Postmodern road cycling and VDB
Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by Josh in Bike industry, ROAD Magazine, Trends
Here are a few excerpts from my next column for ROAD Magazine. The topic is the new dichotomy in cycling between the hegemonic modernism – driven by the notion that high-end cycling consumers want increasingly high-performance, race-proven equipment – and the new postmodernism – which filters simplicity, camaraderie and iconic elements of cycling’s past through an artistic lens. I’ve also collected a few thoughts about Frank Vandenbroucke’s passing.
Rapha promotional vehicle from the Tour of Britain
Postmodernism
A business theorist named Peter Drucker once wrote that an enterprise has two essential functions: marketing and innovation. Until quite recently, this philosophy dominated the segment of the bike industry that focuses on road cyclists who could be described as “moderate-to-heavy users”. However, there now seems to be a backlash against the innovation part of Drucker’s dictum as newly influential players emphasize nostalgia rather than performance. But how far will this new aesthetic carry them?
… legitimate innovation in the road cycling market is harder and harder to achieve. After a flurry of advancements a few years ago, it’s now possible to buy an inexpensive, unbranded carbon frame from Asia that’s lighter and stiffer than pretty much every frame that was ever produced prior to around 2006. Consumers know this.
VDB
I think that VDB’s death tapped into many of the same emotions as this postmodern aesthetic. In some ways, he transports us back to the transition from pro cycling’s past to its present. Had his career stayed on track, he certainly would have followed his contemporaries into aero wheels, power meters, and the wind tunnel. He might even have adapted from the naked, unrepentant doping of his era to the more secretive cheating of today.
But it was never meant to be. Even as he hung around the fringes of the sport, VDB never truly joined pro cycling’s modern era. So our image of him remains that of his early years – brash, helmetless, smashing climbs in the big ring.
Speaking of brands, innovation and what you describe as anti-innovation: The market responds favorably to anything that harkens back to a simpler time. That year varies depending on your generation, but nostalgia sells–see Sundance, or the illustrations of Sheryl Chapman, or watch how fast the old-timey Radio Flyers sell in the next month. Safe to say this will make the brands stronger and it’s not an either/or proposition. Could even support R&D!
And on a semi-related note, props to Electra for selling the lifestyle over the model. See their website (with Art Brewer’s sublime photography) for examples of emotion over model.