On 13/04/2006, Hilary Stone of sunny Bristol, England wrote:
>
> Fashion certainly played a major part - if function was the main
> consideration everybody would have been using Simplex or Suntour rear
> derailleurs, Suntour front mechs, Stronglight chainsets, bottom
> brackets and
> headsets, Shimano Dura-Ace brakes - with perhaps Campag pedals, and
> hubs in
> the 70s.
True that.
Fashion is a beautiful and odd influence. I was a going nowhere, middle of the range BMX dude till my school bus stopped in a traffic snarl outside the only roadie/european bike shop for miles around my parts. The bikes and wheels didn't catch my eye but boy oh boy did I lust, drool and pant for the black del Tongo wool trainer with yellow letters and "gay pride" stripes. It was till then the coolest thing I had ever seen and I had to have it. It was gonna be my thing.
Suffice to say a few weeks later I rolled outta the shop with that wool trainer, the flashest Detto's they had and a largely pedestrian bike with black plastic Ofmega derailleurs that I can't remember much about whether good or bad. The bike was for the most just to cover my vanity and although I had a few road riding friends I didn't really know why I was wanting to ride longer distances than I was doing on my Mongoose or why I needed so many more gears. But it looked cool and I wasn't one to question cool when I was only 15.
Within a year I was hooked and had met a Hustler in that me and our mates got specced with the best frames and parts which we paid off weekly, with little or no deposit. We were happy and any club or race meets we were at people would ask about our bikes, especially when as 16 year old kids we be rocking italian frames and groupsets they had only seen in magazines and that weren't officially released. We pointed them to our Hustler and new bike shop owner who quickly established himself as a provedore of the best bikes in an otherwise crummy and poor ass neighbourhood in a dead end town. We brought him business, he kitted us with the best bikes at cost (or less). By the time I could legally drive a car my bike cost more than my parents car. They thought it strange: seeing that I rode my italian bike when all the others were driving cars and taking chicks to drive-ins. I just figured date chicks with cars, keep bike. More than once did I spend Friday night alone after picking up a chick at her place, only for her to abort the evening when realizing that I had no car and a walk to the station, and a train ride into the city was on the offer. So I started scrounging to use my parents car ... but never did I think to trade my bike in.
I didn't think it strange but now thinking back jeez me and my cycling mates, we were so snobby and all knowing about bikes for such young an age. I even refused to ride clinchers, only started to in the last few years. I still regret it .... it's hard to adapt when all you were used to was the best, the finest and the most expensive. I guess we were just bike dandy's in a ghetto of underemployment, crime and a bleak world. The bleaker the surroundings, the more elitist we had to feel and knowing we spent every penny we had, and even beyond what we had meant that we never accepted the world we were in or supposed to be a part of. Of course I wore the del Tongo wool trainer to school, at home, on the bike, everywhere ... nobody had one, nobody even knew what it was or meant and funnily it meant to me that I was different or had a right to feel different because nobody rode a bike unless they had to or was in the act of stealing one ... let alone a bike that cost more than most cars.
I was a poseur .... I didn't want to fit in or seem to accept the fate like those around me, I dreamed of a different life, exotic, cultured and with a global perspective. That to me is fashion ... a costume, a facade a dream. Now I see kids wanna look street, ride fixies, tape up their fancy lugged frames. That's cool ... it means fashion is in fact a wheel and always evolving and never constant. All the world is riding carbon unobtanium stuff, and they just rocking a different tune, at odds and to counter the norm. Some cats swing like that and that is good. Im rambling now but I just wish I had kept a book which had images of pioneering graffiti artists mostly from new york in the late 70's and early 80's. Among them were at least 10 shots of ghetto fabulous dudes riding mighty fine and full kit italian bikes, Dondi White and others. I felt a parallel ... where it was wise and perhaps natural to flee or fall in place by buying a car, it was frivolous and fanciful to be riding a crazy expensive 10 speed. But to me it made sense: why drive an ordinary car when you could be riding on the finest of bicycles, the best that can be bought. Of course it had to be Italian. Vain but very, very cool.
Gee, now that I read the above I feel like I don't really have a point and am not sure of what Im trying to say ....... I guess, bikes and fashion is natural. As is fashionable bikes or ..... Pimp Bici, no? Being a poseur means wishing for a different world and seeing yourself removed from reality. Avoiding sameness and mundanity is never a crime. Ain't it funny that for most of the world a bike is a tool and a means of transport but for some of us it is but a precious jewell, artistic and something to lust for. A utilitarian conveyance of bespoke artisanship and rarity, but humble. Odd and beautiful. Fashion.
Oh yeah ....... Raoul D. - You 'da best !!!!!!! Welcome back, Kotter ;)
Ciao,
Ben Kamenjas Sydney, Oz
Trivia?: what bike is Spike Lee riding in the film "She's gotta Have
It"?
.... and is that a young(er) Giantindaro zipping past in the
background (hard to say, he's fast on that 48 x 17, just a blur really
even at 24 frames per second) ?