Best of Bike Snob

...after giving it about 19 seconds of thought, I came up with a criterion (not a criterium) for what constitutes silly recreational cycling behavior--at least for me. It's not meant to be a judgment; rather, it's my own personal way of qualifying my own opinions. Basically, my criterion for silly cycling is this:

If it's a type of riding that is already well-established, only you're using the wrong bike for it, then it's silly.

See? Simple. For example:

--Doing tricks on BMX bikes=not silly. Doing tricks on fixed-gear bikes=silly.

--Commuting on commuter bikes=not silly. Commuting on custom titanium bikes=silly.

--Riding downhill fast on bikes with brakes=not silly. Riding downhill fast on bikes with no brakes=silly.

Sure, I know what you're thinking: "Who's to say what's the 'wrong' bike? What about my rad-tastic mountain-bike-trail-on-a-cyclocross-bike 'epic,' or my compulsion to be the token singlespeeder at any competitive cycling event?" Well, rest assured I don't mean using a bike that's perhaps not optimal--I mean, we all enjoy a challenge. Still, I do think there's a point at which the bike you're using is just wrong, and one of the signs of this is when you like riding bikes downhill but your tire frequently explodes in high-speed situations, leaving you with no other means of slowing the bike

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2011/08/subjective-realities-lifestyles-of.html

So riding around town delivering parcels on an 80's lo-pro track frame with double aero-spoks = ?

http://sprfls.blogspot.com/

a good substitute for bike snob, if you're into bmxing, just a pity it seems to have been closed (no posts for months)

am I the only person that doesn't find this guy very funny? the format is a bit gimmicky, too..

A photo of Roberto made it on to yesterday's post.

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2012/03/getting-your-goat-everyone-hates-bike.html

Yes, bikes are still being stolen, but I'd like to see the city address the pesky little problem of drivers killing cyclists and getting away with it before they turn their unique brand of ineffectuality to the nuisance of bike theft.

What an idiotic premise for an article. this logic is a classic gambit used in countless hack articles complaining about something positive while offering up fuck all wit or insight.

The BikeSnob goes upbeat: http://www.bikesnobnyc.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/indignity-of-commuting-by-bicycle-its.html

I want what he's smoking

I thought this was really good:

" The fact is, disc brakes on road bikes is inevitable, since if there's one thing that Freds hate it's knowing how to work on any part of their bicycle. Instead, they prefer to have a rolling inscrutable mystery between their legs that they take in to the bike shop at regular prescribed service intervals, like a leased BMW. The bicycle industry has served them well, too. Thanks to integrated seatposts, they can no longer raise or lower their own saddles. (And even when they could they couldn't do it without paying for a professional bicycle fitting first.) Thanks to crabon wheels the tubular tire has made a resurgence, which is something no Fred knows how to glue. Thanks to electronic shifting they need a qualified technician to plug their derailleurs into a diagnostic tool like they do when their BMWs display a "check engine" light. The weak link is of course the brakes, which even the most inept Fred can still figure out how to adjust, but with the advent of disc brakes the only form of maintenance a typical Fred will be able to perform on his road bike is refilling his water bottle. "