[Closed] Benjis' rant in the new mag

I only have the one bike ride it on all surfaces
it is very new NP Mega so I am well in this new Niche .
Old Sucks 😉

Liked the tongue in cheek article though made me chuckle 😆

Read it last night just before dropping off to sleep.

5 years ago I would have agreed with 1/2 of what was written, I used to take the piss out of mates who were under the thumb & were prevented from coming on a ride to go shopping with the wife (still do sometimes)

Spending time with your kids is the right thing to do though.

But circumstances change, my wife has secondary progressive MS.
Now 12 years ago when we got married she was still relatively independent and I took my mountain bike on our honeymoon to the West Highlands, friends said “how did you get away with that?” Thankfully my wife says cycling has always been a part of my life since we met 30 years ago so she wouldn’t want to change that.

But her condition has become much worse and apart from working full time I am also her primary carer so unless we arrange relief care I can’t be much more than ½ hour away. This has meant a change in my cycling life and as a consequence I use my road or CX bike a lot more as its riding straight from the door.

I know the article was probably written to provoke a reaction (it worked)

But to my mind cycling should be something you want to do not feel you should do?

If there were no road cycling threads on here, there'd be nothing to laugh at.

Taking a number of well-worn trolls from the forum and putting them in print is hardly creative journalism.

I take it that next months mag will feature "I built it myself from bits of carbon and a spoon".

I was with him right up until he said that you only need to own one bike.

He's clearly deranged.

Personally thought it was a "everyone who is not like me is a nobber" article...but there you go.

When clearly, he is the nobber.

Just read it; in fact it is the first time I have read any of the mag in 6 months despite being a premier member.

Pretty good troll when you don't even have to start your own thread 😉

Can't believe you lot read so quick

If it were a troll, I'd rather he do it in some other way than taking up 9 pages with a poorly written lead article in the magazine, for which he was presumably paid freelance rates.

The lead pic made a total mess of his argument as well, I thought- nice smooth metalled berms, easily ridden on a road bike. Nice pics though.

On a better note- I love Chipps outro stories these days- a cracker this month.

I think that it shows the rather immature attitude that is sometimes prevalent on this forum where some feel that because something is different & have no understanding of it ergo I must attack it & all that I think it stands for.

Sad.

Can't believe you lot read so quick

Its only 3 pages long - honestly it didn't take that long.

AFAIK I'm signed up to the digital subscription but when I try to view that mag I get "No server" 🙁

they haven't loaded it yet Simon - they got caught out as the subs copies were posted early.

Shoudl be up later today I think.

It is there, I managed to read it digitally earlier.

Taking a number of well-worn trolls from the forum and putting them in print is hardly creative journalism.

Nail.

Head.

Funny it was only a couple of days ago when I was wondering when a far right movement in cycling would form.

🙂

He needs some Buddishm in his life. All life is change* and the root of unhappiness comes in not accepting this change. Mates move on bike trends change just live with it.
Bikes are bikes tbh I see us all as sharing a hobby whetheryou ride trail centres ,Cx , natural , tarmac or to the shops. We have something in common that should unite us not something that we should use to create barriers becaus y ou ride a different type of bike on different terrain.
* show me a person who has not changed over 20 years and I will show you a person who has learnt nothing in the last 20 years.

Benji did mention in his rant that he had a road bike...maybe he wants to sell it 😉

...oooohhhhhhhh......

That's well deep. I like it!

Beagleboy - Member

I read it as an amusing dig at some of the fabulously narrow-minded attitudes banded about on this here website. I really liked it.

+1. It would seem all the people on here who look down their noses at "stormtroopers", riding "skill compensators" at trail centres (what's the pejorative term for them?) don't like it when someone bites back. 🙂

I got about halfway through it before I had to go and mow the lawn, but I was enjoying it even if I didn't agree with everything it said. I'm sure I'll enjoy the rest of it too, even if I continue to find parts I disagree with - that one bike thing sounds like madness!

Hey ho. It's got people on here talking about the magazine, which is probably considered a good thing by Chipps et al.

what's the article called? I have the PDF on my phone but navigation isn't brilliant...

We have something in common that should unite us not something that we should use to create barriers becaus y ou ride a different type of bike on different terrain.

yes i admit it I like bikes
There are loads of pics throughout the article SFB so not sure how well it will work tbh but it starts near the front on page 11 ish ??? it wont reopen for me now

thanks Johnnie 🙂

SFB:

Page 10. Right Here, Right Now.
Stuff all this retro nonsense! Benji knows that we’ve never had it so good as right now.

I thought it was ok and made some valid points about stuck in the mud types but then was to my mind equally narrow minded about other aspects of cycling. Basically as pointed out - what I like is right so there.

I'm pretty sure though that it was deliberately written that way, mind.

The article has done it's job though hasn't it? Got people onto a forum talking about it.
You can have slightly controversial topics (which you may or may not agree with) but which you can discuss/critique/slag off or you can have 3 more pages of product reviews or adverts.

Tough choice...

Have to say I can see his point of view, it's well written but I don't agree with all of it by any means. But then it's not been designed like that, it's a deliberately controversial topic, similar to Dave's Rights of Access articles.

