I'm calling a bicycle crash!

FocusZing

A famous rich guy in his day, exited the stock market in timely fashion after a shoeshine boy gave him
some stock tips. He figured that when the
shoeshine boys have tips, the market is too
popular for its own good, a theory also
advanced by Bernard Baruch, another vested
interest who described the scene before the big
Crash:

"Taxi drivers told you what to buy. The
shoeshine boy could give you a summary of the
day's financial news as he worked with rag and
polish. An old beggar who regularly patrolled the
street in front of my office now gave me tips
and, I suppose, spent the money I and others
gave him in the market. My cook had a
brokerage account and followed the ticker
closely. Her paper profits were quickly blown
away in the gale of 1929."


All I hear about and see is carbon bloody fan boys poncing about with all the kit. It's DANGEROUS I tell thee!

Yellow Peril

Blimey I haven't heard the name Bernard Baruch since my undergrad days on an American history module.

Quite true about the crash. Cycling as a mainstream sport in the UK will have had its day sooner or later. Success of the likes of Sky, Cav, Froome, Wiggo and the Olympic track team will keep it buoyant for longer than expected purely because it is a sport giving Brits the unusual luxury of winners.

daviesee

Cycling was all over the news.

Then Brad pulled out of the Giro.
No major reports on Cav winning the Red Jersey, or Froome winning the Dauphine.

You could have a point.

But then as far as the general public is concerned, it really is all about the Tour.

VTech

Its an expensive hobby for most, not many people in or around the price of decathlon offering a decent bike at less than an average weeks wages. Mountain bikes used to be costly on the whole but you can get a decent bike for less than £100, this is a price that means its worth having one regardless of how often you use it, the same cant be said of many road bikes.

daviesee

VTech wrote:

Its an expensive hobby for most, not many people in or around the price of decathlon offering a decent bike at less than an average weeks wages. Mountain bikes used to be costly on the whole but you can get a decent bike for less than £100, this is a price that means its worth having one regardless of how often you use it, the same cant be said of many road bikes.

Fair enough in principle but I challenge you to supply a link to a "decent" bike for less than £100.
Decent means less than 14 kgs in my book. I know many people who have spent under £250 on a bike for it to simply rust after a handful of outings as it is no fun to ride, due to the weight.

Pross

daviesee wrote:

Cycling was all over the news.

Then Brad pulled out of the Giro.
No major reports on Cav winning the Red Jersey, or Froome winning the Dauphine.

You could have a point.

But then as far as the general public is concerned, it really is all about the Tour.

Heard regular updates on Froome in the Daupine on Radio 5 and also plenty of coverage of Cav's stage wins. That said I'm looking forward to cycling going niche again!

daviesee

Pross wrote:

Heard regular updates on Froome in the Daupine on Radio 5 and also plenty of coverage of Cav's stage wins. That said I'm looking forward to cycling going niche again!

I must have been watching/listening to the wrong programmes. :oops:
Actually I watched on Eurosport but the masses don't.
I know it was there if you looked but last year Wiggins was BBC TV news stories.

ct8282

What?

(Sorry)

Lagrange

If you say 'what' then you MUST put the correct punctuation mark after it.

pinno

There are so many fairweather cyclists on the road at the moment and so many of them look like frogs on matchboxes, its bloody funny.

I hope it doesn't go 'niche' again pross because simply I think car drivers no longer assume ownership of the road as there might be a cyclist around the next corner. Here in rural back-o-beyond, country lanes can be hazardous.
Anyway, as there are more cyclists, does that mean I am statistically less likely to be hit or more likely?

If it does, the BR forum will just be vTech, ballsmate, Frankie tankie, WinTand, Cleat, yellow peril, me, you and a couple of others - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgggggggg. What an eclectic nightmare

Wardy74

The electric bikes are coming next I tell thee. Just got back from Austria and they're everywhere. Smug satisfaction as you glide past them though 8) .

verylonglegs

pinarello001 wrote:

There are so many fairweather cyclists on the road at the moment and so many of them look like frogs on matchboxes, its bloody funny.

I hope it doesn't go 'niche' again pross because simply I think car drivers no longer assume ownership of the road as there might be a cyclist around the next corner. Here in rural back-o-beyond, country lanes can be hazardous.
Anyway, as there are more cyclists, does that mean I am statistically less likely to be hit or more likely?

If it does, the BR forum will just be vTech, ballsmate, Frankie tankie, WinTand, Cleat, yellow peril, me, you and a couple of others - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgggggggg. What an eclectic nightmare

What is it with people pedalling with their legs at angles to look like that? What causes it? My mate took up cycling last year and does it but to me it looks so unnatural I can't see how you could not notice you are doing it.

hipshot

FocusZing wrote:

All I hear about and see is carbon bloody fan boys poncing about with all the kit. It's DANGEROUS I tell thee!

You don't need to go back to Bernard Baruch. The whole 1965-75 bicycle boom in the US collapsed like a blancmange too of course. By 1980 there was a 10 speed racer rusting to death in almost every garage in the country.

I wonder if Rapha and Pinarello have contingency plans?