise and acknowledge it, because if it was made that obvious then we might just say “wait a minute, they’re fucking us!” We are made to believe we have freedom, whereas, in reality, all we actually have is the illusion of freedom.
Cycling may be the only real freedom we have, and even that is surreptitiously controlled for us, and is controlling us. We are told we need the latest carbon frame that looks like dog shit and rides not much better, while a 30 year old steel bike does exactly the same job, which is: to move us across the earth and put a smile on our face, yet we are convinced that we won’t be happy unless our new standard bottom brackets constantly creak and need fortnightly servicing. Mountain bikers are now being cajoled into believing that an extra 6mm of width on a rear hub will change our lives. It’s enough to make me go back to a hardtail. With a longer fork, slacker angles, wider bars, shorter stays, bigger wheels, fatter tyres, less gears, naturally.
Of course, advancements in technology do make a difference to our rides, especially for mountain biking. Road, I’m not as convinced. My Bosomworth, while heavier, with less gears and slower shifting than my Jaegher, is still a great bike to ride and would no doubt make me stronger if it was my only ride. Suspension and dropper posts for the MTB are pretty much essential and improve the experience, but if I lost the rear shock I’m sure I’d still be able to ride most of the terrain I do now, maybe with a bit more discomfort and a little less control, but wouldn’t that put the emphasis back on me to sharpen my skills and pick my lines a little more carefully? Thinking? No, we can’t have that.
Same can be said with the choices we think we make in our everyday lives: we aren’t making them, they are made for us. We don’t need all that shit they are selling us. We have the freedom to think for ourselves and make our own minds up, yet still just go along with the status quo, what the tv tells us to buy, what the corporations tell us to consume, what the 000.1% want us to do. Be good little happy consumers and shut the fuck up. Or go ride your bike, any bike, and use the time to think about what’s real and what we’re told is real. Don’t be afraid, set yourself free. It’s the only truth we can really believe.
Now head over to The Gear page and buy some shit.
A masterpiece! Spot fucking on!!
Inverted Rule #6? Free your Legs and the Mind will follow?
thisisnotacompellingmasterpiece
I feel that many real cyclists, not just people that ride bikes, are seldom swayed by public opinion and the lies of the media. Most of the population doesn’t understand our passion. They see us as a lycra clad road obstacles to be jeered at and run off the road. We are free spirits seeking find new places, create new experiences and make the most of our time on this Earth. We choose to be on the road or in the mountains lost in our thoughts and laughing at the sheep as they are left behind.
@brett this is the future of mountain bike geometry.
i am back on a hard tail and loving it
Exactly this. I’ve ranted on these hallowed pages before about why the bike is the best, but I’ll say it again. Weather and light notwithstanding, I can ride when I want, where I want, for as long or as short as I want. No one tells me the course isn’t open, the court booked or the class cancelled. I just got a fat bike. Why? Because I don’t want winter to hinder my freedom to ride.
I’ve thought Brave new world was a closer approximation of the world than 1984 – sedated, affluent and ignorant. But that’s just too depressing.
I wonder how long it’s going to take for Bretto to see the irony of a mountain biker being sold a bunch of shit we don’t need for the sake of change. 26″ < 29″ < Enduro < droppers < 1X < fat bikes < 650b < 29er Plus < boost < wide mtb rims < carbon hookless tubeless is an incomplete summary of the last 5 years. I can’t wait till MTB needs aero like roadies need aero helmets.
@minion
True that.
Some of that stuff does make mountain biking better, but yeah, do we really need it? And the irony of being editor of a mountain bike magazine is not lost on me, in fact that is a catalyst for such musings. If 650b/27.5 was the original wheel size, there would never have been a need for 29ers. As for fat bikes…
@Bj
Man, I have really been Jonesing for an AM hardtail lately… so many hot looking ones out there, but the Ti Kona has to be one of the hottest… pity about the big wheels.
I’m not saying road cycling is much better, but it’s not as bad by comparison. I’ve just built a DT shifter, alloy frame/fork, with an English BB and really, really fricken old wheels, and it’s the most comfy bike I own. If I believed the hype, it should be the most uncomfortable bike ever, but that’s BS. 2 of my road bikes are 8 speed, with 1 10spd dura ace bike.
We’re more than mere morons, perpetually conned,
So come on everybody, smash the system with the song.
@brett
DMR have redone the trail star with 650b, it’s a ton slacker than that Kona though.
I like to live (somewhat) by the saying: “Beware of the man who owns only one gun, he probably shoots it very well”.
Now not saying I do not own several bikes, but each has its own place and duty, the one gun adage goes along with most people do not hold onto what they have to fully wring it out and learn its true capabilities.
