It’s 2024, and we’ve now reached the purpose the place the biking media considers buying a street bike with rim brakes so outstanding as to be newsworthy:
Wait a minute. Which tendencies is he scoffing at? Definitely not the built-in every part development, or the hidden cable development, or the plastic bike development:
I notice I’m previous and out of it, however I’ve by no means felt fairly so previous and out of it as I do at this second. Once I see a photograph like that I believe, “Wow, have a look at the futuristic crabon house bike!” In the meantime, your entire article is about how antiquated the bike is.
Additionally, on a semi-unrelated word, the biking world actually must get on the identical web page with regard to shifting terminology:
The thumb-actuated lever on a primitive Campagnolo rear mechanical shifting system strikes the chain onto a smaller cog, which is technically an upshift. Nevertheless, you’ve little doubt seen that when discussing biking folks use the phrases “upshift” and “downshift” interchangeably–which I personally discover irksome, however which is comprehensible when you think about {that a} cassette resembles a slope:
So whenever you downshift you’re transferring the chain up the slope, and whenever you upshift you’re transferring the chain down the slope, which I suppose is why folks get confused. Moreover, except you’re utilizing a RapidRise derailleur (or I suppose an digital one), the up/down sense is additional bolstered by the actual fact you’re bodily pulling the derailleur and hoisting the chain up to a bigger cog whenever you’re downshifting, and also you’re releasing it and letting it drop the chain “down” to a smaller cog when upshifting. So sure, every part concerning the act of downshifting a bicycle type of screams “up,” and vice versa.
None of that is actually a problem in automobiles, the place the transmission is hidden from view, the gears are numbered, and those you employ whenever you’re going quick have an even bigger quantity than those you employ whenever you’re going gradual. It’s additionally not an issue with bikes, the place you truly elevate the shifter up together with your foot to upshift, and down together with your foot to downshift. (Sure, you do push down together with your foot to go from impartial to first, however no matter.) So actually it’s solely with bicycles that individuals appear to confuse the idea of upshifting with the idea of downshifting.
Given this, possibly we have to change the terminology. As a curmudgeon, the concept of doing so bothers me, as I resent altering language simply to make issues simpler for individuals who refuse to grapple with uncomfortable truths. On the similar time, continuously seeing folks discuss with upshifts as downshifts and downshifts as upshifts makes me uncomfortable, and in the end it’s my very own consolation that’s most necessary. Moreover, laypeople have already solved this downside, for you’ll little doubt have seen that common people merely name the decrease gears the “simpler” gears and the upper gears the “more durable” gears. So possibly it’s so simple as that.
However that is bikes we’re speaking about, and issues aren’t allowed to be easy. You don’t simply have fats tires and thin tires; you might have street tires, and all-road tires, and gravel tires, and cyclocross tires, and… Given this, it’s clear that when discussing shifting we have to transfer away from adverbs and prepositions and adjectives altogether and as a substitute describe a extremely particular set of makes use of and terrains to each conceivable gear ratio. That manner whenever you hit the thumb lever on a Campagnolo system you received’t be “upshifting;” as a substitute, you’ll be “transferring the gear selector into descent mode.” This can even work nice for digital methods, which I think about will quickly be little dials with photos on them similar to fashionable automotive transmissions.
All of this might be justified as one thing that can make biking extra “inclusive” and “beginner-friendly,” and folks will finally come to understand the necessity to banish phrases like “up” and “down” altogether as they’re clearly discriminatory and indicate one gear is someway higher than the opposite.
And in the event you assume I’m overthinking all this, you’re proper, however we’re cyclists and it’s our job to overthink issues. Think about this opinion piece about “ultra-distance” biking occasions instituting “no-fly insurance policies:”
That is savvy advertising and marketing on the organizers’ half, who clearly perceive that, just like the bar that payments itself as a “speakeasy,” the extra inaccessible and inconvenient one thing is the cooler it turns into:
Although after all the ostensible purpose is that they’re involved about their “carbon footprint:”
That is an extremely harmful precedent, as a result of it’s solely a matter of time earlier than the Tour de France adopts this, and we’re at most 5 years away from a tie-dye jersey for the brand new Smuggest Rider competitors:
Extra competitions will inevitably observe:
And earlier than you recognize it everybody’s a winner:
Moralizing over pointless feats of ultra-recreation is self-indulgent, sure:
However extra self-indulgent is seeing a great life and the arduous work of your dad and mom as one thing that must be atoned for and “undone:”
Sins of the daddy??? He was an airline pilot! What was his crime? Flying Carlton Reid round?
By the way in which, the excellent news for the creator is that God walked again that complete “sins of the daddy shall be visited upon the son” factor, so fly wherever you need:
That stated, anybody who nonetheless feels responsible ought to be happy to ship any unused frequent flier miles my manner.
