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Tenuous I know, but given that my facebook feed is currently full of people posting all kinds of political propaganda, a lot of it very left wing, and a huge proportion of my friends are cyclists, I started drawing some parallels...
One of which is that all of my outwardly left wing cyclist friends were all in the "26 til I die" category (the irony that most now ride 650b bikes as there's barely any new 26" bikes made is not lost on me). Each one of them I have heard at times continually deride 29ers, calling them and their riders many derogatory terms, and exclaiming that they would never be seen dead on one (the same as they would never vote Tory)...
So... If your Dad was a coal miner or he worked for British Leyland, does that mean it's intrinsically built into you that you have to hate 29ers? Are there any socialist 29er riders out there? Do we have any free thinking liberals that won't part with their 26" wheeled bike?
And as for the roadies... Where do they come in?!?!
***Post MAY contain some irony and a sense of frustration at the number of wannabe politicians that come out of the woodwork every election time.
Firmly left winger here with most types of bikes (Road, track, SSCX, fat, 650b bouncy and jump/4X) but no 29er (unless you count my fatty). I am seriously eyeing up a salsa horsethief though.
I,m sitting on the fence with this one but looking at putting a 650b on the front of my 26 bike and just for the record I hate the tories/29ers
Rich(Dad was a top union guy with the TGWU) 🙂
Actually, 29 Is the socialist solution - road and MTB wheels the same Rim diameter - resulting in same spokes etc, same machinery to build, same frame jigs, boxes etc. - significant efficiencies of scale and minimum retooling costs in production - one size fits all!
A cynical person might suggest that it's those manufacturing commonalities that brought about the push for 29 in the first place...
If I'm bimbling about on the hardtail, or on an all day adventure on the All-Mountain bike, I'm surprisingly right wing (29"), but there's something about downhill that brings out the leftie (anarchist?) in me.
Does this make me bi-polar?
Surely it's Conservatives (by their very name) who would be holding on to 26-ers and rueing the day that 29" began coming here and taking our wheel sizes.
I have a 26" bike. QR. 27.2mm seatpost. Proper old school Tory.
My father (Blue, through and through) is mellowing in his 60s and recently added a 650B.
Rich(Dad was a top union guy with the TGWU)
And we know how 'with the people', top "Union guys" are / were!
I'm leftish
mtbs are:
2x26
Fat frame with 1x29 and soon to build 1xfat wheelset
I am opposed to what I see as manipulation in pushing 650 and will resist as long as that's a practical option, partly to spite them but also because I'm not at all sure that the dust has settled on this - it's not actually currently stopping me from buying a new bike as I don't need one, but I would probably try to limp along with a dying old bike as long as I could to see which way the marketeers push us all next
What about a rigid single speed 29er? Is that still right wing?
Okay, so a 29er frame with 650b + tyres, is that a coalition?
[i]Do we have any free thinking liberals that won't part with their 26" wheeled bike?[/i]
Coo-eee!
in my shed i have 24, 26, 650b, 29er
they are all different and all good, i guess im middle of the road
that being said if i could find one that handled and importantly jumped as well as my 650b enduro bike id vote 29er
I have a 650b and a 26er. Floating voter/undecided.
Ninfan and makecoldplayhistory have got it right.
Surely 29er is the socialist solution. And with proper centralized planning we'll have 15000 29er wheelsets to go on 4000 26inch bike frames.
26inch has got to be the conservative choice - they don't frighten the horses dontchaknow?
Left wing are still fighting the 80's battle hence 26".
BB30 the greens solution, less energy to make but makes everyone's life miserable 😉
Voted Labour, have a 26" as the bike I wanted last time only comes 26, the next bike I want is 650b so I'll have that.
I'm still pretty angry about 650b though, I personally don't think it's better than 26, I'm not even sure it's noticeably different to 26 - but it's different enough to make a huge amount of bike 'obsolete' in their owners minds and driving sales of new bikes - which is it's true purpose.
So there, partisan enough for you?
The Lib Dems are 650b- sitting in the middle, no real point to them, "Vote for us and you'll get all of the advantage of whatever wheel size you actually wanted and none of the disadvantages".
UKIP are boost hubs. Nobody asked for them, hardly anyone'll admit to wanting them but they're still going to be everywhere.
tree hugger here, just gone from 26 to 29, man.
UKIP are boost hubs. Nobody asked for them, hardly anyone'll admit to wanting them but they're still going to be everywhere.
😆
Northwind. I actually lol'ed - god I'm a geek!
Are there any UKIP voters who own lefty forks? I imagine that's a very small demographic...
I'd actually compare the LibDems to pressfit bottom brackets, yes they generally help the whole thing work, but after a few months there were all kinds of squeaking noises and questions as to whether they really perform as they're meant to.
Nothing to add except to say excellent work... especially Northwind!
Not sure about wheel size but your Tory banker / dentists all seem to be rolling on carbon fibre Santa Cruz, which seem to be the new Lapierre, new Ellesworth...
Not done a scientific survey, but I bet fully rigid single speeders are mostly anarchist / green.
On a northern built steel long travel hardtail - clearly the public sector worker steed of choice.
Northern Socialists all ride 5s, right?