[Closed] NSMB's Uncle Dave on MTBing and consumerism

If we took that approach too literally the world wouldn't turn to a degree.

Plus a boyant second hand market gets decent bikes into hands of many who couldn't other wise afford them.

I don't see too much of a problem here, providing you ride them.

2 parts to this.
First, the entry level cheap bike today is an incredible bit of kit compared to the entry level bikes years ago.
Your kit is only obsolete if you think it is. Though having ridden the new nomad back to back with my 3 year old blur ltc things have got better but I still like my bike.

I'm riding an obsolete marin mount vision from 2007.

With an obsolete set of fox talas 1 forks.

On some obsolete 26 inch crank brothers wheels.

The fun I have ain't obsolete though.

Consumerism is an issue in Western life in general. Shiny new things don't make me half as happy as I imagine. I'm going to make a concerted effort to spend less on stuff this year and more on the things which I really enjoy, like trips and experiences.

Certainly not a new idea, but as usual he nails he.

Yeh, its a good point. I think I made a similar one in a different topic yesterday.

I guess some of it is down to the huge increase in popularity of mtbing.....it sort of used to be the "alternative" or "anti" sport, a bit more like BMX. Done by people who did it because they genuinely loved it.

I guess now, that's a bit different. It's no where near as hardcore anymore. Alot of folks do it just so they have a "hobby" - buying new bikes is probably where half the fun lies for them. Most will probably ride once every week at the most. The rest of their time is spent earning money to spend on cars/tvs/bikes etc. etc.

Here's one.... http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/if-anyones-thinking-about-switching-from-5010-gen-1-to-gen-2

It depresses me how consumerism has taken over cycling when it is such a potential force for environmental good.

mikewsmith - Member
2 parts to this.
First, the entry level cheap bike today is an incredible bit of kit compared to the entry level bikes years ago.

Depends, 500 gets you disc brakes, 9 speed, suss forks (which won't last long) and a HEAVY bike. It's 20yr old equivalent was WAY lighter, perhaps less capable but it lasted a fair bit longer.

Uncle Dave ALWAYS nails it! Love his articles.

I buy the best i can for the $ then only change when I have completely worn it out (cracked frames) or it gets nicked. I don't "get" the must have the latest and best thing with cycling or anything.

Maybe it's all the ex-golfers. 😉

Good article that. Think it's just capitalism.
It's a strange system which feeds on things that people like/value/enjoy and it sucks the life out of them.

I much preferred cycling when it was the preserve of the impoverished weirdo.

Ironically, the only thing capable of calming me down after considering the current state of cycling is a nice ride on my bike.
🙂

still got my 98 Spez FSR, although if missus decides she going to get back in to riding it may have to 🙁

It depresses me how consumerism has taken over cycling when it is such a potential force for environmental good.

I fail to see how sporting equipment can be a [i]force for environmental good[/i]

I fail to see how sporting equipment can be a force for environmental good

For the majority of people, a bike is a mode of transport considerably greener than something with a combustion engine attached.

LOL transport

[img] ?1[/img]

I fail to see how sporting equipment can be a force for environmental good

I know you probably intended this as a sick burn, but if you really don't "get" the social potential of cycling maybe you should retire to the chat forum with the other trolls?

^^ that

I think for many people, cycling is just the currently fashionable way to display one's wealth.

We're better off without them.

ed cycling when it was the preserve of the impoverished weirdo.

Me too kind of. Despite the fact that my main bike is always an expensive model. I tend to keep them for a long, long time though!

sporting equipment can be a force for environmental good

Equipment itself, no. The appreciation and respect for the environment and green spaces it can bring most definitely.

[quote=Rusty Spanner ]I think for many people, cycling is just the currently fashionable way to display one's wealth.
We're better off without them.
Nah - we're better off encouraging them all to buy spangly new bikes and then letting them get bored and selling them off second hand.

actually I want cycling to stay popular, if enough people ride bikes then it normalises it and we'll get better infrastructure for normal people who use bikes

the new stuff will always be marketed, we don't have to buy it - just need the likes of Uncle Dave to keep reminding us

edhornby - Member
actually I want cycling to stay popular, if enough people ride bikes then it normalises it and we'll get better infrastructure for normal people who use bikes

Well, we appear to have normalised paying £2000 for a toy, driving it somewhere, playing with it for a bit and then driving it home.
🙂

That's the only real growth I'm seeing.

