Do we have the wrong hobby?
Recently my never-ending quest for bike-related nonsense has thrown up a website which has you shaking your head in wonder. In tapping in to the Hipster zeitgeist it gives a brief but tantalising window into a world I fear sadly we will never inhabit, no matter how many Mongoose Fixies we may moon over.
I’m as bad as the next man in that regard, show me a matte black and lime green ‘colourway’ and I go all weak at the knees. AndyC usually needs sponging down I think. And to think I used to lust after short travel full-sus bikes with black components…
But I’m rambling dangerously off-track, the perpetual habit of the committed mountain biker. I think it may have been the distraction of a carbon Serotta road bike finished in a rather unpleasant sand-beige faux-bamboo paint effect for the North American Handmade Bike Show. A place to watch trends evolve and leave others to rue their suspect taste I think.
What I’ve been trying to say, tangentially and in circumspect fashion is that I’ve recently come across a website of the Hipsteratti called ‘Hipster Wife Hunting‘, a sort of place for Hipsters to gather together and mull the virtues and opportunities offered by marriage to young Hipster women (is it Hipster women, ladies, gals or [shudder] grrlz? I don’t know).
Entirely safe for work but very suspect for your career, Hipster Wife Hunting shows that even the impossibly cool and most determinedly confident Hipster guys out there are just looking for good old fashioned love after all. Or maybe it’s just someone to tell them ‘it’s OK to be different, in a swimming-against-the-tide-of-life-but-still-part-of-a-tribe sort of way’.
It almost makes you want to buy yourself a fixie with leather wrapped bull bars and a hairy top tube pad and go and hang out in Brooklyn or something. Or at least, somewhere near the Chiswick High Road.
Me? I’m just trying to see if any of the prospective wives want a dalliance with a slightly needy but very grateful man in his ‘middle years’. Go on girls, be a bit different!
About the author
Matt is one of the founding Molefathers of the Muddymoles, and is the designer and main administrator of the website.
Having ridden a 2007 Orange Five for many years then a 2016 YT Industries Jeffsy 29er, he now rocks a Bird Aether 9 and a Pace RC-627.
An early On-One Inbred still lurks in the back of the stable as a reminder of how things have moved on. You can even find him on road bikes - currently a 2019 Cannondale Topstone 105 SE, a much-used 2011 Specialized Secteur and very niche belt drive Trek District 1.
If you've ever wondered how we got into mountain biking and how the MuddyMoles started, well wonder no more.
There are 7 comments on ‘Do we have the wrong hobby?’
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tony says:
Does Mrs Matt read this blog!
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Posted on March 3, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Andy C says:
Try the back pages of the Kingston Informer, Matt. I am always amazed by the ‘services’ offered, and you don’t even need to buy an expensive and slightly daft bike to take part.
Naturally I am only reading them to be kept aware of the latest sociological trends.
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Posted on March 4, 2010 at 10:29 am
John R says:
Am I the only one not entirely sure what a Hipster is, or is it just us over 50’s – err I mean us Super Vets?
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Posted on March 4, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Dave says:
Good question John.
I’d assumed it was someone who considered themselves “hip”, or cool and trendy. I suspect this is what the guy in the website means although I also suspect some may use a less endearing term beginning with a “w” to fulfill the same function.
He may be looking for a mate in low cut jeans though.
However Google also leads me to believe that “Hipster” was a term that originated in the 1940’s as a term to describe a Jazz afficianado. To which I can only really say “Nice…….”
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Posted on March 4, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Jem says:
It’s all becoming clear Andy C, now we know why you’ve gone with the – and I quote “expensive and slightly daft bike to take part” and the trendy, earthy colour scheme.
I knew it,
admit it your irresistable, your a Kingstonian Hipster aren’t you?!!
Jealous!
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Posted on March 5, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Matt says:
LOL at Jem! Hipster Moles, that’s what we’ll call ourselves then…
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Posted on March 5, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Andy C says:
Curses, I would’ve got away with it if it wasn’t for that pesky Jem. I’ve not really hurt my hand again, the truth is the Pace is being converted into a ‘fixie’. The Hope X2s have been ditched, and I’m secretly riding ‘Death Star’ on Pitch Hill with the pedal cranks spinning like propellers and only my pedalling backwards for brakes. That’s why I need the full-face helmet and body armour.
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Posted on March 5, 2010 at 3:51 pm