The Mob Mentality

Whenever I am engaged in conversation with people who are not cyclists, on learning of my background in the bike business, and my continued interest in cycing, they will invariably ask me,

“Why do large groups of cyclists take up the whole damn road? If you give even a friendly toot on the horn to let them know you are passing, you will more often than not get the finger. Why are they so hostile and so rude?”

This is how I try to explain it:

First of all in any random group of people you have a cross-section of society. Some are nice people, and some are assholes. It is the assholes in the group that will give you the finger. Rarely would you get the whole group giving the one finger salute in unison. Just as there are assholes who drive cars, there are assholes who ride bikes.

The other thing is the mob mentality. This is a common human trait that we see in any group of people not just cyclists. When people get together in a group, they are less considerate of others outside the group.

Your neighbor is having a party, and as the guests leave late at night, they laugh and talk loudly, slam car doors, and disrupt the sleep of people living several houses away. Usually these people are good neighbors, why would they have such inconsiderate friends we ask ourselves?

How many people have been in a restaurant where there is a large group of say ten or more people? I guarantee that party will be extremely loud, often obnoxious, and will have little regard for anyone else who is unfortunate enough to be seated nearby.  

However, this is what we have come to expect in certain bars and restaurants. There will always be large groups made up of co-workers, family members, celebrating someone’s birthday or something.

Also, an important factor, these are just people you can’t stereotype them.

But get a bunch of cyclists on the road, enjoying each other’s company, and are being no more, or no less considerate of others around them than the party in the restaurant.

The big difference is, now you can stereotype them, they are cyclists. Whenever you see a bunch of cyclists together, they seem to be behaving badly, therefore all cyclists are lumped together as being bad.

The larger the group the worse the behavior. Take sports fans assembled in their thousands and the mob mentality really takes over. The mob could be angry over their team’s loss, or celebrating their victory, the outcome is the same.

In extreme cases store windows are broken, parked cars are overturned, and even set on fire. Most people would not behave that way individually, or even in a smaller group.

This is how I try to explain why some cyclists behave badly. I don’t condone it. It is one of the reasons I no longer ride with large groups, even though it can be fun. So I ask that people don’t condemn me for riding a bike, just because a few cyclists behave badly.

What is needed is a little more tolerance and understanding on both sides. Cyclists need to be a little more considerate of other road users. Remember our cycling kit and helmet is what sets us apart so we will be stereotyped and others like us will be judged by our behavior.

And the general public needs to realize that these are just a group of friends enjoying each other’s company and getting some fresh air and exercise while doing so.  And if it is a Sunday, where are you going in such a big hurry anyway?

What are your views, and how do you handle the conversation with non-cyclists?

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Marketing Nothing

I remember having a conversation with someone in the 1980s. I think the conversation arose out of the fact that I was producing a handmade product, which was becoming increasingly rare.

I can’t even remember who the person was, but I clearly remember while referring to The United States, he said:

“We will eventually become a Nation of People producing nothing, just selling insurance to each other.”

It seems to me this prediction looms ever closer to coming true, but by now the terminology has changed. No one is “Selling” anything anymore, it is now called “Marketing.”

The problem is whether you are selling or marketing, it only works if people are buying, and in today’s economic climate people do not have loads of spare cash lying around to buy much of anything.

Now the world is full of “Marketing Gurus.” These are people who can no longer make a living by selling stuff, because no one is buying. So now they are selling nothing more than an idea, that you can make a ton of money selling or marketing on the Internet.

I ask myself this: If I found a way to make a lot of money, would I need to sell that idea to other people? No, I would be too busy making money.

There is an old story about a man in his neighbor’s garage when he notices a large number of boxes containing cleaning products. He remarked, “You must sell a lot of cleaning supplies.”

The neighbor replied, “No, but the man who sells me this stuff, he sells a lot of cleaning supplies.” It is the Internet Marketing Gurus who are making money, not the poor suckers who buy their idea.

Over the years I attended my share of sales seminars and read many books on the subject. What always troubled me was the messing with people’s minds, to convince them they needed what it was I were selling

Often it was borderline trickery to convince them that having whatever it was I was selling would make them happier, and their lives better than holding on to their hard-earned cash. Although not illegal, it somehow seemed to me to be morally wrong.

Companies and corporations need to start thinking about the people who work for them as well as their bottom line. Is it really necessary to lay people off and send jobs overseas?

Okay, so your product may cost a little more, and you sell a little less. But there are always people who will pay the extra for a quality product, and some because of the fact it is home produced. Downsizing and cutting back on some employees is better than firing everyone and sending the entire production offshore.

