One of the pains of being a cyclist and getting in with groups of people who cycle is that, like it or not, politics is bound to enter the picture. Now, I’m all for cycle advocacy. Living in one of the worst cities in the world for cycling, a little advocacy makes the heart all a flutter.
The problem with cycling advocates is the hypocrisy that they throw out there like a wet trout.
Today in a discussion on a forum I frequent, I was gifted with this absolutely asinine comment with regards to NYC retrofitting all the current subway stations with handicapped accessible ramps and such:
When folks can’t afford 2-3 SUV’s in their $350 – $750,000 home – and when we aren’t paying 5 billion dollars a day for a war in which we have no business, then I will entertain objections related to costs.
I love class warfare. It’s a favorite argument of stupid people with no other arguments. Basically everything can be broken down to the rich people taking money and hording it and poor helpless people suffering. I’m bored already. But the funny thing is not the comment here. There’s nothing funny about some schmuck trying to create a class struggle where there isn’t one. What’s particularly amusing is that statement taken in the context of what the site it was posted on is all about.
On any “enthusiast” site, you’ll have people who like to spend money on what they’re enthusastic about. That’s what enthusiasts do. For example, I’ve dropped $850 on my bike, and God knows how many more dollars on accessories and clothing. I even have a second bike that I keep for running errands and locking up outside stores. Finally I have a stationary bike I ride when I can’t get out and ride. I belong to the Five Borough Bicycle Club, and Transportation Alternatives.
Are you seeing where this is going? Okay. Compared to some of the folks on the forums, I’m a rank amateur.
Even I myself am tempted by higher end bikes. The Scott CR-1 is a bike I’ll be lusting after for the rest of my life. But pondering the $3000 price tag makes my head swoon.
I digress.
On this forum, we have people riding $6,000 custom handmade bikes wearing $1,000 worth of clothes, and so on. What gets their ire? Hummers, which are crass consumerist nightmares. Houses that are too big and unncessary. Drivers in general; cars are unnecessary. Wal-Mart, which is the bastion of all things evil in the world. Department store bikes under $200, which are a total waste of money. And so on and so forth.
Some of these same people who ride multi-thousand-dollar bikes are criticizing others for practicing over-consumption. Imagine how they look to the real world?
In July, I decided I wanted to start cycling again. I got my old bike off the hooks in my parents’ garage. Took it home, worked on it for a few hours and realized there was no way in hell I was going to put the necessary bread I needed to into that bike to fix it. I bought a new bike. A Schwinn Mountain bike that cost all of $132. I loved that bike the day I bought it. Those forum jockeys would’ve been immediately horrified.
Why did I buy a $132 bike? Because frankly I didn’t have the money to consume an $850 bike at the time. I ended up selling my laptop to buy it. At the time I bought my Schwinn, I looked at people like the forum jockeys as complete loons for spending all that on a bike. They were over consuming at an alarming rate, in my eyes, because thousands of dollars was entirely to much to be spending on a bike.
It’s all about perspective, in my mind. You can go on and on about people living richly all you want. But when you’re a cyclist riding a very expensive bike, wearing very expensive clothing, you really are just a pouty child in a glasshouse flinging a big stone with all the windows shut. The guy that wrote that comment needs to learn that lesson at some point.