I shot this photo a while ago, I think it was the end of august. It's been floating around my hard drive for quite some time now. This guy came into the shop one day, when I was hanging out and working on bike (that's mine in the foreground mid wash). Anyways he had a triathlon race the next morning up in New Port Beach CA. He came into the shop because he was having trouble inflating his supper deep section Zip 808 wheels. Some garbage about the valve stem extenders not working. If your going to ride those wheels and drive that car then for the love of god just order than damn tubes with supper long valves. They are like only $8 wholesale anyways. So somewhere in the middle of my friend trying to help him and him starring back discontentedly I realize, holy shit he brought in his whole bike, just to get work done on the front wheel! Then as he was leaving I observed him awkwardly struggling to load his bike inside of his enormously over priced SUV. When I saw this happening I realized it the was the exact visualization of a classic, and one of my all time favorite BSNYC Posts. So this one's for you snob, I hope your somewhere laughing:
-caption from post-
"I’m not a communist and I’m not Amish. Some people have money and they want nice cars. Fine. And sometimes you need to transport your bike someplace, like a race or a far-off group ride. Okay. But what I cannot stand is when I see a brand-new Mercedes or BMW pull up at the start, and the driver proceeds to wrestle his $7,000 Colnago out from the back seat. I mean come on! You’ve got the money, get a goddamn rack! The only explanation I can possibly come up with for this behavior is that there’s a spouse at home who does not want the statusmobile marred by unsightly load bars and fairings. Well, you know what? If you’ve reached a point in your life where you’re successful enough to afford all this stuff, yet you can’t put your foot down and give cycling the pride-of-place in your life that it deserves, then hand over that shiny piece of Euro-plastic. Or at least get one of those stupid removable trunk racks. Is a leather seat riddled with chainring holes somehow preferable to a Thule?
And don’t tell me you keep the bike in the car to save gas. If you cared you’d have bought a Civic." - BikeSnobNYC
4 comments:
He also might not have known how to take of the front wheel, seeing as how it is still attached and he could of just brought in the wheel like you said.
ya that's my theory
I guess that quick-release only works for those that are quick between the ears...
I'm still surprised when I have to change people's tires for them. I stopped and actually helped this guy with a new CAAD, a moderatly priced road bike (not Italian). He had no clue how to do it, he was riding on a flat, almost about to tear up his Mavics.
The snob post sums it up. There should be a test before you get on the road.
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