Look at Me, I'm a Hipster
So there's a piece in the Times about fixed-gear bicycles. As far as I can tell, they have the following features:
1. No brakes.
2. The pedals must always turn if the wheels are turning, so you can't coast.
3. Hipsters love them.
I didn't make it through the whole article, but there didn't seem to be any advantages that might offset attributes 1 and 2. I suspect that attribute 3 follows directly from attributes 1 and 2: the bikes are used as a signaling mechanism. Look at me, I'm way too cool to own anything practical like a regular bike. I'm deeply authentic, unlike all these despicable assholes with their useful bikes.
Of course, the irony here is that if you're buying a shitty bike just to look cool, that's more or less the opposite of authenticity. Admittedly I'm attributing mental states to hipsters that they very well might not have, but it's hard to think of why else you would buy one of these defective by design bicycles.
1. No brakes.
2. The pedals must always turn if the wheels are turning, so you can't coast.
3. Hipsters love them.
I didn't make it through the whole article, but there didn't seem to be any advantages that might offset attributes 1 and 2. I suspect that attribute 3 follows directly from attributes 1 and 2: the bikes are used as a signaling mechanism. Look at me, I'm way too cool to own anything practical like a regular bike. I'm deeply authentic, unlike all these despicable assholes with their useful bikes.
Of course, the irony here is that if you're buying a shitty bike just to look cool, that's more or less the opposite of authenticity. Admittedly I'm attributing mental states to hipsters that they very well might not have, but it's hard to think of why else you would buy one of these defective by design bicycles.
posted by James | 9:48 PM
3 Comments:
Yeah, and the article seemed to imply that they're more expensive than full-featured bikes, too.
This trend is interesting because you signal your coolness with a less functional tool - I suppose there's a measure of skill that's implied by your ability to use a defective bike, which is part of the schtick.
At least audiophiles think they're getting better sound with their gold-plated cables or their wooden volume knobs.
Note: You can buy a functioning bike on Amazon.com for $100.
It's not how functional your tool is, it's how you use it.
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