hipster haters

[thendenjeck]

one of the more egregious examples of brainless trend following

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/177/456412286_8a3abc8903_o.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/223/456427932_8b3e8d320e_o.jpg

brazeons filed off and spray painted San Rensho

more torture here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/murot/tags/3rensho/)

[Ti Designs]

They're bikes. Bikes don't follow trends or pay attention to fashion, they just sit there until someone rides them. it's people who follow fashions and trends to make a statement about themselves, true or otherwise.

I too ride a fixed gear, does them mean I follow the trend? I have a very simple way of telling what is real and what is just following the trend. It's one simple question - would I still do this if there were nobody else around to see? My fixed gear rides are early morning in the winter when it's dark and cold, very few people ever see this. I can't really see the point in color matching the whole bike - it's dark for most of my ride...

At the risk of insulting a few people here, I have to ask this. Are cyclocross riders another form of hipster? It's really all about being seen doing it, or watching it (which I've never understood). Cross riders get all excited about local events, but when the season ends it just ends. If there's nobody else there to see it, the thrill dies away and all you're left with is one idiot on a fixed gear riding the trails in the dark.

[fiamme red]

I've never understood the point of filing off braze-ons when converting to a fixed-gear. With a bike like a 3Rensho, it's sacrilege.

[drewski]

I've never understood the point of filing off braze-ons when converting to a fixed-gear. With a bike like a 3Rensho, it's sacrilege.


Jesus take the handlebars. That is just a cruel thing to do a 3.
Positively nihilistic.


From a bike forum on how to remove braze ons. At the risk of sounding harsh: Somebody was inhaling too much paint thinner.

Ok, frame is finally stripped of all its old paint. Before I paint it, how do I go about removing the top tube braze ons? I'm also thinking of cutting off the derailleur hanger or converting it into a beer bottle opener. I don't have a Dremel tool so my dad lent me a grinder he has but it seems like overkill. He also said I could just work it off with a set of pliers or something. Plus, I'm scared I'm gonna do something stupid like accidently cutting into my top tube. <=You think?


I could always leave the braze-ons there but I really like the clean, simple look of true "track" frames. Thanks.:crap:

[bigflax925]

I too ride a fixed gear, does them mean I follow the trend? I have a very simple way of telling what is real and what is just following the trend. It's one simple question - would I still do this if there were nobody else around to see? My fixed gear rides are early morning in the winter when it's dark and cold, very few people ever see this. I can't really see the point in color matching the whole bike - it's dark for most of my ride...

+1

I ride fixed, too. Not only do I not know anyone else who does in my circles, I've never seen any other on the road/trail that I ride. Probably 80% of the cyclists I see wouldn't even know what it was, much less care or judge me for it.

[BillG]

Are cyclocross riders another form of hipster?

If you know what's good for you won't repeat this again, else no beer and waffles for you.

[rpm]

If it's a bike and it's yours, do whatever the heck you want with it. Even a Sachs or a Singer is not a Rembrandt. It's a tool to be used for enjoyment and utility. If upside down bars and fuzzy dice on it make you happy, cool. Besides, if all bikes looked like Fabian Cancellara's people on bike forums would have nothing to laugh at.

[flickwet]

Sweat'em off!
Cry about it, then find some sweet Campy cable clamps on ebay and smile again.

[djg]

At the risk of insulting a few people here, I have to ask this. Are cyclocross riders another form of hipster? It's really all about being seen doing it, or watching it (which I've never understood). Cross riders get all excited about local events, but when the season ends it just ends. If there's nobody else there to see it, the thrill dies away and all you're left with is one idiot on a fixed gear riding the trails in the dark.

Um . . . it's a form of racing. Who says it's all (or chiefly) about being seen doing it? When the season ends . . . well, sure, when the cyclocross season is over you're not doing more cyclocross races until the next season (and we might make similar observations about road racing and NBA basketball games).

Here's a quick and dirty model of revealed preference: lots of times, when you see people doing things repeatedly, it's because they like it. Not necessarily -- could be OCD or action coerced at the point of a gun -- but mostly.

BTW, I'm not insulted, because I'm entirely open to the idea that it's dumb for me to race cyclocross as I do, but while we are asking questions we "have to ask," I gotta ask (as in, feel like, or happen to be, asking), was the question posed merely "at the risk of insulting" a few people here or was it designed to do so? And which few?

[avalonracing]

I think they must have named themselves "Hipsters" (initially in a semi-ironic way I'm sure). I still like the idea that we need to make a concerted effort to take their persona from them by calling them "Dicksters" or some along those lines.

Without the fixed gear bikes they are just a bunch of pale guys in skinny jeans destroying nice bikes... And a lot of crappy bikes too... but we don't care about that.

[gdw]

I have a bunch of old Simplex, Shimano, Suntour, etc cable clamps in a box somewhere in the storage shed which are rising in value every time some kid mutilates a classic frame. :banana:

[false_Aest]

***?

They're riding bikes.

Who freaking cares?

Better it be "ugly" or whatever than it being hung in some old fat dude's garage never to be ridden.



Edit:
One of ya'll should take your bajillion dollar frame with a bajillion dollar paint job and post it on one of their forums.


Edit 2:
Also, Dude. Hipster is not the proper nomenclature. SCENESTER please!

