Just got off the phone with Leah and we were talking about Hegel and hellenistic offerings to the deities. I'll post about that later, because its a big thing I stumbled upon with a good friend a while back and have been meaning to write a paper about it (grad school?) and it'll probably do me well to hash it out here before God and everyone. But that's for later.
I was just looking at bicycle components idly online, and I realized how god damn expensive the sport is. It's phenomenally expensive. My dream bike is the Felt F75, and it's an entry level modern racer. It costs $1500. Then you look at time trial / triathlon bicycles, then you look at the upgrade for those bicycles (100 dollars to shave 8 ounces off of your rear dérailleur, anyone?) and you begin to realize, at the "upper" levels, this is a rich kid endeavor. $4000 for a bike that will be raced on the weekend for sport. Then a commuter for all other days. I wondered aloud to Malcom the other day how people stayed race-fit in the winter, and he said flat out "It's become a rich boy sport. You go spend the winter training in San Diego." And while that makes me feel a little more proud about riding 1979 British racing steel instead of my much coveted F75, it makes me feel even more gratitude to the bike scene in this city.
Looking at the Raleigh hanging next to me on the wall, looking at the parts I've added and replaced over an ongoing series of upgrades, I realize that I've gotten maintenence parts from Malcom for free rather consistently, a free set of clipless pedals from a cat I'd never met before, a saddle, rear hub and countless other parts at cost from my dear friend mattio and a set of really wonderful brakes for very little cost. In my experience, the people who ride and race bikes in NYC have been so unceasingly generous. I've heard "I'm just glad someone can use them" countless times as people I barely know give me beautiful parts to build up my bike. In a sport of $4000 carbon frames, that's a really phenomenal generosity to feel. So, thanks NYC.
About Me
- De.Corday
- Charlote de Corday, a figure of the French Revolution, was a rebel against the rebellion, an individual in a war of sides. Charlotte de Corday has thus become my nom de guerre as an individual caught up in a world that speaks in borders rather than content. I am quite simply a student of philosophy and theories of government, a musician and a coffee addict, returned to my native urban New Jersey to find a place rapidly gentrifying, changing, growing--whatever you want to call it, only to move to Brooklyn and act as the other side of that coin. I am trying to make art after four years of academy, trying to feel for an ever elusive home... also trying to keep my car running. Trying to live and work and create in a way that each is copacetic to the other two. I currently write freelance and work for a newspaper in Lower Manhattan.
3 comments:
bike racing may too-easily be a rich kid's sport, but bike riding isn't. consider that for $500 bucks, you can get a bike that can do everything. a singlespeed with racks and fenders. another hundred bucks in clothing for the cold months. and right there you can sell your car, you can save $90/month on that metrocard... et cetera.
also, only assholes ride $4000 carbon frames. really great bikes can be had for just over a grand. that felt F75 would last you a very, very long time. just because people *can* upgrade, doesn't mean they have to.
it's just that the rich people *do*, and that taints it all.
what exactly *isn't* a rich kid endeavor at the upper levels?
Point taken, but (a) thats quite sad and (b) it's a matter of scale.
That said,
Things that are not rich kid endeavors at the upper levels:
- writing
- running
- swimming
- football
- baseball
- dancing
- sketching
- singing
- basketball
- soccer
- botany
- rock climbing
I think I've made my point.
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