When I had my bike business, I was competing head on with the large Italian bike builders, who would send over in one container shipment more than my entire year’s production. But I was able to compete because I did not have the shipping and wholesale costs that they had.

I did not have their advertising costs of my large competitors either, because I only needed to sell a fraction of what they did.

I think the good thing that will come out of this recession is that people will become used to getting by on a little less. They will live simpler lives, less dependent on all this material stuff.

And the people listening to these Internet Marketing Gurus because it seems the only avenue open to them. Think again, they are selling nothing but an idea. False hope, or worse, a scam that will take what little you have, rather than make you money.

One cannot produce nothing and sell it indefinitely. What is needed is people producing worthwhile products or providing worthwhile services that other people need. Provide that and the marketing will take care of itself.

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The day the bicycle lost its heart and soul

When some one sent me a picture of a Fuso bike, (Above.) I knew at first glance that I did not build it. This one was built by Russ Denny, my former apprentice who took over my business when I retired in 1993. The frame had a sloping top tube, and while this is normal today, back prior to 1993 it was not.

I never built any frame with anything but a level top tube, with the exception of a few drop top ladies model, and the occasional twin tube “Mixtie” frame, which is a whole different frame design. I m talking of the standard road frame.

It made me think, what a run this simple design had. From the early 1900s until the mid to late 1990s, almost made it a hundred years without any major changes. Apart from basic geometry, tube angles, etc., once the standards were established, they remained the same, a level top tube was one of them, and any deviation from that was not acceptable, to either the framebuilder or the customer.

What I find amazing is that everything else changed so dramatically over the same period, I think of automobiles, aircraft, and just about any other manufactured item. They have all been though many changes over the same period.

It all started with the invention of the chain drive. The first was the British model “Rover” Safety Bicycle.So-called because its fore-runner was the Ordinary or High-wheeler model, (Below right,)

Although this was the first “Enthusiasts” bike, one had to be young, athletic, and have nerves of steel to even mount such a machine.

The Rover design pretty much established that the chain would drive the rear wheel, while the front wheel would provide a means of steering. The chainwheel, cranks and pedals would be just ahead of the rear wheel, and below the rider’s saddle.

The rider’s position was copied from the ordinary, and lead to those early frames having laid back “Slack” frame angles that would prevail into the 1950s.

Early frames were a hodge-podge of tubes of various shapes and sizes. The bicycle soon became mass-produced, which lead to it becoming an affordable means of transport for the working classes. Prior to that the only personal form of transport was a horse,

Mass production also lead to standard-ization and simplification of design. The chain itself is still half an inch pitch today the whole world over, even though most countries use the metric system.

Wheel sizes became standardized, and the frame design became the simple straight tube, diamond design, that we are all so familiar with.

Most of these standardizations came within the first ten years into the early 1900s. Tube sizes, 1 ¼ Head tube, 1 1/8th. Down and seat tube, 1-inch top tube. Most countries in the world including Italy, use these same Imperial size tubes. Hand brazed, lugged steel frames were, for the most part, the norm throughout this period.

It soon became obvious that frames would have to be different sizes to accommodate different size people, and the level top tube being parallel to the wheel centers, made it a point of reference, for the framebuilder to easily design and build a frame of any size.

The front fork being the same height for any frame, the position of the bottom head lug, and the length of the head tube is easy to arrive at, and head and seat angles are measured from horizontal top tube.

The advantage for the customer was, once he had established a size of frame that suited him, he could buy another of any make in that size, and it would fit.

Plus, the handlebars would be the correct height in relation to the saddle. No one spoke of handlebar drop.

When I left England in the late 1970s, my customers were almost exclusively amateur racing cyclists, their bikes all had the same componentry. Campagnolo Group, Cinelli handlebars and stem. Christophe toe clips, Binda laminated toe-straps. Tubular tires, and usually Mavic rims. Frames were either by a local builder like me, and therefore varied from one area to another.

If the frame was not by a local builder, it was by one of the larger English builders. Holdsworth, Mercian, Jack Taylor. Italian frames were not big in England at the time.  They were expensive compared to the UK built frames.

When the US Bike Boom happened in the 1970s English framebuilders, even the larger ones could not supply the demand, and they lost out to the Italian companies that  were larger, as they had been supplying most of the continent of Europe for years.

By moving to America, I was able to compete for a small niche of the market, but when the second bike boom hit, namely the Mountain Bike craze. Only a few high-end established mountain bike specialists were able to take advantage of their particular niche. The rest was taken over by companies like Giant, who found by building frames with sloping top tubes, they were able to build less sizes.

