From the Victory Ride in 2024 |
None of which sound like "fun". Racing is fine, but one site I follow only posts about racing, and almost always about the most niche races no one knows about. Then another site I follow is always posting about techniques to get faster or whatever, and it points out how "you aren't good enough yet, but do this...." I mean, this is their messaging, as I see it.
Then you have the ever-present tech articles which appeal to the bike-nerds like myself, but to the average cyclist? All this super-spendy tech seems to only force folks into feeling the cycling industry is a rip-off.
Again, none of this sounds like fun. Maybe this is why most US citizens are looking online and getting their cycling stuff off Amazon or from big-box online and brick and mortar retailers. They don't have to clear gate-keepers, understand technology they've likely never heard of in their daily lives, or deal with uninformed or snooty clerks at bicycle shops.
Bicycles were supposed to be fun. Freedom, fitness, and adventures were the main reasons to purchase a two-wheeled contraption when I was young. Heck, I never even heard about a racing bike until the Summer of my junior year in high school. I managed to fall in love with cycling despite my ignorance of FTP, carbon fiber, and carbon monoxide rebreathing.
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You mean you can have fun on a bicycle? |
The barriers to getting into gravel races was a big deal starting with post-COVID gravel events. Socially conscientious event directors began to push for inclusion of minorities and for gender equality. It's sad the cycling industry itself doesn't think in terms of removing barriers. It is painfully obvious this doesn't matter.
Raising the ceiling on prices, posting on the latest tech which costs an arm and a leg, focusing on racing which only pertains to a infinitesimally small portion of cyclists- All of this alienates the common person who might just want something else. Something like escape from this mad world, a good time, and ease of getting involved.
Can all the latest Winter cycling garb tests, the banter about aero helmets, and wireless transmissions on 10K+ bicycles. It creates barriers to entry. Maybe focus efforts on cycling infrastructure, how you can enjoy cycling while wearing Chuck Taylors, or make yourself calmer and more healthy by spinning wheels around the blocks in your neighborhood.
Or, maybe just say cycling is a hoot, and you are missing out on it if you didn't partake in the sport. Put people in ads who look like they are enjoying a ride, and not squinting through pain while sprinting for a finish line. Make cycling fun again.
Or....just continue to churn out the same tired messaging the industry has trotted out for the past 40+ years.
I know how that works. Ha!