Yesterday, after my Norco opinion piece, I got called a cheese bag. If you haven't read that article, I did an opinion piece on how I thought bike weights were getting more out of control than my taste in trucks (currently looking for a Ford Raptor R). Well someone responded to my opinion piece with a very passionate explanation into why I was wrong and signed it off calling me a "cheese bag".
Now while I am not entirely sure as a vegan of 9 years how to take that sign off, I will say this, the passion he had in his comment is exactly the passion that is missing from the bike industry! Years of marketing BS and strategies taught in fancy colleges, combined with investors from worlds that don’t know anything about bikes have led to companies feeling too scared to express any opinion at all. Where has the soul gone and how do we get it back?
Why do companies feel the need to come off as a corporate conglomerates dream client, all clean and fancy, with no sharp edges in personality. We ride two wheeled bicycles on dirt, this isn’t some crazy tech industry or billion dollar shoe company. Sure we had a few years of insane growth leading some outside influences to make their way into our sport, but it's time to go back to the grassroots “f%$# you” mentality that made this sport so good to begin with! You think when they were converting their Schwins to ride off-road, down trails that didn’t exist yet, that they were thinking, “man I really hope we can sell our souls and come off super polished one day”?
No! This sport was created through a combination of passion and soul, mixed with innovation. Sure one can argue that if we kept it that way, the sport would have never grown due to a lack of professionalism. Well, we’ve grown, and in my opinion professionalism isn’t going to take us much further or get companies through these next few tough years. Sure huge corporations like SRAM who are too big to fail will make it through no matter how many cringy powerpoint presentations they put together, but what about your favorite boutique bike brand?
What will get companies through these next few years is returning back to the roots of mountain biking and showing people they care about bikes! Stop trying to figure out what you can and can’t say and speak from the heart. People can smell BS a million miles away, there is not replacement for authenticity. Fire your PR team and put the employees in front of the camera. If the people making the product can’t convince me they believe in their product, why should I buy it?
You know what would have made this comment 10 times better? If Norco themselves wrote it. Obviously, I’d say we can stray away from the cheese bag sign off, but the comment as a whole is very interesting. It addresses his point of thinking bikes don’t need to be lighter but rather more affordable and produced in a way that brings less impact to the environment. His passion for the stance resonates through that comment.
And that is exactly what companies need to realize in 2024. Passion sells bikes. Your corporate image and fear of offending everyone doesn’t. Take risks, be yourself, and find your soul! Or don’t, but then you can't say Queso Bolsa didn’t warn you.
-Mo Awesome
