Ah yes I remember a small British Brand that made really nice but expensive cycling kit of exemplary quality, really gorgeous it was and I er suppose still is…..
Sadly it appears to be iconised by complete and utter twats, now that’s quite strong language for here but sadly true, I guess my first sign of this heinous colonisation was the gimp in head to toe Rapha in Richmond park last winter and a badly adjusted fixed wheel bicycle. Sadly the trend has continued and there’s a whole army of them these days on their fixed wheel bikes clogging up the roads of London, riding bikes to be cool, not for the love of the swish of rubber on tarmac but just to look fly.
What’s wrong with a cycling jersey and some rolled up jeans, why do you need your special three quarter tailored pants your shop bought fixie, you however many hundred pound travel bag and training diary, oh it’s because you’ve got no imagination or even the vaguest sense of style.
Now some might feel that this is an unfair rant against Rapha but special edition jerseys at nearly two hundred pounds and executive boxes for watching the tour, only in the UK could the world’s most exciting free sorts event be turned into gross commercial drivel…….
Rapha…that’s who killed fixed!
27 Wednesday Jun 2007
The Life and Times of an Overactive Underacheiver 
I dont know about the streets of London but around these parts there’s a noticable increase in the number of fixie riders, only last night I saw 2 Langsters within a 100 meters of each other going opposite ways.
Rode mine this morning for the first time in 2 years, only 2 near misses 🙂
Rapha ??, its lovely stuff and I covet a pair of their track mitts but the undercurrent you mention is stopping me from buying some, stupid really but I dont want to be associated with “that2 type of rider, which ironically is probably exactly the type of rider I am !
Don’t get me started…
Rapha have clearly ‘jumped the shark’ for a lot of people. They’ve gone beyond producing covetable, desirable products and turned into a parody of themselves.
That said, I’m pretty sure it’s a London thing you’re describing. It’s fairly likely that the next fixed rider I see will a gnarly old git with nut brown skin and hamstrings of steel hawser. He’ll probably be wearing an acrylic jumper that’s just old, not retro 🙂
A colleague of mine has a Rapha tweed cycling cap.
I generally make fun of him stating he needs a whippet with it or call him George Formby.
Yes, he rides fixed.
Reverse snobbery in action IMO. Trying to find a pair of cycle specific pants that aren’t full on road warrior design is getting easier thanks to Rapha and others. I own a pair of fixed shorts and enjoy them precisely because I can ride into town for a stroll through the mall or dinner and not look like I belong in the peloton. I have their fixed T and the same applies, it works as a practical cycling jersey yet can be worn in public. I’m 58 yrs, and have some disposable income, so why not Rapha? I’d get laughed out of the city if I tried the Fixie/Messenger under 25 look and at my age I have no desire to roll up my Levis so why not some fashionable knickers? That said, some of that Paul Smith stuff wouldn’t just get me laughed out of town here in the American west, it’d probably get me shot!
Er Hypnotic Designs, Endura, I could make an extensive list here of nice 3/4’s that you can ride in but really there’s no need when Dennis Larson’s done it on Fixed Gear Gallery.
I’m not really having a go at Rapha stuff here at all (Well apart from the ever so slightly homoerotic catalogue and the training diary and the luggage and the expensive apron etc, they do produce some nice jerseys)I’m having a go at the lack of imagination that allows people to go into condor and ‘buy a lifestyle’.
Oh and I’m not quite as young as I may seem either……;0)
Thanks for your comment Ken it’s quite cheered me up that someone’s had the bottle to defend it though.
2 years on….more and more roadies wearing the stuff here in so cal. Less and less fixed gear kids to be seen regardless. The ultimate Groucho Marx club.
Rapha belongs on a road bike. The product is quality and works better then most others. Why they continue with the “Urban” line is still an annoyance. At the least they call it what it is “Dandy”.
Road cycling has a very long lineage of style, take it for good or bad, but no one can dispute the dedication of those that go out and ride themselves into the ground week after week for the love of it. These are the people Rapha is for. Not some lemming riding a bike fixed or geared to the corner pub/ coffee house.
That said I would have no problem buying equal products from another company. It doesn’t have to be Rapha, it just has to work.
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