Making a difference
September 18, 2017 § 20 Comments
On Sunday I got up and rode to the Center of the Known Universe, where about a hundred fellow lizard collectors had gathered to do the weekly club ride. We left CotKU in a rather unruly fashion, as might have been expected.
I hadn’t wanted to go because I was tired from the day before, and from the day before, and from the day before, all the way back to last Saturday. But it was going to be the annual club photo followed by a club video riding out on PCH. The photos and video were being shot by our club’s biggest sponsor, BeachBody Performance.
Every year they pour a very significant amount of money into our club. Not fake money, cash money. In addition to that, they provide the club with mountains of their energy/protein/magic powders. One of the mountains is free, the other mountain is at a greatly reduced cost. The total value of the real cash plus the powder mountains approaches six figures. For all I know, it exceeds it.
Our club, unaffectionately known as Team Lizard Collectors but affectionately known as Big Orange Cycling, cannot possibly generate six figures in sales for BeachBody. I know this because scientists have shown over and over that no organism is as cheap and tight-fisted as the serious avid recreational Internet-coached profamateur delusional hobby Cat 4 bicyclist.
What does BeachBody get out of it? For the last few years they have gotten this: A plague of brightly colored lizard collectors swooping through the streets of coastal Los Angeles doing what we lizard collectors do best, that is, have fun. Whether we are in Mallorca, Holland, France, Italy, Croatia, Japan, or home in Los Angeles, we are all oranged-up in our, er, distinctive kits (some of which, for a club called “Big Orange,” are inexplicably all-green), and we prominently display BeachBody’s logo and demonstrate BeachBody’s ethos, which is to go forth and have fun even if you look pretty silly doing it.
This sponsor has been directly responsible for the addition of countless riders into organized cycling. Our club offers skills training, urban riding skills classes, racing clinics, and a weekly club ride that focuses on getting yelled at for five solid hours by Dear Leader G3, which is probably the best simulation for bike racing ever. Some of our most highly talented new riders such as K-Sulk have learned to tell people to “Fuck off!” with the ease and practiced raised middle finger as if he had been racing for decades.
In short, without telling Big Orange what to do, BeachBody Performance has made it possible to expand programs and activities that popularize cycling and that make cycling safer. More fun. More safety. Healthier lifestyle. Have a nice day and here’s a wad of cash to go with it!
And although most people use BeachBody goodies and find them very beneficial to their fake bicycling careers, not everyone in the club consumes our sponsor’s replacement drinks, electrolytes, and radiator fluid. Some people, like me, drink water for the first hundred miles of every ride and bonk for the rest of it, suffering horrible exhaustion, cramps, diarrhea, logorrhea, vomiting, migraines, graphomania, and rectal dysfunction for a couple of weeks. It’s not because we don’t like the sponsored product, it’s because we are simply used to doing things the old-fashioned way, i.e. dumbly.
In the same vein, all riders don’t utilize all of the other sponsors’ services. For example, not everyone gets run over by a car in order to purchase a certain bike injury lawyer’s services. Not everyone replaces all of the windows (Nuckles), breaks all of the indoor plumbing (Penta), or purchases 300 pairs of socks (Torrence) simply to satisfy the sponsor. BeachBody doesn’t care. They only insist that we keep riding and that we keep having fun.
They continue to be a committed and genuine advocate for riding bikes in LA. They make a difference, and it’s appreciated. And as hard as it is for us to go out and ride our bikes and have a good time week in and week out, it’s a sacrifice we’re all willing to make. Thanks!
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PS: Don’t forget the Wanky’s. As if you could.
Cycling in the South Bay 
An excellent and model club for the rest of us to follow.
BeachBody Performance is awesome.
Yes, Sibex Czar, I agree!!!
Being cat 6 I tried some of there excellent product that was available for freeeee, after the wafer redux. It tasted great, which is an oft missed key point in said recovery potions.
Glad to see them supporting team lizard breeders.
Lizard skin eaters, please.
Okay, gizzard fin bleaters, I’ll try my best to get it right next time.
There is only try.
Bah
Story time!
Wanky did the first part better than many. He is talking about his sponsor in an honest way and not just wearing a jersey.
The second part is sending the impressions from this post to Beach Body (hint, hint) as evidence Big Orange is grateful and working hard, in an honest way, for the sponsor.
If only Wanky had the same good sense racing the bike, that Telo world championship would be his by now.
No story. Too long and not that interesting unless you are trying to figure out what NOT to do to attract and keep sponsors.
Yep.
Two out of three isn’t bad except in bike racing, in which case it’s terrible.
Wow, Seth. I’m completely floored. Thank you so much.
Thank you Denis and BeachBody Performance.
Who is this K-Sulk person. Sounds like a real trouble maker! I hope you are not confusing him with K-Salk who is a mild mannered, quiet, and upstanding South Bay citizen.
He is an individual whose speed and skill with the FU in all its permutations is rather impressive. If there is overlap with this Salk fellow, apologies for the confusion.
Sulk and Salk thank you!
“not everyone gets run over by a car in order to purchase a certain bike injury lawyer’s services”
Beyond legal services, that same lawyer puts a large amount of his own personal simoleons into a very full spectrum of cycling support. Significantly more than any other person I know.
I know the column is in praise of the other sponsors, and I’m not here to derail the primary message, but I’m not the only one that has noticed you putting your personal money into cycling support. I respect that immensely and say thank you.
Thanks, Mario. A friend once told me that money is like cow manure. I can’t remember how.
I spy with my eye, Shirtless Keith!