Is bicycling on the same downward spiral as hotrodding?

It could be that bikes have become so plug-and-play that there
is not a lot to talk about anymore. *Who knows. *

Longime horodders know.

Are you familiar with what has become known as the "Graying of
Hotrodding", the phenomenon that the builder (more often buyer or at
best commissioner) of a new hotrod has an average age well into the
sixties? I forecast this almost twenty years ago, and pointed out that
the hotrodding, which had once been a form of highly innovative blue-
collar art, had become a plug and play exercise for the rich, endless
minor variations distinguishable from each other only with the aid of
a hair-thickness meter of inordinate sensitivity. I further pointed
out that the NRHA was responsible, through its extraordinarily
restrictive regulations and its hypocritical breach of them for
favourite sons. I was nearly lynched. Nothing was done, of course, and
now the situation is so much worse than back then.

But I shouldn't be too hypocritical about it. Though I am perfectly
capable of designing a bike myself, as we know I failed to get it
built because the bicycle solder-sniffers too have stultified, sinking
into endless repetitions of the same bike ever more garishly painted
to differentiate it, or deserted to wooden or carbon bikes. At least
the German baukast system allowed me to get a good bike pretty near to
what I wanted, by a simple system of plug and play which substitutes
money and time to work through the parts lists for individual
innovation and initiative. Without the plug and play system I might
have ended up with shank's mare instead of a bike. That would have
been no one's gain.

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Bicycles at
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20CYCLING.html

In article
,
Andre Jute wrote:

It could be that bikes have become so plug-and-play that there
is not a lot to talk about anymore. Â*Who knows. Â*

Longime horodders know.

Are you familiar with what has become known as the "Graying of
Hotrodding", the phenomenon that the builder (more often buyer or at
best commissioner) of a new hotrod has an average age well into the
sixties? I forecast this almost twenty years ago, and pointed out that
the hotrodding, which had once been a form of highly innovative blue-
collar art, had become a plug and play exercise for the rich, endless
minor variations distinguishable from each other only with the aid of
a hair-thickness meter of inordinate sensitivity. I further pointed
out that the NRHA was responsible, through its extraordinarily
restrictive regulations and its hypocritical breach of them for
favourite sons. I was nearly lynched. Nothing was done, of course, and
now the situation is so much worse than back then.

But I shouldn't be too hypocritical about it. Though I am perfectly
capable of designing a bike myself, as we know I failed to get it
built because the bicycle solder-sniffers too have stultified, sinking
into endless repetitions of the same bike ever more garishly painted
to differentiate it, or deserted to wooden or carbon bikes. At least
the German baukast system allowed me to get a good bike pretty near to
what I wanted, by a simple system of plug and play which substitutes
money and time to work through the parts lists for individual
innovation and initiative. Without the plug and play system I might
have ended up with shank's mare instead of a bike. That would have
been no one's gain.

How you specify in minute detail your goal for a bicycle
differs from the NHRA or from any other bicycle enthusiast
in exactly one parameter: it is yours.

--
Michael Press