mikeferrentino profile

I remember we ran a version of that in Bikemag way back when. Might have been Ryan Creary writing it, or one of the others. But what a grueling trek!

Pig ignorance combined with lack of foresight and nowhere near enough money, now I have a nice gravel trap. I like to pretend it's my own personal runaway truck ramp, but flat, and it only works on bicycles and full wheelbarrows.

Ahh, but therein lies the rub. I'm not really thinking much about snow at all. The q-factor is a thing, though, boy howdy.

People I know who live in those places where the snow gets groomed tell me that they can ride their regular bikes faster on those trails than fatbikes, which kinda puts a bullet in that line of reasoning, so I hear ya. I'm scratching an itch that has been gnawing away at me ever since I took someone else's fatbike for a spin in an arroyo down in Baja a dozen years ago. I do not in any way see this as a replacement for my regular bike on regular trails, but more a way to get into exploring some places that don't really have much in the way of trails at all. That, and I wanted a bike with lots of those three-hole bottle mount options.

Often referred to by its practitioners as "drinkers with a running problem."

Beautiful.

e-bikes can suck it.

In this particular instance, I feel that the potential goodwill made in terms of a broader human representation is in danger of being erased. Specialized has some solid initiatives in things like Soil Sampling and Outride, but those still seem like drops in the bucket to my full-tilt socialist idealism. 

Also, I never got around to saying this: change does not happen overnight, nor does it occur in a vacuum. The push toward ambassadors cracked the door open, created a greater culturewide visibility for people other than white dudes, and I am very thankful that this became important for so many brands to lean into. My concern now is that this is a fragile state, and that the very prevalent "Dude, stop bumming me out with all this inclusivity; I came hear to read about bikes" vibe that came up time and time again at Bike and Beta whenever we talked about any sort of race or gender issues will reassert itself and discourage those voices.

I also am incredibly thankful that the readership at nsmb.com generally resonates at a higher frequency than the virtual dick swinging, troll-baiting, close-minded jingoism that permeates the comment sections in so many other places. Thank you all.

Look, I already copped to my paranoia. And as much as I personally think the whole ambassador/influencer push of the past decade was probably too much to be sustainable, I cannot help but be impressed by the color and gender inroads that were made. So, when a brand basically walks away entirely from that initiative, I wonder if this is a signal that other brands may be doing the same thing. And since it was so easy to justify closing out that budget line, is it a stretch to say that maybe people outside the traditional mostly white, mostly male buying demographic weren't representing the most profitable target market?

I didn't say "oppression"- that was your choice of word. I said "not profitable enough." And you're right, I have ZERO evidence to present.

Rider's Republic, a video game by Ubisoft.

Wish I could say that this was anything but coincidence. Winter is a shitty time to lose a job, and I feel for everyone who got cut.