Additional to yesterday’s put up, wherein I discussed my weblog’s anniversary, I discover myself nostalgic for a number of the Bikey Web Celebrities of Yesteryear. And certainly one of them is Lucas Brunelle:
At present, if you wish to search for biking thrills and chills there are tons and plenty of daredevil cyclists on YouTube from whom to decide on. For instance, there’s that man “SAFA Brian,” who goes down hills actually quick:
I discover completely nothing attention-grabbing about SAFA Brian. Under no circumstances do I want him ailing, nor am I a kind of individuals who thinks that he’s setting a nasty instance or no matter. (Or, extra precisely, I do assume he’s setting a nasty instance, however I couldn’t care much less. Exemplars are solely as dangerous as their imitators are silly.) Mainly, I simply assume he’s the roadie equal of a Watermelon Humper, and I’d reasonably watch a kind of Calling In Sick movies the place a bunch of individuals noodle across the Bay Space on their Rivendells.
However hey, it’s a great way to get a helmet “collabo:”
Anyway, earlier than there was SAFA Brian, earlier than there was Terry B, or earlier than there have been even SICK FIXIE EDITS like this one…
…there was Lucas Brunelle, driving round and in search of bother with a pair of cameras strapped to his head:
I imply I believe there was, anyway. Frankly I’m a little bit hazy on the chronology. However it sounds good so I’m sticking with it.
In 2011, Lucas Brunelle defined that each seat he has is “as sharp as a razor:”
Do you trip like that even once you’re choosing up groceries?
Sure. Each seat I’ve is as sharp as a razor, so that you at all times play to roll.
To this present day, I’ve completely no concept what meaning, nor has anyone else supplied up a passable clarification.
Then, like many getting older folks from the Northeast, he turned a snowbird and began spending half the 12 months in Florida, the place he’d have actually contrived confrontations with the police proper down the road from the place my grandmother used to stay, which was simply bizarre:
Although sometimes he’d return to fabricate more and more weird and pointlessly harmful conditions for himself:
Anyway, it lately occurred to me that I hadn’t heard something about Lucas Brunelle in fairly awhile, so I checked his YouTube channel and found that he’s “altering [his] YouTube technique” within the wake of diminishing viewership:
The implication appears to be that he’s one way or the other run afoul of the YouTube algorithm, and that he should now “tone it down” to as soon as once more attain a wider viewership. Nevertheless, a fast scroll of his latest movies suggests this isn’t the case, and that his viewership truly will increase the extra irresponsibly he behaves. For instance, this video wherein he runs a cease signal, rides proper into oncoming visitors, then defends himself by saying he was “within the grime” has exponentially extra views than his different movies:
By the way in which, I’m undecided what the grime has to do with something. I assume the implication is that he couldn’t maneuver on it. Perhaps he ought to get a gravel bike…or Simply Purchase A Rivendell Already. (Sadly Rivendell don’t promote razor sharp seats.)
He additionally will get numerous views on this video, wherein he as soon as once more has a contrived interplay with the police proper down the road from the place my grandmother used to stay:
Hey, all of us hate getting stopped by the cops, however once you run a lightweight in full view of them you actually don’t have any selection however to take your lumps. But Brunelle–the person who deliberately rides on skinny ice–condescendingly Fred-splains to the officer that they need to run the sunshine for his or her security, and that he’s been doing this “lots longer than you could have,” no matter meaning. Oddly, the one factor the Jobst Brandt of Outlaw Biking Videography doesn’t do is take the really badass choice, which might have been to trip away and pressure the cops to offer chase, which might have instantly catapulted his numbers into SAFA Brian territory.
All of this will make it seem to be I’ve nothing however contempt for Brunelle, nevertheless it’s precisely the alternative: I too have grown outdated and irrelevant over time, so I understand how he’s feeling. However I would like him to know that it’s okay, and that there’s nothing fallacious with sitting up and letting youthful and dumber idiots take all of the onerous pulls up entrance. There’s a way in our tradition that it’s higher to burn out than fade away, and that we should always all rage towards the dying of the sunshine, however I’m of the opinion that when night time begins to fall one ought to go gently into it. There’s a time to hold up the crabon, and to wriggle out of the skinsuit, and to cease arguing with authority figures who’re one-third your age. Or, to place it extra succinctly…Simply Purchase A Rivendell Already.
You’ll be glad you probably did.
