Stories from Bike Snob NYC
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Dubious Innovations: The "Curation" Is Worse Than the Disease
Bike Snob NYC &bull Jul 22, 2010
Yesterday's post, in which I pointed out that a pair of Garmin-Slipstream team bikes were being auctioned on eBay, has apparently caused quite a bit of controversy on the other side of the "Hotlantic Ocean"--particularly in France, where some sort of big bike race is taking place. Indeed, a reader informs me that team director Jonathan Vaughters was barraged with questions during the rest day in Pau. The New Yorker magazine cover model Eustace Tilley (illustrated),… Full Story »
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Parroting: Continual Conversations with the Road
Bike Snob NYC &bull Jul 15, 2010
With "Bike Month" having long since dropped back to the "autobus" of memory, it's been quite some time since a mainstream newspaper has published an article about "cycle chic." This is of course a matter of some concern, since consuming this sort of easily-excreted intellectual roughage is essential for maintaining mental regularity. As an introverted lurker and surreptitious photographer myself, I find it tremendously inspirational that Colville-Andersen has parlayed into a global movement the act of skulking around his hometown and taking pictures of women in short skirts for his blog. Indeed, thanks to Colville-Andersen's groundbreaking work in the… Full Story »
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Throwing Down Your Arms: A Time and Place for Everything
Bike Snob NYC &bull Jul 14, 2010
While Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador have emerged as the two riders most likely stand atop the podium in Paris clad in the coveted jaundiced chemise, this year's Tour de France has proven to be a difficult one for the over-30 set. First, Christian Vande Velde had his customary first-week crash and subsequent abandon (or "crabandon;"); next, Lance Armstrong had the most crash-tastic Tour stage of his career; then, yesterday on the Col de la Madeleine, Cadel Evans lost his yellow jersey as well as his own chances for… Full Story »
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Appealing Package: What's New Is Old Again
Bike Snob NYC &bull Jul 13, 2010
One of the most dangerous aspects of cycling (apart from the ever-present risk of death) is the tendency many of us have to think that we "know it all." While time and experience make all of us better cyclists, if unchecked they also can conspire to transform us into insufferable pedants--serial retrogrouches and Aber-curmudgeons who automatically dismiss the strange and unfamiliar as "myth and lore," or "fiddle faddle," or "balderdash," or any other crotchety term of derision to which the cantankerous and ornery are inclined. In an attempt to thwart the onset of this condition in myself (I recently caught… Full Story »
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BSNYC Friday Lumberjack Competition!
Bike Snob NYC &bull Jul 9, 2010
As you're no doubt tired of hearing by now, a few weeks back I embarked upon a series of BRAs (or "Book-Related Appearances") in order to flog my book, the lazily-titled "Bike Snob," like it was a recalcitrant mule and… Full Story »
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Topics:
- bicycle
- Credit Agricole
- ride
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BNYSC Friday Fun Quiz!
Bike Snob NYC &bull Jul 2, 2010
Most people would probably agree that the word "epic" is overused, not only by cyclists but by the popular culture in general. However, when it comes to cycling, one might argue that some rides do warrant the appellation. WEST SIDE HWY BIKEPATH. "FIRE" SEEKS "ICE"… Full Story »
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The Indignity of Commuting by Bicycle: Same Attitude, Different Infrastructure
Bike Snob NYC &bull Jul 1, 2010
With the Tour de France nigh ("nigh" is pretentious for "near"), I'm pleased to announce that I will be rendering ("rendering" is Curating 2.0) a Tour de France-themed blog on the Universal Sports website. As with my Universal Giro d'Italia blog, I will endeavor to bring the sort of insight you can only get from somebody who's watching the action on TV, meaning that by the time you read my blog you will be at least twice removed from the actual race. Still, I would not want my objectivity and impartiality to be tainted by proximity to the proceedings, which… Full Story »
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Groping for Answers: Crooked Letters and Lopsided Reasoning
Bike Snob NYC &bull Jun 29, 2010
Way back on the Dachshund of Time, we encouraged our children to be silent and obedient. And by "encouraged" I mean "beat with sticks." Eventually, though, silence gave way to inquisitiveness, and obedience to precocity. Incessant questions were no longer discouraged as a form of impugnity; instead, they were encouraged as a sign of intelligence. To a certain extent, this was a good thing, for an answer is certainly more edifying to a child than a slap in the face. However, as with most indulgences, things went too far, and our… Full Story »
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Manufacturers to Riders: Go Sponsor Yourself
Bike Snob NYC &bull Jun 28, 2010
As humans, we all possess the innate ability to delude ourselves. This self-delusion is necessary to get through life, for the reality of our universal insignificance untempered by the illusion of importance would cause most of us to realize that effort of any sort in the face of our frivolity is completely absurd. What really is the point of, say, going to work, or cleaning the bathroom, or fastidiously grooming one's pubic hair, when eventually we will all meet the same end and be consigned to the grave like so much mulch? Indeed, without self-delusion we'd all be like Bartleby… Full Story »
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Flights of Fancy: The Art of Unsimplification
Bike Snob NYC &bull Jun 23, 2010
One of the best parts of doing a BRA tour is having the opportunity to ride a bicycle in various cities, and one of the worst parts is flying with your bicycle in order to do so. Traveling with a bike is especially vexing when your relatively shallow "stable" does not contain a bicycle that is specially designed to be broken down so that it can fit into a "standard"-sized suitcase, and mine is such a stable. By the way, Bicycling is the same magazine that ranked Portland the second-best cycling city in America, so in their universe you can… Full Story »
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Topics:
- bicycle
- cog
- cyclocross
- ride
- USE