I wonder if he refuses to stand on the decked area at his mates' barbeques - "No thanks lads, I'll stand on the lawn over here since you should have been mountain-biking rather than improving your garden"

I was kind of waiting for him to say (write) that only certain riders (eg him and his ilk) were 'real' mtbers 🙂

Pffft

I have two mountain bikes, a CX, a road bike, a wife, kids, a nice garden and a career.

Confused.

Think I'll go for a ride tonight and think it through. Probably on my road bike.

Karinofnine - Member
Pffft

I hope that was the noise of a mtb puncture, not a road, CX one or maybe even some DIY task 👿

Think I'll go for a ride tonight and think it through. Probably on my road bike.

I've got one of those (actually I've got 2, but anyway) - my house at 8:15 ish?
I have a hill in mind that would be shit on a mountain bike.

I'm slightly surprised that no one has mentioned Chipps' editorial: lycra! tan lines! whatever next- [i]road training[/i] for [i]racing[/i]? ?? 😯

That sounds a lot like when Blur brought out "The Great Escape", having a go at all us middle class commuting sell-out types with jobs and a "very big house in the country".

Except it wasn't, it was specifically about an exec at Food records.

But I agree with your sentiment though, the 'article' just got on my tits so I passed over it and read Ferrentino's instead.

The diffrence between this and Dave's article was that rights of way are a debate worth having - whether I spend more time working/gardening/playing with the children than riding bikes is no ones business but mine, and of zero interest to anyone but me. No matter how fit or unfit / skilled or unskilled I am, I still enjoy it when I get the chance.

Slightly strange attitude - embracing change in in the form of the bike that gets ridden or the music listened to, but unwilling to accept that lives change with the advent of children, careers, aged parents etc.

And one bike? Sure, if that's what you want, but a hardtail for The Chilterns and a FS DH bike for the Alps...that suits me well.

Other than that though, a lot to agree with....the thought of CX bikes as a gateway drug certainly made me chuckle.

rounded mountain biker

Is benji not going to come on here and defend himself

How wet?

Well I've gone roadie I'll be honest I'm 30 min drive from any kind of trail even cheeky ones and I have two kids so a road bike let's me go for a spin in an hour rather than an MTB that takes two! With the kids etc I push the time about as much as I can 5am start or leave when they go to bed. I agree with Jedi any bikes a good bike. Enjoyed the article he's done well to get so many peoples heckles up!!

Over time I've started to read the MTB mags less and less I am happy with my bikes I just want to ride as much as I can on any surface!! Plus CX bikes are a right laugh!! 🙂

Just read it. In 20 odd years of mountain biking a lot of riding pals have dropped by the wayside, citing baby/work/relationship reasons. Sure there's always time pressure on ride time; I've had jobs with a 3 hour commute, I've been unemployed, I've had a very ill spouse, I've raised two children. But I've always kept riding. My take is that if you over compromise you lose everything, so you need to stay selfish to stay sane. Sometimes this isn't easy, but when I'm on the way to the trails and see the dead eyed fat bellied blokes my age queuing to get into Tesco or the boot sale I know I've got it right. Keep challenging 'em Benj.

Right, you can read the first half of the article here...

[url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/2011/07/singletrack-issue-67-digital-issue-teaser/ ]http://www.singletrackworld.com/2011/07/singletrack-issue-67-digital-issue-teaser/[/url]

...if you'd like to wade into the argument armed with precisely half the facts 😉

It is just a well written and touching piece about what cycling means to [i]him[/i].

We don't all have to agree with him, we don't all have to do or believe the same thing. There is no right or wrong here.

One of the great things about the mag is that writers actually [i]do[/i] have personal views, and the writing is usually pretty high quality - and sometimes inspirational.

Which is good - because as a journal for investigating the industry (CRC CC fraud anyone?) it is pants. And I'll believe it has consumer interests at heart when I see an article called "The ten worst bike shops" 😉

Right, you can read the first half of the article here...

http://www.singletrackworld.com/2011/07/singletrack-issue-67-digital-issue-teaser/

...if you'd like to wade into the argument armed with precisely half the facts

I've read the first page and a bit. LOL and in a good way. I like it.

As always on this place, folks just need to stop taking it all so damn seriously.

Peace and love 😎

But he goes beyond saying what cycling means to him – to others who have made different choices in their lives he says ‘step back and ask yourself just what you are doing with your life’. That is self righteous crap, non the less so because he makes the same point in his introduction.

I spend more time mountain biking now than ever before because my kids have grown up. When they were younger I happily gave up time in the saddle to involve myself in their lives and in pastimes that were easier to share together. I wouldn’t give up one second of that time to spend it on a bike.

I’ve never met the guy, but those who have seem to speak well of him. Still, based on this article he comes across as the sort of person I try hard to avoid – anyone who describes their hobby as ‘religion’, and lambasts those who don’t seem to treat his religion with the same zeal, from my experience tend to be one dimensional and dull as ditch water.

When the group I ride with is out on Sundays mornings the banter never stops for the 3 hours or so we are together – and we rarely, if ever, talk about bikes. For a short time we share a joint passion, but it’s the non biking interests and experiences of a very eclectic bunch that makes it such fun. In that sort of company I suspect Benji would be well out of his depth.

The Morocco article is ace!