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Dec
30
Wired: Bicycles are a good gadget for hard times
Filed Under Exhibitor News, Industry News, Interbike | 1 Comment
As part of my continuing effort to call out and celebrate efforts by the non-endemic media to promote bicycles and cycling in a positive way, here comes Wired magazine again. As I’ve written before, I’m a big fan of their blend of tech and social issues, which is essentially what a bike is: the result of (and constant source of inspiration for) technological innovation and an agent for social change.
Their latest mention of the bicycle is in the piece entitled “12 Good Gadgets for Hard Times.” Our beloved bike is in there along with other gadgets with HDTV, USB, PC and GSM in their names. In their own words, these choices:
Don’t cost a huge amount, have lasting utility, aren’t likely to break or wear out quickly, and will continue to be useful even when the infrastructure around them is crumbling.
With that in mind, here’s our list of gadgets that will be handy in case the economic recession becomes a full-blown depression and turns iPhone lines into bread lines.
And, by the way, you’ll notice that the bicycle is one of their few choices that make it through the typically vitriolic comments section unscathed. An enlightened choice, I dare say.
Kudos as well for highlighting the practical Xtracycle.
Sep
29
Wired: As America Implodes, The Bike Industry Booms
Filed Under Cycling, Exhibitor News, Industry News, Interbike | 1 Comment
“The nation may be wracked by collapsing banks, foreclosed houses and a tanking economy, but there’s no sign anything’s amiss here at Interbike, the bike industry’s annual trade show. In fact, it’s party time as a perfect storm of eco-conscious consumerism, health-conscious lifestyles and wallet-sapping gas prices conspires to get people out of cars and onto bikes — especially electric ones.”
I enjoyed meeting a bunch of the Wired magazine team that attended Interbike this year. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m a big fan of the publication and was excited to see my quote in the article. I don’t know if that was my exact quote, but I can see some of my comments worked into the rest of the piece. Read the rest of the article with the dramatic headline here. They also posted a ton of other content on their site from the show. See their Interbike coverage here.
When I was back in my hotel room each night after leaving the nice little bubble of the bike industry, I would brush my teeth while watching CNN or some other news of the real world. The title of the Wired article may be a bit dramatic, but given the dichotomy between the positive vibe on the show floor and the news of the collapsing financial institutions and the debate over the government’s proper response in the news, I can understand where it came from.
How do you see the two disparate situations affecting your area or business?
Jun
25
Wired Mag: Bikes as Geek Tech
Filed Under Exhibitor News, Gear, Industry News, Interbike | 3 Comments
I love Wired Magazine. Love the tech, the science, the design, the snarkiness and the utter geek-coolness that permeates each issue. And Wired seems to love bikes, too. They do an inordinate amount of bike-related stories for a techie magazine and attend Interbike each year. I did a search for ‘bike‘ at their website and got over 4800 links to articles. Love that bikes fit right in with iPhones, Drobos, Star Wars fanboy movie reviews, geoengineering solutions to climate change and Wii’s.
In the spirit of the magazine’s review style, here’s the July 2008 issue of Wired that just arrived in the mail:
Wired: They dedicate two whole pages to bikes: the first to Specialized’s Tarmac SL2 (‘Olympic Gear’), and the second to a test of four cyclo-cross bikes: the Moots Psychlo-X, Cannondale’s XTJ, the Specialized S-Works Tricross and Redline’s Conquest Pro. Are you guys planning to be at Cross Vegas his year?
Tired: They get the colors of the world champion rainbow stripes flowing through the article right, but they get the order wrong. Nice gesture guys, but it’s blue – red – black – yellow – green. I stand corrected: Mark from Wired commented (below) that the colors are actually intended to represent the Olympic ring colors which are the same but in the printed order. Sorry!
The feature doesn’t seem to be online yet since the issue’s still fresh, so pick up a copy at your newsstand.