Ordinary people using bikes for ordinary things are still regarded as odd.
Often, ironically, by the very people who own the expensive toys.

Well, we appear to have normalised paying £2000 for a toy, driving it somewhere, playing with it for a bit and then driving it home.

Whats the problem with doing that?
Bikes are my only toys these days, before that it was climbing which wasn't the cheapest at times and certainly relied on weekends away.

Ordinary people using bikes for ordinary things are still regarded as odd.

If your concern is the type of other people you might encounter and how you already don't like them then you are probably best staying inside.

"You lust after an amazing piece of technology. You buy it. And then within a year it is crap because something better has come along.

Really?

What does that say about our priorities and judgement?

Very poor, how did you get the job?

How can you take yourself seriously when you know you’re going to prove yourself wrong in very short period of time?

What a crock - you aren't

How can we justify spending so much money on something that is only relevant for a shockingly small period of time? Isn’t that a bad purchase by any definition?

Must make some crap purchases - cant say I can think of a bike that fits this notion. Rode a Trek for 8 years and enjoyed every minute of it.

Don't get the praise on this article at all.

For a start just using the measurement of one year as to his idea of how quickly it becomes useless is missing the variable of trips out.

See, if person A rides 5000 miles in a year with said bike and person B rides 1000 miles in 5. Person A is the loser. (Assuming they both by new bikes.) In my opinion A will be fitter, kept someone in a job , will be a better rider and mechanic and will no doubt have figured out what kit works and will be able to refine this through the devil of consumerism.

This could be a decent break down of consumer ideology and use of one's toys versus time but in my mind his time frame as an arbitrary bitching stick without actually analysing anything useful.

The bigger problem with the article is it seems to take the assumption that all bikes cost $10k and upwards and everyone buys a new one every year.

Welcome to capitalism. Who'd have thought it.

It is only a problem if you let it be a problem. It it up to you what you buy and what you think you need and ultimately to work out if it will make you happier or anything else better.

Sounds like he has a problem that he wants to resolve so just needs to go and resolve it. I used to be awful for it when I was in my 20's (constantly changing cars, bikes, guitars etc,.) but now I am almost 50 have long realised that happiness is not related to buying new things.

People only buy buy buy when there's something missing in their lives. If your balanced and happy you don't buy a new reverb for every bike you own, own thousands of pounds of multiple bikes yet live in a rented property.

Either the author is wrong and the article is a load of crap, or some of us are happier having our thinking and behaviour challenged than others.

For the record, I don't think he's implying we are all hopeless gear junkies who rush for their credit cards at the drop of a Santa Cruz press release.

Yes kerley & hora I agree, though I should point out that Uncle Dave is a satirical social commentator.

I take his target to be the industry marketing machine - and the few fannies who get a new fork every year and loudly proclaim that its the greatest thing ever and the last one was utter shit.

Conversely and not an absolute - some of my friends are quite mean with their spending and are rather miserable gits.

I'd agree rabid purchasing of 'stuff' that lays dormant probably signals trouble but enjoying spending money on stuff that gives you pleasure - by money earnt - is surely part of the point of existence? It's as much as an experience as anything else.

Work and toil would be too hard without some sort of reward.

BTW this guy's satire is hardly satire - certainly not in the league of Chris Morris is it? Just one bloke with a linear view. Don't get it. Maybe he should make himself a little less disgruntled or become a better writer.

People only buy buy buy when there's something missing in their lives. If your balanced and happy you don't buy a new reverb for every bike you own, own thousands of pounds of multiple bikes yet live in a rented property.

😯 😯

😀

I used to be awful for it when I was in my 20's (constantly changing cars, bikes, guitars etc,.) but now I am almost 50 have long realised that happiness is not related to buying new things.

This...

People only buy buy buy when there's something missing in their lives. If your balanced and happy you don't buy a new reverb for every bike you own, own thousands of pounds of multiple bikes yet live in a rented property

...this...

some of us are happier having our thinking and behaviour challenged than others.

....and this.

The older i get the less desire i have for 'stuff' in my life, if anything i tend to streamline now....i think moving away from the South East and London helped, i also think the type of work i do has finally started to influence me after 16 years!...seen plenty of people die in both expected and unexpected situations, nobody has ever said to me that they wished they'd worked more or had more stuff....but of those that can talk pretty much everybody wishes they had more time with friends and family.

...it didnt used to resonate with me, in my 20's i could pretty much do a call like that and be impervious to it but as i approach 40 something has changed and i tend to spend my time and money on things involving family and friends rather than trinkets for me.

