Welcome to Behind the Tofu Curtain, an ongoing series of correspondence from Mickey Denoncourt. Mickey has been in the industry for a long time, and let’s say that he’s got lots of opinions. This is his outlet.
Adventure Bikes in the New World
Yo Lockwood,
Articulating the brave new world of, ahem… Adventure Bikes in the New World for grit.cx is really gonna be an interesting challenge, convergent/divergent all at once… and so full of Adventure!
As a whole, the industry has presented us with some bikes that are kinda basic 1990’s-style hybrids wrapped up with stinky focus-grouped bows and ribbons with ceramic radiators and some bikes that are wryly bred with a wink and nod for ‘fun and adventure’.
It’s a Lifestyle? Your Lifestyle.
Riiiiight. nAnd we need CX Race bikes too?
The industry will fuck this up if they don’t calm down.
On a sales floor as a retail employee in a town with more than a handful of UCI-ranked CXmeisters and home to the oldest UCI CX race in North America, and an infamous gravel grind or two, I can say that people know less about Grit-worthy bikes than they do about the modern mountain bike (which is hard to understand these days, starting with the price!).
Come 2017 when all the ProTour road bikes end up with hydro discs and thru axles and the cheaper ‘entry-level’ mountain bikes on the floor have 3″ wide tires, I guess it’ll be even more confusing to the masses…
And that’s why we need the media… right?
Sincerely,
Mickey
