Friday, July 24, 2009

Back In the Saddle

Friends,

It has been almost a year since my last post. Apologies.

The reason for my furlough was this:
I took a job with a well-known bicycle maker and agreed to put this project on hold to avoid conflicts of interest. In the meantime, my contributions to that company's offerings have reached the market, and I am proud to say they added some civility to an increasingly wild industry.

Now seems like a fine time to restart this blog. I will remain anonymous and keep my ties to the industry separate.

In my absence, the finer side of the bicycle industry has gone mainstream. Boutique bicycle makers are springing up as fast as they can graduate from UBI (beware that some of these freshmen need some more time to grow). An explosion of ridership has resulted from a convergence of simultaneous trends; people are going green, cities are investing in pedestrian/bicycle infrastructure, the technicolor track-bike craze* introduced a new generation to cycling as a way of life, bicycle-themed stories are popping up in media outlets on a daily basis and bike blogs are too many to count. Cycling is now stylish, de rigueur.

Oh yes, and I've been doing an awful lot of riding.


(Maybe I sweat a little bit on tour.)

* the craze seems to have plateaued and left a new generation of riders finding their way to a more civilized version of cycling. A quick glance at your local Craigslist will find hundreds of fixies for sale, not even a year old. The bike-as-consumer-status-symbol trend is giving way to the bike-as-practical-transportation trend. (I imagine a future of American cities teeming with distinguished, respectful cyclists.)

4 comments:

MOS Atelier said...

Glad to see you're back.

Terri-Leigh Finnegan said...

Hi, i didnt want to invade your wall with my questions but couldnt find contact details. sorry.

Im Currently in the process of completing a brief for the boom in cycling fashion clothing. I wondered if you could help me out a bit? Your blog is great!

Please help me out and answer these couple of questions.

1. What is your favourite cycling brand? Why?
2. What do you look for in your cycling clothing?
3. What is your favourite cycling accessory?
4. If you could invent anything to make cycling everday easier, what would it be?
5. What does cycling mean to you? Is it just travel? Or is it a fashion accessory?


Any more comments you think would help would be much appreciated.
Thankyou so much for your time and if it would be easier to email me with the answers then go ahead!

adora_alas@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks again!

Terri-Leigh

mary Westmacott said...

Hey, nice to see you back again, I missed your great posts, super cool pic here aswell, thanks for posting, M x

foldable helmet said...

Love this blog