Above illusrates the evolution from the "One size fits all" BMX Bike, to the limited size MTB and Road Bike.

When this look became the norm, it made its way to road bikes, and by then carbon fiber was taking over from steel. Lugged steel had a good run, and I am proud to have been around at the end of that era.

The only other products I can think of that are made by craftsmen and remain the same year after year, are musical instruments. Everything else, including bicycles are now the same as any other consumer product that can become obsolete at the whim of the manufacturer.  

The bicycle, and in particular the lugged steel racing bike, took about ten years to establish standard designs and practices that would last for another 90 years. Towards the end changes in componentry came at a fast pace, (Index shifting, clipless pedals, etc.) culminating in the demise of the frame itself, which is fitting because after all the frame is the heart and soul of the bicycle.

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Pain

Do not let pain cause you to suffer, because then you have deal with both pain and suffering. The pain is real, the suffering is not. Accept the pain and the suffering will disappear, leaving only the pain to deal with. If the pain is physical in time it too will disappear as you heal. If the pain remains, at least your tolerance to it will increase.

If the pain is one of depression, then it is different, the suffering goes hand in hand with the pain. It is the person’s own thoughts that cause the pain and suffering. Practice mediation, (Not thinking.) engage in creative endeavors, exercise. Anything to distract one from thinking.

Writing is wonderful therapy, because one is taking their thoughts and getting them outside of their mind. (Writing the shit out, as I call it.) Sometimes those thoughts will then stay out. Save these writings, in a journal, or computer file, when you read them again the problems will seem less important.

In time there will be less and less problems to write about. When one runs out of problems to write about, it could lead to the end of the problems. If one writes about the serious problems first, the ones that follow will seem trivial by comparison. In time they will all seem less important.

If you are a depressed older person, think back to when you were happy, and know that before the pain you were, and after the pain you will remain. The pain is transient, you are not.

If you are a depressed young person, take it from an old person, it does get better as you age. In fact, if part of your depression is caused by people your own age, seek out some older people to talk to, they will be less judgmental, and more likely to accept you for who you are.

Lastly, if your depression is so bad that you are thinking of suicide, don’t do it. Get help. I have managed to live my life into old age, and I still have much I need to accomplish. So do you. When we die, we will be a long time dead. To bring it on before it is time is not the answer. Death is permanent, depression does not have to be.  

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

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The Past will Never Improve

If there is one life lesson, I have learned over the years it is that no matter how hard I try, my past will never get any better. All one can do is deal with it and move on. I was physically beaten as a child, both by my father and the British School System. Except it was not seen as abuse back in the 1940s, it was viewed as discipline. 

History too will not improve, bad things happened, we cannot change that. However, we can learn from it and move on. Today at 84 years old, I can remember almost 80 years of living history. Much of it I did not understand at the time, other events I still don’t understand to this day.

The first black men I ever saw were the African American soldiers who came over to England in 1944 along with the rest of the American army. They came in readiness for the Normandy Invasion.  The black soldiers had their own separate segregated camp. I was told by other kids at school, “The white soldiers don’t like the black soldiers.” I never understood why? “Aren’t they all on the same side?” I asked.

Later in the mid-1950s and early 1960s while in my teens and early 20s still in England I watched the Newsreel at my local movie theater. I saw white police in the Southern States beating black people with clubs, attacking with police dogs, and high-pressure water cannons. Again, I asked why? What is their problem?

Here we are 60 years later, and we are still seeing the same police brutality, not just in the US, but the world over. When a police officer kills someone, it is often found that this same officer has had numerous complaints filed against him and nothing was done.

When a District Attorney is found to have convicted several innocent people, why are they not held accountable? Why is there not an inquiry? If it were a CEO of a large corporation who was showing this level of incompetence, there would certainly be an enquiry.

In any country, even in the so-called Free World, we are only as free as the police allow us to be. People are protesting police brutality all over the world; a very real and pressing issue. However, people are getting side-tracked, and trying to erase history. 

I ask myself, what is the point of going back, sometimes hundreds of years and accusing people of racism and white supremacy, when they are long dead, and it wasn’t even known by those terms back then, any more than my being beaten with a stick was seen as child abuse. There are plenty of pressing current issues.

Here is a piece of history we can learn from; peaceful demonstrations by large numbers of people are far more effective than violent and destructive one’s. Martin Luther King proved that. So too are large numbers of people making their voice heard at the ballot box. Going violently against police in full riot gear is an exercise in futility, like poking a bear with a stick.

We cannot erase history and forget it happened, and if we do not learn from it, it is bound to repeat. Sadly, every time it does, the price goes up.

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