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Note:
If you would like to write an article for extreme biking please feel free to do so and send it into extremebiking@gotmail.com
The Cost of Quality
Have you ever thought about the bike products you buy?
Look at the price of most cycling products and think, “wow these prices are just outrageous”. Where do these bike companies think all are money comes from?
To be honest I feel they could have lower prices but instead all the money goes into marketing and selling the products. If these bike companies where to simply cut some adverting costs and fancy extras that aren’t needed they would be able to keep costs much lower. For example take a look at Rock Shox, on their new fork “Duke” is pressed into the metal frame of the fork. Now would it not be much easier to add a decal instead to save costs and pass it onto the consumer? There is a reason they do this, many people take one look and go wow look at this I want it. My suggestion is to avoid marketing gimmicks. Personally I stick to simple tried tested and true designs that work yet I am still open to new products and ideas. Flash and glamour don’t influence my decisions and I hope they don’t influence yours. I have started an online bike store because existing stores charge too much and I hope to save the consumer at least a few dollars. So next time you look at buying a new product make sure you’re buying it based on quality and not on flash and gimmicks, happy shopping.
Cheers,
Jeremy Stewart
Owner of Rip Alert Cycle
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What Happened?
About 5 years ago I was sitting at the top of Sex Boy on my fully rigid cannondale XC bike. I was about to drop in down that scary entrance (well, it was to me then...) when another group of riders came burning down around the corner on the road. Then an amazing thing happened. They stopped. They asked 'What's Up?', 'Have a good ride up?', 'Awesome weather lately, eh?'. Actual conversation was started between strangers, simply because we were both groups of mountain bikers. And this wasn't uncommon. At the very least, I'd always give a nod, smile and a wave to bikers who were heading up Cypress Bowl Road as I was going down. If I was going to pass a group of riders going up (more likely, the other way around), I'd match their speed for a while and have a friendly conversation. I still do.
But I've been noticing that lately, fewer and fewer people are interested in talking to me. And I don't think its entirely because I stopped putting deodorant on before riding. I've noticed there's not that distinct sense of camaraderie anymore. I'm no social psychologist, but I'm betting it has something to do with the number of riders. North Shore bikers used to be a rare breed of sorts, and so there was that feeling that comes with any small group, like you all had something in common. But maybe now mountain bikers are such a diverse group that no one sees another mountain biker as having something in common with them? With so many different riding styles, I wouldn't be surprised if that was it. I notice more and more bike envy going on. People size up each other’s rides before saying a word. "Hello? I'm up here, no matter how long you stare at my bike, it's not going to initiate any sort of social contact with you..."
But that's probably just a part of it. I think the main thing is that a lot of the new riders are getting into biking because of the extreme sport hype around it. Just like snowboarding about 8 years back. They come into the sport wanting to prove something, or trying to be like the pros in the videos, so to them, the whole sport is a competition, trying to be better than the next guy. Which is good, in that it pushes people to stretch their limits and improve way faster than they otherwise would. I've seen the whole thing before with the free skiing boom in the last few years. But really--if you're going to treat this like a competition, at least be a good sport about it. I've been riding around with Danger and a group of kids will come up and see him, and be in absolute shock. They don't know what to say, because its 'that guy from all the videos who I worship'. To the average free rider, Dan or Wade or (Insert Big Name Pro Here) has gone beyond 'a really cool, nice guy who happens to be a wicked rider' to 'all-out idol'. Its cool to respect someone and want to meet someone because of their mad skills, but idolize them? Do you ride to get better at riding and be like a pro biker, or do you ride to have fun? And do you have to be able to do what Joe Pro biker can do to have fun?
If people associate being one of the best riders with having fun while biking, I think they better rethink things. By all means, push yourself to do bigger, skinnier, sketchier, higher, more tech stuff, but stop making your mountain biking life revolve around gauging your abilities to others. Have some fun. And going back to my original topic, stop treating the whole thing like a competition, and for Christ’s sake say 'Hi' to me when I talk to you!!
Well, that's my first rant here. I'd love to hear what your guys' take is on this. Peace!
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