An Amusement & Diversion for The Genteel Cyclist. Daily.

Monday, September 17, 2007

A writer, a city magazine, a folding bike, a tight deadline


New York magazine -- Clay Felker's great mag that was born in the shadow of the New Yorker, but has never quite emerged from it -- fell half a peg in PFN's estimation today. In reviewing the Puma folding bike, they allowed their ersatz bike commuter to lead her review with this highly dubious statement of credentials:


The summer after my junior year in college, I biked from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. Last summer, in France, I took a bike up Mount Ventoux in the Pyrenees, climbing mountain passes so steep that I’d almost rather forget. You could say I know from bikes.



Maybe the writer knows from bikes, but certainly not from geography. Ventoux is technically a part of the Alps, but is actually an isloated peak in Provence -- hundreds of miles from the Pyrenees.

We applaud Ms. Yuan's contrarian impulse to find something nice to say about a folding bike (See Great Cycling Debates for the Esoteric, below), but it's a losing battle. Also, we feel compelled to point out: 35 pounds is not light for a bike of any kind, except maybe a tandem or a motorbike.

Adam, if you want a bike editor, you know where to find us.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Wait, she writes "I wish I was hardcore enough for the track bikes messengers ride (often without gearshifts...)" and you're knocking her geography skills?

2. You may know about French mountains, but obviously you know nothing about the geography of New York magazine. Unfortunately, you just applied for a Shopping Editor gig.

Pinchie said...

ha. good points. although i forgive the parenthetical appositive (to, y'know, explain fixies without having to say fixies; not technically an oxymoron).

Also, I can't get the damn bar-end shifters out of MY fixie conversion "track bike", so there you go.

Also, New York mag ain't so bad. More bike reviews in more general interest mags = more jobs for which I can apply!

Pinchie said...

Also, "I wish I was" is wrong. Since it's subjunctive, it should be "I wish I were." She got it right; you got it wrong.

Just sayin'. (Adam, you have my number, dammit. Phone is just sitting there.)