Quite a rant. Very well stated, but totally misplaced. The Atlantic? I read the Atlantic for opinion pieces from James Fallows, Charlie Pierce, Tom Nichols, et. al. If they're pandering to me, then I'm a pandee. I don't care.
It's an easy trap we all fall into. It's very easy to forgive writers when they say what we want to hear, even when it's devoid of fact. Problem is I think people have become too accustomed to it, which is how dirtbags like Faux News gets away with being "entertainment" not "news".
It's a double trap when it comes to opinion pieces, as they are exactly that. More oft than not opinion articles and editorials present views without supporting facts, and that's something I'm always on the watch for in this world of lies, stupidity, and sociopathy being promoted as a virtue.
I also don't know what's eating Ian Bogost about ebikes. In an interview with Associate Editor Isabel Fattel (Atlantic Daily newsletter I received this evening) Ian laments the end of car stick shifts, and answers questions about his beef with ebikes:
See how he calls them "like motorbikes?", and never once says what bike he got? e-bikes run a full gamut of styles, tire sizes, etc. Something like a RadCity 5 or Aventon Level are not "motorcycles" by any stretch. Though you get people who know jack **** about cycling who see 4" fat tires and think it's automatically a motorcycle.
As evidenced by a friend of mine who got harassed by a Karen on a local trail her screaming at him to get the "dirt bike" off the path because it was for bicycles not motorcycles, when what he had was a Dolemite ALX... not even motorized. But people see the tires an freak the **** out!
Just like the anti-throttle pedants and people who treat the idiotic arbitrary "level" system as if it were the gospel, who freak out as if 20mph is "too fast" when my tubby tuchas approached those speeds on a crappy non-motorized 3 speed 26" cruiser. One of the articles referenced here talks about 12 being a "normal speed" for a biker, and I'm thinking on what? A single speed beach cruiser? A 12 year old on a BMX?
But then I live someplace where riding on the sidewalks is illegal and apart from a handful of poorly maintained former rail lines, we have little noteworthy bicycle infrastructure.
WTF? Beneath the pseudo-intellectual babble about advocacy and "coolness", he sounds like an insecure 12 year old.
His tone reminded me of first gen Prius owners who didn't get them to "Save the environment" but in a fit of stealth narcissism. "look at me, I own a Prius, I'm better than you!" was the attitude common at the start of "affordable" EV's.
It took the apartheid blood money trust fund baby stealing credit for other people's ideas to make them "cool"
Could be he got a fat tire e-bike not for stuff like offroad or snow, but because he thought it was cool, then quickly found out it was not suited to stuff like full time commute -- at least not in its stock configuration. He doesn't sound like a "bike guy" to begin with, so he probably also went in with the false expectation that just grabbing something off the shelf would be a "purchase and done".
But more than that, it just sounds like he was trying to buy one as a status symbol. The same way know-nothing idiots light money on fire with "modern art" or Apple products. When it wasn't getting him the proper "look of respect" from his peers, that's what REALLY upset him.
Comical given how often I get compliments on how "cool" mine is, but I actually put work, time, and money into making it such.
Most of us riding ebikes don't give a s*** about coolness. Otherwise, we wouldn't be wearing dorky helmets and padded underwear.
This really cracked me up. Especially since I'm not in the spandex crowd. My gig being a padded (shoulders and elbows) flannel overshirt that looks like normal fall clothing, a leather cut with an impact panel, and a DOT certified half-helm. At least when it's cool enough. Safety or no I have great difficulty armoring up when the temperature is above 65F.
But to be fair, I'm miserable at any temp over that clothing or no; running the AC well into October (In New Hampshire). There's a reason I keep considering moving back to Alaska. Hell, who are we kidding, I'm wondering if they need help at McMurdo Sound.
Which is really the only type of "coolness" I really care about.
Anyhow, pseudo-intellectual babble is what I've come to expect from the Atlantic, though in the case of this Ian clown, he sounds like the typical effete elitist inner-city rich kid looking for something to lord over his peers. And whatever bike it was he got didn't rub an itch likely rooted in insecurity and preconceived notions.
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