Friday, May 25, 2007

MTV and Fixed Gears

The word on the street is that MTV is going to do a reality show on bike culture...most likely fixed geared bikes. What does this mean for bicycling? Fixed gears? Who knows. Feelings are mixed. Lots of people are afraid that it is going to sell out the bike scene and we'll have a lot of noobs accessorizing their Chrome bags with a bunch of Pistas.

I'm somewhere in the middle. If it gets more kids on bikes than SUVs, then awesome. I'm just hoping that after the initial fad has passed, a few of them will hang on to the bikes rather than looking for next big thing.

Ultimately, bicycling needs something like this. Rather than portraying bicyclists as freaks and outcasts (think "40 Year Old Virgin"), it would be nice to have them shown as cool and leading edge. Knowing MTV, it will be a bunch of quick edits with kids doing wheelies, skidding and backwards circles. Think YouTube but with a budget and some bass.

1 comment:

Nord said...

You do have to give it up for Wahlberg and Schwartzmann in "I Heart Huckabees."