The trickle-down effect from cycling technology is so fast that I am sure most pros from a few short years ago would kill for what is now the 105s for this years group. And how many of us can truly wring that out for all its worth?
Falling victim to watching next years races and swearing to God that my cycling life is not complete or I could go just a bit faster if I had so and so’s bike from the Tour under my ass. When in reality I am searching Craig’s List for a replacement of my old steel Schwinn that was stolen when I was a teenager. Why, because it was a shit-ton of fun.
There’s an application for each and all of the materials we’re told we must have a bike or component made from, but is the specificity worth giving up the broader, more general, real world (even our narrow view of it) usability of more traditional materials and technologies?
I’ve used the gamut, steel, aluminium, titanium, carpet-fiber. Lugged, screwed & glued, tig’d, mig’d, bonded, laid-up, & filet-braizered (yummy).
I enjoyed, appreciated, and exploited all of these to the best of my limited abilities, but only the steel ones did everything that I asked (specifically the OS ones, e.g., MAX) of them.
I’m no longer a young man chasing a dream, I’m a has been chasing a shadow, and what I ride fuels & suits that feeling. The steel frame, aluminum components, handbuilt wheels, ad infinitum makes my pre-, ride, & post- all the better. Not enough to counter the old legs, but it helps.
It’s good thing to cultivate a critical attitude regarding how one spends resources on bikes/components/kit.
A VMH can be a huge help here. If I can clearly and persuasively articulate to a skeptical interlocutor why, say, TRP mini-Vs to replace Avid Shorties is a safety issue on long, steep, freezing descents on shitty gravel roads, well, I feel a bit less manipulated and more manipulating.
I sit firmly on the fence on this one @brett. Picking splinters out my arse.
I want it all. I want the old steel replica of my grandfathers race bike. I want the MtB like the Kona pictured and my Fuji SST is the best thing Ive ridden to date. But what if the new Fuji SL was better again ?
They’ve got us by the short and curly’s. I want to be free but im also a pack animal.
I assume that’s why I love Rapha and its contrived history ( one saving grace is the gear is actually really good ), why do I love it, it’s because Mr Mottram said I would.
@PeakInTwoYears
Huh ??? You need hydraulic discs for that. Cheers
Also folks, modern society’s gonna bring us a cure for cancer and cold fusion.
But I’ll settle for carbon fiber and one more gear. Electronically actuated with consistent precision preferably. But not on my mtn bike because I’ve replaced enough rear derailleurs from trail mishaps to know that’d be an expensive component to regularly replace.
@wilburrox
Excuse me, I was doing philosophy.
@Matt
Someone has a good sense of humor along with some cool artistic skills. Good fun.
@PeakInTwoYears I know, I just was having fun keeping with the sentiment… but seriously, I’ve raced down long, steep, freezing descents on shitty, muddy, gravel roads and was thankful for hydraulic discs. Very.
@wilburrox
Yes, of course. The VMH has disc on her gravel bike. I do not.
Yet.
@minion
It is sort of interesting to watch the enthusiasm with which mountain bikers embrace each and every innovation to come down the pipe, compared with the reticence that informs the view of roadies regarding such matters. Remember how quickly disc brakes appeared on mountain frames? It was damn near overnight. I’m not saying one is inherently better than the other. OK, I am. There’s no effing difference between 26 and 27.5, or 27.5 and 29 for example. But I am also saying that it’s an interesting set of observations, from the roadie’s perspective.
@PeakInTwoYears
Should take up welding. Or something suitably apolitical for this page ;)
I was reading this article on Pez yesterday & recognised a few of the sentiments, not dissimilar to what Brett’s riffing on regarding the “need” for new tech.
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/features/lees-lowdown-tech-trouble/#.VkQBsvmqrpI
From a personal perspective, after the R3 got totalled & replaced with a new R5, I was unwittingly upgraded from Ultegra 10sp to DA 11sp. 5 months in & I’m not sure I’ve had more than a handful of rides where I’ve felt it’s correctly adjusted & adhering to the Principle of Silence adequately, the margins for error are so small that over adjusting is way too easy. Whilst I love the 52/36 combo up front, I can’t say I’m noticing any difference between having 10 & 11 gears to play with down back…
This is what I’ll be riding when I head back to Aus in a couple of weeks for a visit…
Along with a Ken Evans, my dad picked it up for $10. Super Record. Wheels were from a roadside rubbish throw out, and he picked these up the other day… free.
Awesome text.
It’s always good to know that somebody somewhere have the same thoughts I have.
Cheers from Brazil.
@Owen
You’re wrong there I’m afraid. By that logic there’s no difference between 26 and 29.