[thendenjeck]

actually fixed gear forums are pretty pro-bazillion dollar bikes and anti- ruining beautiful old frames.

far be it from me to judge anyone for riding fixed, nor was that even remotely my point. saying hipster haters was mostly a joke about how much anti-18 yr old and anti hipster sentiment there is on this forum. I rode fixed for a long time, even got into doing the tricks for a while, and I gotta say, it was fun. I stopped doing it when it stopped being fun because it was hurting my back. also, commuting 40 miles a day on hills on a fixed gear isn't that much fun. I love my gears now, but I'll probably get a track bike again some day. I just don't understand why people have to ruin beautiful old frames.

and i'm sorry, but if someone did this to a sachs, kirk, ellis, or vanilla, i can't imagine a single person not being outraged. san rensho was that man in his day, so it drives me a little bananas to see one get done like this.

and as for CX, well, it rules, and that's that. i could give a flying rat's arse if someone thinks it's hipster. although that hipsters discussing cyclocross video is hilarious.

[false_Aest]

Eh.

Maybe I'm just tainted:

http://www.artreview.com/video/video/show?id=1474022:Video:34075


ATMO a Terraplane doesn't cease being one if it's painted rattle-can zebra and has the bosses removed with a dremel.

[benb]

At the risk of insulting a few people here, I have to ask this. Are cyclocross riders another form of hipster? It's really all about being seen doing it, or watching it (which I've never understood). Cross riders get all excited about local events, but when the season ends it just ends. If there's nobody else there to see it, the thrill dies away and all you're left with is one idiot on a fixed gear riding the trails in the dark.

Sweet! Someone said it. :banana: I actually think cross is at least as faddish as fixies if not more. Both are fun but neither is the greatest thing since sliced bread.. unless the crowd sees you doing the in thing. At least the hipsters ride their fixies all year round.

As for the bike.. it's his bike, he can do whatever he wants for it. As far as fixies go it's pretty good looking.

If you have a fetish for this particular frame builder he just made your bike more valuable.

[johnnymossville]

Eh.

Maybe I'm just tainted:

http://www.artreview.com/video/video/show?id=1474022:Video:34075


ATMO a Terraplane doesn't cease being one if it's painted rattle-can zebra and has the bosses removed with a dremel.


Best quote from that video for me was "I want it to be something I'll miss."

I don't think the guy that brazed a bike 25 years ago would worry that some guy is "Deconstructing" his masterpiece now. There might be a few frame builders out there that would, but not many. I'd be happy it was still being useful for someone.

[Ti Designs]

BTW, I'm not insulted, because I'm entirely open to the idea that it's dumb for me to race cyclocross as I do, but while we are asking questions we "have to ask," I gotta ask (as in, feel like, or happen to be, asking), was the question posed merely "at the risk of insulting" a few people here or was it designed to do so? And which few?

The point of the question was to get someone to think about it. If there were no cross events, no cow bells, no waffle hand-ups, would cross still "rule"?

[thendenjeck]

The point of the question was to get someone to think about it. If there were no cross events, no cow bells, no waffle hand-ups, would cross still "rule"?


I don't think this has much to do with cross. at least not more than it has to do with soccer, football, nascar, rugby, curling, poetry readings, church, bars, academia, concerts, tupperware parties, etc, etc, ad infinitum.

and i don't know what you're talking about. I ride my cross bike year round, as do several other fellers I know. and while we're at it, I certainly don't see any Prospect Park Crit series going on right now.

[Nooch]

I feel like the question regarding cross (and needing to be seen) more or less follows the guidelines that you don't hear of many 'cross group rides' or the like.. It's almost as if once the race season is over a cross bike is just a road bike with knobby tires that gets ridden on the road. I'm sure the person who questioned it probably doesn't think of 'cross' as anything more than the race, though I'm sure others would be happy to grab their cross bike and hit up some fast single track any other time of the year -- you just don't hear much about cross outside of the racing. (if there were dedicated cross racing fields/courses wherein one could go and practice cross 365 days a year, as there are roads to roadies, maybe the OP wouldn't have made the distinction)

when the road season ends, there are still road rides. the group still gathers at the shop on saturday mornings and they still try and hammer the hell out of themselves (even though it's december and really, let's pull back a little bit and just enjoy the scenery for once)..

For the record, I don't think cross is a scenester thing. It's a discipline like any other in cycling. Just because there are beer hand-ups in cross, and people think of hipsters/scenesters as people who ride fixies to the bar to slam some PBR and then do 'mad skidzzzz yo' all the way home, doesn't mean they're the same thing.

[Ti Designs]

I don't think this has much to do with cross. at least not more than it has to do with soccer, football, nascar, rugby, curling, poetry readings, church, bars, academia, concerts, tupperware parties, etc, etc, ad infinitum.

Oh, but it has a lot to do with all of them. They're all about crowd interaction. Fans cheer, racers ride harder. If not for this interaction, nobody would ever say "cross rules" any more than they say walking in from the parking lot rules. The fact that it takes a crowd by definition means it's following a trend.

[flickwet]

Round here Weston races cross cuz there aren't any road races, we don't prefer it although some do, well actually, I race an occasional cross I do prefer the fact that if I fall, I fall at a slower speed onto probably softer material then a road race. Also I never have to worry about getting in someone's way what with the lackadaisical pace I establish at best, and someone will likely provide me with a cold one and a hearty how d' ya do. I did notice though more of the "hipster style among some of the contestants, they didn't bite.