now I went and did it and and now what?

It is pretty easy to make fun of individual groups of people, particularly those which seemingly go out of their way to make it easy. It is mean though...

In this case, I am thinking of hipsters.

You know the type.

Riding around on their fixed geared bikes, dressed in casual yet chunky clothing, using artisanal everything, bushy beards, chunky glasses, oozing irony from every pore...

But then...

Can you say oops?

This is the ass end of my 2005 Kona Jake the Snake cyclocross bike.

Oh dear.

I am on the road to hipsterdom. Now what?

Do I have to let my legs get all hairy?? (can you say ewww when mixed with my usual bike garb consisting of lycra bibs?!? - never mind cleaning road rash or massage...)
Do I have to let my face get all hairy?!? I do hope not!

Thankfully, I am too old to be a hipster.

Jokes aside, I do have several somethings serious to thank the hipster movement for:

• The increase in urban cycling and urban cyclists - big time on the rise in most urban centers. Around here, it seems to be driven by the hipster demographic. Thank you. Now if our cities would get with it and build some decent infrastructure... More and better parking for bicycles would be a huge boon, as would (for both car drivers and cyclists alike) reducing the main drag to one lane with better parking and bike facilities.
• A vast increase in the number of very good coffee shops, small bakeries, and decent reasonably priced eateries in the urban core which hipsters flock to by the hundreds. I like the "one offness" of these places, even if they do, in their drive to be different, end up oddly all looking the same... But it is a same that I like.
• The arrival of companies such as betabrand who make actual real clothing that can be worn on a bike and in the workplace and actually be comfortable and not leave your groinal regions feeling like a rotten cabbage. Yay. 
• I cannot stress point three enough. It bears repeating. Yay.
• More people to race on the MUPS (er....)

However, I just cannot do the hairy face.

And really, if you know what that picture above really shows, I cannot do a fixed gear bike either. Single speed yes, fixed gear no. Also, all the other bikes are retaining their gears :)