Yeah that kid is probably 45 today. By the way I love that he’s never been cropped out of the meme through god knows how many iterations because his facial expression is the real punchline of the image: Clearly trolling and barely concealing the fact.

They have (had?) these across the California border from Vegas. Bright as fuck, you could see them dozens of miles away when flying in on a plane, but couldn’t look directly at them.

Everything is political, and there has never been a time that proves that better than now.

Vegan here, no not really. The energy industry (Primary driver of soy production) and animal ag industry (Largest consumer of soy by mass) just needed a scapegoat for the subsidies and overproduction.

It was really funny about a decade back watching the entire bike industry all at once acknowledge friction coefficients, and suddenly the tires all went from 24mm/90psi to 38mm/40psi. All because the roadies started riding on gravel.

You could argue that TPI tubes / tubeless made larger road tires practical. But we all secretly know it was because people at the time just thought thin tires looked cooler and “more aero”.

Steel is real. The road feel difference between carbon and steel is negligible, steel is usually way cheaper, survives a whole lot longer, is more often built to widely compatible standards, is fully recyclable, and in my humble opinion just straight up feels better under you on a ride. As for weight, unless one is a pro race cyclist there is never any reason to chase gram shavings, you will almost always lose more weight and go faster by working out your own body. But FWIW my default steel rig is 19 pounds and competes on weight with most carbon builds.

There’s a bell curve. If you burn out too quick you’re not gonna get nearly as much cardio, and the torque required to move a real clunker is extra stress on your joints. Plus it’s just not as much fun, cycling is a sustainable exercise largely because it’s fun. But it’s very true that a decent workout bike can be had for $100 if you look. My two workout bikes were both built in the 90s.

In the cycling community we call those guys Freds.

And it’s more of a light ribbing than a condemnation, since at least they’ve got themselves on a bike.