I wouldn't look too hard for a connection between changes in bicycle technology and changes at Bicycling. The connection is really between the decline of the magazine and the decline of Western Civilization. Okay, okay, I'm being a bit overly dramatic, but simply put, Bicycling is just a crappy advertisement for "lifestyle" cyclists. Time was that Rodale's mission was to help readers do things to make positive changes in their life, their health and their environment (paraphrasing). Then Bob died. Bob Rodale, son of Rodale founder JI Rodale, is described by nearly all of his aquaintances who I've met as a "visionary." He was a leading authority on composting before that Land Grant universities all started their own research. Now it seems that every municipality in the US has a yard waste composting program. Bob rode a bike between Rodale buildings in Emmaus and took the Bieber bus to Rodale offices in NYC. Bikes are no longer allowed in Rodale offices. Rodale's current CEO has a limo and a driver. So does his secretary. Meanwhile the company just laid off 140 people. Rodale is no longer about substance, about health, the evironment or anything else that matters. You might think that the next thing I'm going to say is that they're all about making money. I'm not going to say that, becasue hopefully they always have been and always will be about making money. They are a corporation, after all. But I will say they are now about image, and not about substance. They know that the average Rodale reader looks at any given issue for less than 5 minutes. The magazines reflect it in their USA today layout where ad and editorial are indistinguishable.
Why the loss of substance? Is the short attention span of the TV generation to blame? Perhaps. But then there is the family. While Bob was an intelligent man and his wife is a flaky half-wit and the children, who now run the company got Mom's genes. Maria is now at the helm, and seems to be using the opportunity to compensate for never being one of the cool kids in high school. Content and substance are out, a hip-and-cool image is in. Want proof? Check out an issue of Organic Style, Maria's new project. Steal ideas from "Martha Stewart Living" and add an "earth friendly" spin. What you get is a magazine that at best serves to help wealthy thirtysomethings and fortysomethings reconcile their pathological consumerism with their environmental guilt. "I always swore I'd never be a Yuppie!" Well yuppies are a thing of the past, but Explorer-driving "environmentalists" seem to have taken their place.
Tom Dalton
No real connection to Bicycling.
> As the bikes have become more
> functional, but less artistic and shapely, so has
> the magazine become more crass. The articles from
> the 70's and 80's included musings about the sheer
> beauty of this or that stem shape or frame
> detailing. Now that the bikes are industrial and not
> pretty, the writing has become functional window
> dressing in support of the way the industry has
> moved. I may be wrong, but do any of the
> contributing staff ever question the value of 10 cog
> freehubs or robot weld displays?
>
> Garth Libre in windy South Florida (Surfside Fl)
> with several 0.75 mile sprints at 32.5 mph on level
> ground this morning.
>
>
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