In his latest post today,
Ian Cooper offers this"...
there is something to be said for glorifying cyclists.
Cycling does have a certain refreshing iconoclasm to it. In the US
especially, it represents a kind of
new frontier of independence and rugged individualism in a culture that
has always secretly despised all those things even as it pretends to be
defined by them..."
 |
| Sheldon Brown |
In a comment on an earlier version of
Forswearing Normal, Jim Rickman, who rides the Los Alamos trail system to work, sez "
I switched it up the other day and rode my steel road bike into work while
wearing some awesome spandex and a messenger bag to hold all my stuff.
It was fun! ...On
the way home from work, some guy in a giant Ford truck slowed way down
next to me as I stood up to ride a hill and yelled, "Nice ass! I took it as a compliment. Shake it if you got it!"
 |
| Eve DeCoursey |
I guess those comments, in a nutshell, explain a little of my ruffled feathers regarding the
LAB post the other day alluding to a posited dichotomy between cycling and "looking normal". In a nation where "normal" often means conformity (not to mention obesity and poor health), and where conformity uses more energy per capita than virtually any other nation on earth, why should a cyclist want to be seen as anything other than that the iconoclastic, energy-saving, healthier break with the past paradigm? Even without the forementioned political baggage, what's wrong with looking like a cyclist, whatever that means?
When everyday cycling
becomes normal in the U.S., we won't be wondering how to make cycling
look normal. It will be what it is:
the new normal. Without the straitjacket. The folks pictured here got past false dichotomies. Why shouldn't you?
 |
| Gail Ryba |
 |
| Bruce Rosar |
 |
| Neil Allen Smith |
 |
| Jennifer Buntz and Annette Torrez |
 |
| Jennifer Buntz |
2 comments:
Bruce rocks...
Well, did
Post a Comment