Hello! Surprise Saturday send out here. How's it been going?
Since I last wrote you, I was in the USA for the 13th time since 2018 (a big highlight from that trip below in the Radness section) for about 10 days.
At Twotone, we said goodbye to our intern Coline as she heads back to France and welcomed our new intern Sven. We also just kicked off with a new client from Norway: FARA Cycling.
2020's 'Rona reality means no 6 year party for us this year but we are cooking up some sweet commemorative merch to celebrate. More about that soon too!
Ok, here's my food for thought intro to kick off this 211th issue of this newsletter & that inspired this week's title too:
"We live in a world that faces a lot of social and economic challenges, but reducing them to Facebook and Google, or data and algorithms, is missing the big picture." - Paris Marx
This quote is from the Don’t Blame Social Media. Blame Capitalism article below. It is a pretty involved read debunking quite a bit about the Social Dilemma. Mainly positing that it's the forces driving Big Tech's meteoric growth & supposed influence on society are to blame, not Facebook or Google themselves. I agree. The author, Paris Marx, goes on to say:
"Are we to believe that the breakdown in community and personal relationships is the result of clever algorithms, and not the fact that capitalism has commercialized most aspects of our lives, decimated public spaces, and ensured our communities are built in a way that separates most people into auto-oriented suburbs?"
The author thinks you know the answer and I do too.
We all walk a fine line here, I get that. But remaining critical of broad swathe rhetoric is the essence here & the reason to dig deeper is clear. And then, as another article below proclaims, once "we accept, and grieve, that our old way of life is gone, we can build a better future." So here's to us all chipping in & working towards exactly that!
as always, thank you for r̶e̶a̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ scrolling 😉,
Jon
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This week's banner image by Marc Alter
p.s. Share the stoke & pass newsletter on to your friends & colleagues via a tweet, a post on LinkedIn, or a share on FB.
Cycling
Not a Yeti: Gravel Jesus’ Surly Midnight Special Pro Fro Tribute Bike
I know Alex, the owner of the bike above, through joining his event, the Votec Gravel Fondo & racing together in Morocco. I saw this build earlier this year and told him he should do a feature on the Radavist.
A few emails & months later and here you have once of the best bike builds of 2020!
FARA Cycling - The Oslo Project
This week, we kicked off with a new client: FARA Cycling in Oslo, Norway. Check out this video teaser of the kind of riding they're into.
Serial 1 (formerly Harley-Davidson) e-bikes unveiled, and we got the first ride
Since I last mentioned Serial 1, their production line has been unveiled and our partner agencies Fun Bully in the US & Crank Communication in Berlin have been getting some great coverage in their respective regions.
Check our their stripped down option, the MOSH in action!
Trends & Ideas
New European Cycling Industry Forecast shows huge growth in bike and e-bike sales
Who said there wasn't good news in 2020?
Europeans are expected to buy an extra 10 million bikes per year by 2030, a whopping 47% more than the annual number in 2019.
The 30 million per year total will take bike sales to more than twice the number of passenger cars currently registered per year in the EU.
[...] (b)oth bike and e-bike sales for the next 10 years in 30 countries. Leading the way in the growth curve are e-bikes which are predicted to grow from 3.7 million bikes sold in 2019 to 17 million in 2030. 2020 numbers suggest that the e-bike market will already end up 23% despite several months of bike shop closures in many countries and severe pressure on supply chains.
Also related: The Financial Times published "Covid-19 drives urban push for walking and cycling" 2 weeks ago.
Radical Acceptance Is the Path to Change
Ok, try this on for size:
radical acceptance Mindfulness and Acceptance
Don’t Blame Social Media. Blame Capitalism.
Everybody hates on social media but that's not it.
"[The Social Dilemma's] techno-deterministic narrative vastly inflates the capabilities of data capture and algorithms, and, in so doing, blames a whole range of problems on technology that have their root in more fundamental social and economic conditions of modern society."
Friends
King Alfred's Way: Conquering Wessex during Britain's wettest ever day
My friend Jack at Cyclist UK did an epic tour with his sister & father.
I look forward to conquering feats like this with my kids in the future!
2020 Collective Choice Awards
Looking for something to watch (or dream about) this weekend? Help my friend Luke & the team Bikepacking.com with choosing the best films of 2020, and the best route:
There are some great options, so we plan on awarding the winners with a Collective Choice Award. As members of our Bikepacking Collective, we value your input and want your voices to be heard. Please take a minute to make your picks below. Note: The cutoff to submit your choices is Tuesday, December 8th.
Bite-Size Content interviewed me
Tyler from Bike Rumor has a separate website about content creation & interviewed me Friday. The image left links to a teaser & the issue can be read here.
Radness
My daughter, Mira, is on Spotify!
A few weeks ago during my 13th trip to the USA to see my kids, we visited a good friend of mine from Australia that has relocated to #NYC.
I know Stephen from his time in Amsterdam through riding bikes together. He is a recording engineer and producer and offered us to record at his apartment in TriBeCa during our time in the city.
I taught both Otto & Mira how to play and this was a very rare chance to capture our music together in a professional setting. We were obviously über ecstatic! 😆
The result is a 16min 5 song EP of covers:
- - “Friday I’m in Love” by The Cure
- - “In the Aeroplane over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel
- - “Kyoto” by Phoebe Bridgers
- - “Shallow” by Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
- - “Walk on me” by Ben Kweller
Listen on Spotify here & read more about our experience on Instagram.