Anyway, stop talking about bikes, this is supposed to be about being brainwashed by the NWO, and you’re all proving my point!
@brett
Note that I very carefully did not say there wasn’t a difference between 26 and 29.
Critical thinking about why we need all these upgrades is brainwashing these days? What’s in the water down there? I mean beyond the normal every wild animal that wants to kill you when you go outside.
Yep there’s 25mm difference between the etro of 26 and 650, and 38mm from 650 to 29. so very indistinct between 26 and 650, and a ton between 650 and 29.
With the reporting on threaded bbs for bb30 cranks, there seems to be a lot of blowback from journos against the “better, lighter stiffer wider” press fit standards.
@brett
$10- “tell em they’re dreamin”
Can your dad find some more stuff like that.
Ill pay him tuesday
@brett
That looks hawt, but I think you’ll want to add some tires on there before putting it on the road.
(Kidding aside … awesome.)
Dead on with the original text, too.
A microcosm of this sentiment – I noticed on the weekend that my carbon seatpost was cracked. Lucky it hadn’t broken. I shopped around a bit and had several terminal heart attacks at the price.
While my bike was with my friendly local mech he mentioned he had a basic alloy seatpost which would fit, and add a tremendous 50g of weight to my bike. I can’t feel any difference in the ride and it cost me £14.
But the most important thing is, instead of shopping around for a replacement part I was able to ride my bike again immediately. It’s about riding the bike, not about…stuff.
Fantastic piece, Brett. Cheers.
I wonder sometimes if it’s a recent development or whether it’s always been the case – but humanity does seem to have decided that good ol’ Descartes had it wrong after all. Never mind “I think, therefore I am”; the new adage must be “I consume, therefore I am”.
It’s been mentioned before in these hallowed halls, that the point can be illustrated by browsing the absolutely stunning bikes that are on offer on eBay and the like, often in mint condition (read: hardly ever used at all) and sometimes going for a fraction of the price they cost as new (2, 5, or even 30 years ago.) They were magnificent machines then, and one must marvel at the talent of marketing departments, who almost manage to convince us that they have somehow become inferior (or at least: less desirable) today.
Fuck, that MBK is cool.
Awesome Brett and…. Hardenthefuckup modern society!, and me too…’_’
@RobSandy
This. Absolutely. 50 grams, FFS. In all honesty, I’m convinced that I could make my personal bicyle-rider combo a full three kilograms lighter in a matter of weeks, if I wanted to. I’d know exactly where to start, and it wouldn’t be a matter of buying MORE of anything. It would be a matter of consuming LESS. Less beer, wine, bacon, cheese and whatnot… Sigh.
The one argument that could be made, perhaps (and some probably will), is that a good carbon seat post might have added a slightly higher degree of flex or springiness – and hence, comfort – to your ride than alloy?
As for the final line in your post: Feckin’ Spot-on, Bevan.
@cognition
And switching out the saddle too. Mind you, there’s enough rubber on that sucker to make a whole bunch of tires.
Why do I never find stuff like that? Damn stingy buggers around here.
@Sparty
That is great!
@brett
That is an utterly badass machine. Tires are for pu$$ies. Enjoy your trip.
Wow, and here I was thinking I was the biggest cynic ’round here. Strong work, Brett! I’ve long hoped/worked to make the world a better place, but I’ve hit my mid 30s and I’ve accepted that it’s hopeless. Too many humans are narcissistic, greedy, selfish bastards. And the problem is that cycling brings me in contact with these people on a daily basis, meaning the cagers who drive lawlessly and while monkeying with their damn phones.
I see two things as huge culprits of making the world shittier: smartphones and the NFL. Phones have made people so fucking distracted, rude, and bored with actually living and experiencing life. The NFL is the new religion in America. Weekend after weekend bored, distracted folks waste hours and hours watching a slow, boring game where every play is overanalyzed and over-reviewed. The players are all doping, but no one wants to talk about it. The shit they eat to get to 350 pounds leads to terrible environmental and animal abuse. Forget the first openly gay football player, I want to see the first openly vegan! And then you have 80,000 idiots tailgating and drinking all day and driving home in 30 cities across the country every weekend.
I won’t even get started on the fact that it’s the modern day plantation. Almost all black players, and almost all white coaches, owners, athletic directors (college is worse than pros with almost no black coaches), officials. And let’s not overlook the serious brain trauma. And how many of our best universities have 110 doped up, aggressive, non student-athletes prowling the campuses. Having played a non-revenue DI sport on a scholarship, men’s bball and football fucking disgust me. Absolutely NO BUSINESS being “amateur” sports housed on uni campuses. But, they are a business and make folks $.