[i]The older i get the less desire i have for 'stuff' in my life[/i]

Sums it up for me.

Yes I can 'afford' a +£30k car. But if I don't buy one and buy a £5k car instead I can retire a year earlier, and since I'm 51 already that'll work out retiring in my 50's rather than my 60's.

Current car was bought for £5k and will be replaced when I've had it 4 years, so by buying the next two the same I'm aiming for retirement at 58 y/o.

Fight Cub did this better no? 'The things you own end up owning you'.

But anyway, the way I look at it is that mountain biking is my escape from petty life annoyances, you know, still like paying for food, somewhere to live - rented or mortgage - and is about riding the bike, not owning or upgrading it endlessly. I object to consumerism leaching into my cycling.

Except that if there's a reasonable upgrade that genuinely enhances my enjoyment of riding, then I don't have an issue with that. It's a blurred line. The bike industry's based on consumerism which drives our economic system, but you don't have to fall into it blindly. It's not black and white.

Some of it, I think, is that most of us are, in relative terms, cash rich and time poor. Spending on your bike/hobby/passion becomes a sort of emotional investment in it as a substitute for a time investment in it. Maybe...

But mostly you need to know that Hora is right and you are wrong. Especially you people who have more than one bike and live in rented houses... 😉

depends on which side of the Atlantic you live on I suspect. What the author describes is very much a way of living that Americans aspire to, the idea that one "consumes" is the way of life a right thinking person.

It's not something we all have to subscribe to it though, and like BWD if it makes what I do for fun more betterer, then I have no issues, although my bike is 5-6 years old, it's not at the end of it's life ye.

I love the moral one upmanship these threads generate. Luckily I'm still riding my 1995 GT which I no longer have to pedal along it just floats on my own smug sense of awesomeness. Sadly though, I have an embarrassment of road bikes that attempt to gloss over how shallow and empty my life is. It's not a bad article, and I know people require folk with the prefix of 'Uncle' to impart their wisdom on others to give them an opinion or more hopefully get them considering a range of opinions. But transferring this to just considering oneself more betterer than others seems a bit of a waste.

I think perhaps the only issue with Uncle Dave's musings is perspective. He's obviously a bloke who's world is mountain biking, he writes about it for a website dedicated to it where, no doubt, they are constantly being cajoled and persuaded to look favourably at yet another bit of "innovation" from what has become a significant niche within cycling... But MTBing, especially the glossy, high price point, lifestyle marketed version, isn't all cycling, or even all that representative of cycling...

I think what the piece tells us more than anything, by looking at the author, is that you can be on the kool aid so long, you start to forget there's a world outside of it, he's perhaps noticing the unsustainable aspects of the subset of the cycling world he's involved in and perhaps starting to examine the difference between 'want' and 'need'...
But these are not groundbreaking revelations...

If your balanced and happy you don't buy a new reverb for every bike you own, own thousands of pounds of multiple bikes yet live in a rented property.

Luckily I'm still riding my 1995 GT which I no longer have to pedal along it just floats on my own smug sense of awesomeness.

Living in the same city as the author I can see where he's coming from. There's no shortage of people who just have to have the 'latest greatest' and have the money to buy it. Combine that with a lack of imagination and you end up with a load of generic plastic enduro bikes all set up with the same components. It's like being at school where a 13 year old is under loads of pressure to fit in and buy that triangular shaped Head bag (showing my age here....). But these people are 35 and work in IT 😉

Maybe things have changed but when I lived in the UK, mountain biking wasn't so sheep based. There'd be your normal full sus bikes, rigid singlespeeds, hardtails and some tit on a fixie coming out for group rides.

Found a new local track during the winter. Ends eight minutes ride from the front door. Been waiting for it to dry out for two months - oh, the anticipation....rode it for the first time yesterday on my nine year old 26" hardtail. It was ace.

The linked article would be fine as a personal blog entry, but I hope he's not getting paid to write that stuff.

I blame STW, perfectly happy (well apart from being shaken to bits across sun baked mud) on my Trek 950 for about 15 years, then I found this place & a whole new world of bike ownership opened up to me, oddly enough an increasing bicycle collection coincided with reducing my motorbike collection from 3 to 1 which I found to be a really positive move, however I seem to be able to ditch girlfriends with far less angst than getting shot of bicycles, mind you I guess N +1 girlfriends isn't really the done thing.