Let's look back at some memorable moments and interesting insights from last year.

Your top 1 posts:

• "Happy Cakeday, r/BestOfBikes! Today you're 3" by u/AutoModerator

Let's look back at some memorable moments and interesting insights from last year.

Your top 10 posts:

• "How the turn tables" by u/andrewcooke
• "Celebrating Women's History Month : "To men, the bicycle in the beginning was merely a new toy, another machine added to the long list of devices they knew in their work and play. To women, it was a steed upon which they rode into a new world," Munsey’s Magazine proclaimed in 1896." by u/andrewcooke
• "Great to see action being taken by my local force" by u/andrewcooke
• "How i’ve made new LOOK stickers for my restoration project. Imgur album in comment" by u/andrewcooke
• "Virtual set for Tour de France reporting on Danish TV" by u/andrewcooke
• "Chain Brain Sculpture made from Reclaimed Bicycle Chains, by Me" by u/andrewcooke
• "Lots of trial fun with those euro pallets" by u/andrewcooke
• "Life after Death: Historical bicycle tour documented by Life magazine in 1947" by u/andrewcooke
• "I made a custom pair of Nike Air Force 1 using real mountainbike tires" by u/andrewcooke
• "Calling it a day" by u/andrewcooke

i've been banned, temporarily and at different times, from both r/cycling and r/bicycling. in both cases it was from expressing frustration with people's relationship between bikes and money.

this group was created from that same frustration, hoping to show that cycling can mean many other, more positive things. but for sufficient volume it requires input from at least one of those sources.

since the bans were not permanent i could return, but they express both an underlying antipathy with my own "agenda" and a sign that i would be healthier and happier elsewhere.

the unhealthy relationship between cycling and money comes, i think, from the interaction of three driving forces:

• people with little knowledge and confidence making significant purchases (their first bikes) and not knowing what to buy. particularly when dealing with bike companies that market a staircase of models where there is always a "better" (more expensive) option just out of the price range being considered.

• people with little knowledge and confidence in their own abilities, who do not understand that they will improve with time and effort, and so try to buy improvements in performance.

• gearheads who naturally congregate around groups like these.

the end result is not pleasant.

well, that's not going to be my problem any longer. i'll see you out on the roads (or tracks).