Trump bikes
February 17, 2017 § 17 Comments
I used to own a mountain bike. I bought it in 1988, from Freewheeling Bicycles in Austin. It was red and I think it was called a StumpJumper, although in my case they should have named it the StumpHitter, or the StumpNotQuiteJumper, or just the plain old StumpThumper.
Mountain biking seemed like fun until I started doing it. Unlike road riding, where you can pedal stupidly along until you get run over by a car, on a mountain bike you have to ride with all 12 senses going full Spidey alert which means you’ll never get run over by a car and will only splat into a tree or fall off a cliff instead.
Austin’s Green Belt didn’t have any 1,000-foot cliff drop-offs, but it had rocks and trees and no matter how carefully I rode they always seemed to reach up, slap my front tire, and knock me onto the cactus. At first it was fun coming home dirty and covered and blood, but at second it really wasn’t, and at third I realized that this wasn’t my fake sport.
Even though mountain biking and I parted company early on, I occasionally took note of it and its practitioners, warily, kind of like you take note of the crazy downstairs neighbor who screams and beats the dog late at night when you cross paths taking out the trash. And I noticed that even without me, mountain biking did just fine. It became a big industry and got a lot of people involved in enjoying the outdoors and running over hikers.
Compared to road cyclists, mountain bikers always seemed to give a shit. I don’t know if it’s because they have to make their own trails, or because they have to fight grizzlies for the right to ride, or because by being surrounded by plants and water and rocks and natural beauty they feel more connected to the earth, but they seem to rally a lot better than road cyclists when the chips are down.
And you know, the chips are down, especially in Utah. The state has taken the lead in the latest Trumpian wave of dystopic, kleptocratic public theft as it is now trying to wrest back federal lands so the state can sell them off to private entities. Representative Dingbat Chaffetz is front-and-center in this public rape, proposing legislation that would rob generations of the right to use public lands.
In an amazing twist, the mountain biking crowd is having none of it. Being part of the giant Outdoor Retailers trade show every year that brings in $45 million annually to the Mormon economy, and being part of the Interbike trade show that recently left Las Vega$$$ for Salt Lake City, hitters in the outdoor retail business have told Chaffetz and Utah that, starting in 2018, they won’t be doing business there. They’re taking their money to Denver and will likely enjoy a bit of mile-high clean air and maybe even some of Floyd’s Rocky Mountain high.
Hats off, you stinky, scabby, dirt-covered mountain bike people. Thanks for putting your money where your tires are. I’d ride in solidarity with you but it wouldn’t be past the first rut.
END
———————–
For $2.99 per month you can subscribe to this blog and get none of the news that’s fit to print but all the news that’s fun to read. Click here and select the “subscribe” link in the upper right-hand corner. Thank you!
Cycling in the South Bay 
Reap as you have sown.
We’re getting reaped, all right.
“Compared to road cyclists, mountain bikers always seemed to give a shit.”
My favorite part of mountain biking compared to road biking:
When riding on the road, you are duty-bound to point out hazards to your buddies to prevent them from falling off their bikes and hitting the pavement which may hurt, and get them run over by other cyclists or people pointing their cars.
When riding off-road, you are duty-bound to trick your buddy into riding faster than she’s comfortable, or into or over some sort of hazard that will cause a relationship with the earth.
There is NO pointing out hazards, because every single pedal stroke is a hazard. But because so few of those hazards will kill you, it is great fun.
I love me some good mountain biking. Funny thing is that so few of my friends do it with me. I think they don’t understand.
Cf. Jay LaPlante.
I’m happy to hear that the MTB bike crew is also leaving SLC and the Outdoor Retailer Show. Once the land grab was made available in UT by the govt clowns, Patagonia said it was pulling out. Arcteryx (a Canadian company) & Black Diamond (now based in Utah) followed suit. Others have put enough pressure on the parent company of OR (who owns Interbike) to take the outdoor show elsewhere. All good. In the meantime, those public lands are still in a precarious situation… hopefully we won’t see For Sale signs on our beloved national parks & BLM lands.
You won’t see for sale signs because they will be sold to friends of Chaffetz et al.
At bargain prices
Of course.
Link to the article: http://www.bicycleretailer.com/north-america/2017/02/16/interbike-utah-no-longer-possible-venue-future-shows
I think that one of the few things that Trump and I agree on is that money talks. I’m glad to hear the mountain bikers are using their money to do some talking.
Wish everyone else would, too.
Seth, totally agree on this, but read great response & thought it worth sharing…
http://www.snewsnet.com/news/open-letter-to-yvon-chouinard-peter-metcalf-on-outdoor-retailer-boycott/
I think she is conflating political engagement with punishing Utah for its rape and theft of public lands. People don’t, and can’t, go to trade shows to raise hell and lobby. That’s the job of the citizens of the state. Most trade show exhibitors make huge investments in their trade show time, and few are giants like Patagonia.
Fact is, pulling out sends a message to people who live there and vote, just like pulling out of South Africa helped wreck apartheid.
If she’s so committed to political activism in Utah, pull out your money and support politicians there who oppose Chaffetz. Everyone else should spend their money where their goals are shared, along with their values.
The beauty of MTB’ing is that, for the most part, whether racing or just riding, if you wreck and hurt yourself it’s your own fault. On the road your at the mercy of your fellow cyclists and motorists.
I could never participate in a sport where I couldn’t blame everyone but myself.
you can’t more american than that.
Exactly.