Anyway, I’ve sadly just decided to accept it. I try to tune out the outside world as much as possible and just go about my life and try to ignore all the alarming bullshit going on. I even wanted to be a teacher/educator for my career. Sadly, the pay is terrible. Children now run the show and any sort of discipline can get you in HUGE trouble. And why would a kid want to remember or learn anything when their phone can answer it? I’ve taught at the university level and it’s not teaching any longer, it’s trying to get students to not play with their phones for 50 minutes. Or, not look at porn. No thanks.
And YES that MBK is very cool.
Oh, and as someone who hasn’t owned or watched television in around a decade, WOW, the programming and the advertisements…alarming. No wonder we’re all fucked. The really odd thing is that my mother, who watches a bit, knows all these “celebrities” that I’ve never even heard of. Weird.
When I visit my parents I’ll get excited to watch some t.v. as an indulgence. 200 channels and the only thing I can find to watch is ice hockey or Premier League futbol. And I’ve even been deprived of flipping channels, which used to be fun. Now every damn t.v. has a box and the preview info so it takes too damn long to flip around.
@Mikael Liddy
Ha, I had read that article already. I can’t believe how many things he had go wrong on one ride! Insane.
I’m holding on to 10-s because I can swap wheels between the Campa 10-s bikes and also switch them on the Shimano/SRAM 10-s bikes.
And one crazy thing I recently discovered: my Shimano 10-s rear wheel works just fine with my Campa 10-s drivetrain. Didn’t that that was supposed to happen.
@Ron
Genius. Random, but genius.
@tmgrasso
Yes, tires are way overrated.
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-aaron-gwins-flat-tire-flyer-world-cup-2014.html
@RobSandy
Yes, those and all those friggin TV shows where “Dad” is a overweight fucktard that cant get dressed in the morning without help or a wisecrack being thrown at him.
Then in the real world when guys do not play “dopey dad” and put on their “harden the fuck up pants” in the morning and bruise some tender egos they are labeled “asshole”…fine
“Men build thing, then we die…it’s in our fucking DNA; that’s what we do”
Rocco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STKxgBy11Z0
Barracuda – “contrived” and “Rapha” are a marriage made in the advert department. That is the word that pops into my mind every time I see something from them.
Rob – I played football in high school. I watched for most of my life. However, I’ve lately really found the entire corporate sport to be highly disturbing. Give me 3+ hours and I can think of 15 things I’d rather do than sit on a couch and drink lite beer. We had small-time football and my university. Being around them in the athletics facility, I knew a lot of what went on. The fact that those dudes got away with baaaaad stuff only makes me absolutely horrified and disgusted about what goes on at the football factories like Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon, etc. Seriously…I think it will be a big damn deal when some NFL player announces he doesn’t eat mega-farm produced meat. You heard it here first. I’m waiting for some hip college team of say tennis or cross country runners to come along and decide to only eat food the produce or buy directly from a local farmer. I have nightmares thinking about the barrels of oil needed to produce all the beef that NFL players consume. I read and write a lot about food and food issues, and as a life-long athlete, have always been interested in “diet”. Oh, and I’ve made a living in the past cooking at restaurants. And teaching children’s cooking classes. I also firmly believe the two plagues of the 21st century will be obesity and narcissism.
On a lighter note…I would not have my awesome Columbus Genius tubed Casati Laser if it were not for the original owner finding himself convinced that he needed a carbon bike. Yeehaw. I rode my carbon LOOK to work yesterday, rode the Casati today. As much as I love racin’ around on feather light carbon, the fit and feel of my Casati is unmatched. If I ever go full-on Bretto (meaning truly give the finger to consumerism) and decide to downsize, I could easily keep only the Casati out of my herd and be a happy fella.
Outside of cycling, I seriously don’t buy anything except food and Recovery Drinks. I buy soccer cleats every few years, when they wear out. I buy a few nice shirts, sweaters, pants maybe every five years. I buy used records once and awhile. I get hand-me-down New Yorkers and books from a pal who is a voracious reader. My monthly credit card statement is: LBS, fleabay (bike parts, records), grocery store, bottle shop.
You’re forgetting the most important rule of them all. Bill’s rule.
@Ron
Really, a “fucktard” what is that ? I know you on the far side of the pond have great difficulty with the English language, ie speaking it and being understood, but that word stretches way beyond that.
Not only is it somehow offensive but, it does not really exist,is neither descriptive nor imaginative and renders the opinions of anyone who who would choose to use it null and void.
Grow up and consider those of us who read your foul utterings………..
?
@brett
Someone forgot to put a chainring on that bike!