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Remember VanMoof? I thought they were bankrupt, but apparently they’ve got some sort of futuristic space bike coming out:
Meanwhile, the company’s co-founders have designed a new bike for Raleigh:
Only in the Netherlands in the media staking out the houses of bike designers for spy shots:
Various prototypes of the brand-less e-bike have been spotted in and around the city over the last year — sometimes nearby the home of one of the brothers. The prototypes match images of a Raleigh-branded e-bike that recently leaked. Those images were inadvertently made public (and later removed) by Amsterdam-based Uni_verse Studio, the digital production house that lists VanMoof as a client.
The VanMoof’s level top tube notwithstanding, clearly the bar for celebrity is very low over there (get it?) in the Low Countries. Then again, who could resist the charismatic allure of the Carlier brothers, who are renowned all over Benelux as the Mongolfier brothers of the e-bike?
By the way, is Taco a common name over there?
I had the Taco Ties at TGI Fridays once, they were fantastic and I highly recommend.
[The AI’s best shot at “A food special at TGI Friday’s restaurant called ‘Taco Ties.’” Not bad, though I was thinking more a hard taco in the shape of a pretzel somehow…not that I know how that would work, but I bet the food geniuses at TGI Fridays could pull it off. Also, the apostrophe in TGI Fridays was completely my fault.]
Elsewhere in the media, I read this story by an Austin race promoter with moderate-to-high interest:
The bit about racers pestering him for race results really resonated with me because I know from personal experience that amateur bike racers–especially the lousy low-category ones–are absolutely awful about that and need to know that they got 26th place in the Cat 4 field immediately. (I would like to state for the record that I was never one of these riders and that I always knew that I sucked, so the last thing I wanted or needed was my numerical placing to confirm that.) But then the story takes an unexpected turn:
One week after George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was murdered by police in Minneapolis, a cycling website called the Radavist published an op-ed titled, Bike Racing, White Privilege and the Coronavirus. The article accurately assessed the inequity and structural racism that’s inherent in amateur bike racing, and scrutinized my decision to put on mass-start events as the virus disproportionately ravaged marginalized communities.
Oddly he seems chastened and grateful, even though he received death threats as a result:
With the world seemingly in flames, I began receiving dozens of death threats online. People wrote that they hoped me and my family got COVID and died. My daughter, who was a teenager, saw some of the comments on social media and became upset. Our sponsors got tagged in many of the negative posts and comments, and it wasn’t long before Life Time discontinued its sponsorship. Eventually, Kelley and I decided to end the mini-series early.
Here’s a quote from that Desert Hipster story by the way.
People of color are dying, they don’t have health insurance, they don’t have a safety net and this is a direct result of years of oppression caused by structural inequality ingrained in our society. Most cyclists directly benefit from structural inequality and it is the same tool being used against people of color. Will you personally be contributing to that oppression if you choose to participate in a luxury optional event where you unnecessarily expose yourself to hundreds of possible carriers of Covid 19? YES.
Yikes.
I’m sure I’m not supposed to talk abut this, but to me “white privilege” looks less like participating in a bicycle race and more like Lucas Brunelle lecturing a black police officer after getting stopped for running a light:
By the way, the above image is not the AI’s take on “white privilege,” but it might as well be.
Finally, in more bike media news, Path Less Pedaled Guy blows the lid off “The Best Shimano Drivetrain No One Talks About:”
And here it is:
REALLY, NOBODY TALKS ABOUT IT???
What am I, liver that has been chopped!?!
Look, I don’t mean to get indignant here, but when it comes to mouthing off on the Internet I did everything first. EVERYTHING. Not only did I invent making fun of fixies, but I was also complaining about gravel bikes since at least 2013:
It was true then, and it’s true now:
Except that $129 Nashbar frame, pretty sure that isn’t a thing anymore.
Those were the days…
