Ok, I know, I know. Stuff like this is basically BS and a blatant attempt by a not-so-clever ad campaign to capitalize on an energy and financial crisis that is strangling average Americans. Much like Trek's One World Two Wheels campaign (which I myself have vaunted.) ClifBAR is pushing cycling as a way to make money. They're a business, that's what businesses do. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm just as cynical about peoples' motivation as the next guy, but there is one relevant detail to keep in mind. This is one more voice trying to get more people on bikes and less people driving cars. Is it soulless? I kind of doubt it. It's certainly not all that hip, but if you want soulless go here, here, or here, and get on the waiting list for a hybrid SUV (a contradiction in terms if ever there was one) and pat yourself on the back for doing something (nothing) to better the world around you.
Na, I'll take Trek, and Clif, and whoever else is marketing bikes instead of the inefficient alternative. Sure there are going to be things about this that irritate those of us who have been cycle commuting since way before suburban white kids rediscovered fixed gears or gas was four dollars a gallon. I'll agree that it's cynical, and I'll still smile when I see a fifty year old guy riding his mid eighties mountain bike, with a rear touring rack mounted on it, out of the grocery store parking lot, past a line of (still) gas guzzling 'hybrid' SUVs.
C
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