Lamenting the passing of Biking Bernie
Yellow Peril
Posts: 4,466
It was with a heavy heart that I discovered that Lance Armstrong's greatest nemesis, Biking Bernie, had passed from the forum.
His tragic demise comes just a couple of years on from that of his twin brother, Aurelio, who infamously died on the slopes of an Armstrong topic and whose last words thought to be uttered were "put me back on the thread".
Very few agreed with BB's style of posting, most clashed keyboards with him at some point but he was always there to give and take abuse and post reams of stuff, some of which may have been relevant and may have been interesting.
The forum's loss is Lance Armstrong's gain. He will certainly "be liking them apples tonight"
RIP BB
His tragic demise comes just a couple of years on from that of his twin brother, Aurelio, who infamously died on the slopes of an Armstrong topic and whose last words thought to be uttered were "put me back on the thread".
Very few agreed with BB's style of posting, most clashed keyboards with him at some point but he was always there to give and take abuse and post reams of stuff, some of which may have been relevant and may have been interesting.
The forum's loss is Lance Armstrong's gain. He will certainly "be liking them apples tonight"
RIP BB
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I did what the internet would call a 'lol'.
- @ddraver
Bernie
Dennisn (his wierdest creation)
...is contador a doper?
Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
It depends what you think this thread is about?
He's not dead, if that's what you're thinking. He has, on the other hand, been banned by a mod (not Rick)
DennisN was/is special.
Quality
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells
If so, watch out Timoid (and others)!
I think there will be a lack of informed opinion from herein on, at least wrt LA.
It's incalculable what effect he must have had on the great debate beyond these forums upon Armstrong's veracity and moral-compass, but taking into account the knock-on effect I'd guess it was quite a lot.
Despite some trite explanations - and a protestation - am at a loss as to why he so so unceremoniously ejected.
"Am off to bed now. I may be some time"
There's a hole in your logic
You who know all the answers
You claim science ain’t magic
And expect me to buy it
Goodbye Mr B
You promised you would love us
But you knew too much
Goodbye Mr B
You had all the answers
But no human touch
If life is subtraction
Your number is up
Your love is a fraction
It's not adding up
Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh…
So busy showing me where I’m wrong
You forgot to switch your feelings on
Oh-Oh-Oh
So so superior, are you not
You love a little bit but you forgot
Goodbye Mr B
You promised you would love us
But you knew too much
Goodbye Mr B
You had all the answers
But no human touch
If life is subtraction
Your number is up
Your love is a fraction
It's not adding up
Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh…
Goodbye Mr B
The world was full of wonder till you opened my eyes
Goodbye Mr B
Wish you hadn't blown my mind and killed the surprise
Goodbye Mr B
You promised you would love us but you knew too much
Goodbye Mr B
You had all the answers
But no human touch
If life is subtraction
Your number is up
Your love is a fraction
It's not adding up
(Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh)
EDIT: I should perhaps add that, infuriating as I find BB a lot of the time, his posts do actually contribute a lot, and as a general principle the banstick is something that shouldn't get overused.
Perhaps his admission the other day that he was actually wrong about something just upset the natural order of things a little bit too much
Also,Is the role of a moderater compatable with someone who has an opinion on nearly everything thats posted on pro race?
Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Mark Donovan, Simon Carr, Pavel Sivakov, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Benoit Cosnefroy, Romain Bardet
He always reminded me of this character (with the pony tail from about 1:15) from Good Will Hunting. Someone who could regurgitate lots of other people's ideas at will to pass himself off as a thinker, but has no original thoughts of his own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymsHLkB8u3s
I suppose that makes you Matt Damon? All-around genius?
That big race better start -- people have really lost the plot of a bike race forum.
For the record hope he will be let back on, or he finds his way back like when Aurelio got banned
I've got confidence in the Mods on this forum and like their enthusiasm and contribution (despite their obsession with Belgian flooring products)
Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
It's not so much what you say, but how you say it. that simple fact seemed to go way over BBs head most of time.
I'm sure the extreme importance of the cause he championed will mean he is forced to return at some future point. This is inevitable.
Can he return without being immediately identified? I doubt this and would suggest a sweepstake is run on how many posts it takes before he shows his true self! I think 7 (the number sits well with me).
BB, having my personal e-mail address and now being unable to post, has asked me to forward the following.
Fellow 'forum type people'.
Thanks for the words of support (from some!) but I somehow doubt that Bernie / Aurelio will be permitted back on this forum, and perhaps that is for the best. Whatever the real reason for me being banned, I think that 'abuse of other forum members' is hardly the true reason, and I have certainly received far more abuse than I have ever handed out. Perhaps it was simply because I asked if the moderator's guidelines could be made public. This seems to be such an inflammatory thing to do that my request (over in the office section) was deleted: never question autocratic power! (And whether this was the work of Nick C, or another admin, or whether Nick C sent a PM asking that I be banned because he didn't have the balls to put his name to the action is neither here nor there.)
It could be that someone took exception to my pointing out some of the inconsistencies in the reason given for believing that 'Wiggo' and Sky are clean. As someone has pointed out, if Wiggo goes well this year this forum can expect lots of new posters and the 'powers that be' might well not want another 'Armstrong is doped / no he isn't' debate to rage and so spoil all the good feeling, which is fair enough. Not that I was planning on provoking such a debate anyhow!
I think that it was a similar situation, but in relation to Armstrong, that led 'Aurelio' to be banned by Jeff Jones. The 'official' reason give was that I referred to the abusive 'jackhammer' as 'jacking off thinking of Lance'. Hardly enough to justify a permanent ban one might have thought, especially given the much harsher abuse that both I and others have been subject to, but back then my insistence on highlighting all the evidence that showed Armstrong was a doper was not always welcome. In fact, I even got a PM from the editor of a 'well known cycling publication' asking me to take it easy on the criticism of Armstrong and the racing press for failing to be more critical of Armstrong, promising that they were 'working on' a big investigative piece. This never did materialize!
I see that some have not been slow to start to rewrite history, accusing me of many things that simply do not stand up to scrutiny. I feel that countering these would be rather a waste of time, in that if people want to believe nonsense, they will, so I won't bother.
I also note that others have suggested that I have Asperger's syndrome and that I 'need to get out more'. Well, ironically perhaps, whilst I do not have Asperger's syndrome (as far as I know) I do have to spend a lot of time indoors caring for my little boy who has speech, learning and behavioural problems and will shortly be assessed for possible autism. My posting on here has often been a break and much-needed intellectual stimulus from my everyday challenges, which are made no easier by living in a country where everything has to be conducted in what is, to a significant extent, still a foreign language to me. Of course, as people might have guessed, I also enjoy the stimulus of a bloody good argument! The main reason that I ended up arguing about bike racing is because, lets face it, it is all pretty much an irrelevance. Getting into debates about more serious issues such as politics or what is laughingly called 'road safety' is far too depressing and only acts to further undermine my already fairly pessimistic view of 'human nature'.
Anyhow, enjoy the Tour and don't ban TheYorkshireMan, who in any case has only a passing interest in this section of the forum. I have perhaps said too much about myself here and may decide to ask him to delete it!
BB.
good luck with the boy.
Ave calves bannees, ave calves.
Strava is not Zen.
to BB's:
Does this make Rick ?:
I had one of them red bikes but I don't any more. Sad face.
@ratsbey
Best of luck with your son Bernie.
- @ddraver
I thought as it's a cycling forum then we can have inconsistent banning rules on this also.
Jerry
"You can't ride the Tour de France on mineral water."
-Jacques Anquetil