Bike N Hike’s new ‘I am Cyclist’ video

Still from video.
-Watch it below-

Local shop Bike n Hike has launched a new, summer marketing campaign. The first big piece of it is a commercial titled, “I am Cyclist.”

The video was shot on location in Portland and produced by Reel Innovative. It features several characters (one of whom is a Bike N Hike employee) who share the various characteristics that make them a “cyclist.” Some of the most common biking stereotypes are represented including the roadie, the mountain biker, and the fixed gear rider. Each rider type shares a few things that makes them a “cyclist” and then proudly proclaims (with patriotic music in the background), “I am cyclist!”

The mountain biker says, “I know what mud tastes like,” and “I cauterize my own wounds and set my own bones.”

The fixed gear rider says, “I’ve been hit by a car three times. Today,” and “What stop sign?”

A women dressed in spandex says, “I don’t mind the rain, it’s just nature’s tears for all the cars on the road,” and “I have a whole lane dedicated just to me.”

Check it out:

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

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Paul
Paul
11 years ago

This should help make some of the “interested but concerned” folks make up their minds…to not ever touch a bike. I think they missed the mark here.

dennis
11 years ago

I don’t think this advertisement really convey’s a positive message. It further enhances the divide between potential cyclists, and cyclists that can be viewed as a problem on the road.

Dave
11 years ago
Reply to  dennis

Not to mention, anyone who doesn’t ride a bike will look at this and go “that’s exactly why I don’t, and why I don’t want them on the roads.”

Dave
11 years ago

I was going to say… I guess I am NOT cyclist (not that I had many doubts beforehand). I just happen to ride my bike for 95% of my trips (walking the other 5%).

I don’t quite understand if this is supposed to be sarcastic, but if it is, they didn’t pull it off very well, and if it isn’t… um… yeah.

Matt M
Matt M
11 years ago

Yeah…what is the point of this video? And “what stop sign?” Really?

9watts
9watts
11 years ago
Reply to  Matt M

what is the point of this video?
my question exactly.
Maybe someone from Bike’n’Hike could explain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-stereotyping

“Self-stereotyping may be seen as an outcome of depersonalization, where the self is viewed as a categorically interchangeable member of the salient ingroup.

Although at any given time, people’s active self-concept is a mix of situational-triggered and chronically accessible identities, self-stereotyping causes the active self-concept to more closely resemble stereotypes about one’s salient in-group. For instance, with self-stereotyping an in-group member may begin to identify with the group by acting in a stereotypic way, specific to that in-group. By exhibiting these characteristics, the individual feels more in tune with the needs and attitudes of the group.”

Collin
11 years ago

Why would a local small business want to kill their customer base — and I mean literally kill their customer base? Oh, ha, ha funny — that wasn’t our intention… ARE THESE GUYS FUNDED BY THE AUTO INDUSTRY??? Did they consult with a marketing company before launching the crappy ad? Wow, this advertisement is shameful to say the least. I would highly advise they pull it off YouTube ASAP before embarrassing themselves more.

Mork
Mork
11 years ago
Reply to  Collin

Wow. Supremely cringe-worthy. Tally me as another who will choose to spend money at a different shop. They missed the mark on this one, to say the least.

dennis
11 years ago

How are we going to feel when General motors comes out with a commercial showing their trucks blowing through cyclists? This marketing agency needs to find another line of work.

encephalopath
encephalopath
11 years ago

Wait until BikeSnob gets ahold of this. I’m almost afraid to look.

Nick
Nick
11 years ago

If they want to attempt to be funny and edgy, they should hire some actual good comedy writers. This is just embarrassing and awful.

Brewcaster
11 years ago

God I hate “cyclist culture”.

Dave
11 years ago

Some further thoughts – I have no problem with showing the gamut of people who ride bicycles, for sport or not, but they left out the (potentially) largest group – the one that rides for transportation like normal citizens, (mostly) following the rules and just trying to get where they’re going, not spending half their life with their pants leg rolled up running red lights (because only lame noobs stop for lights). Overall, this just kind of made me feel like I was reading a caricature in the Oregonian or something.

spare_wheel
spare_wheel
11 years ago
Reply to  Dave

“not spending half their life with their pants leg rolled up running red lights”

wow…i really had no idea that rolling your pant legs up excluded you from the “tranportation cyclist” club. (although to be honest i lost my “transportation cyclist” carnet a long time ago since i also wear spandex, ride faster than 15 mph, and curse at motorists who try to kill me.

Dave
Dave
11 years ago
Reply to  spare_wheel

It doesn’t exclude you, I’m just saying, most people won’t think “awesome, I have to roll my one pant leg up to be a cyclist, that’s great!”

JNE
JNE
11 years ago

Yes, lets pitch a “cyclist” tent much bigger than this.

Danny
Danny
11 years ago

Really? Celebrating getting hit by a car multiple times and running stop signs as badges of cycling honor?

I am tone deaf bike shop.

Scott
Scott
11 years ago

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I can hardly wait till Bike Snob or All Hail The Black Market get a hold of this gem.

Heavy handed much?

This thing literally reeks of over-educated, snobbish white privelidge.

Also what is up with the quick camera pan on the dude in the campy hat?

oskarbannks
oskarbannks
11 years ago

Welllll, we can see where most people stand on this one. It is parody, IMO. Is it good parody ? Not really. I am as outwardly concerned with cycling’s perception as the next guy, but it seems that most of you don’t have a sense of humor. Now that is Portland, predictably dry.

Scott
Scott
11 years ago
Reply to  oskarbannks

To tickle someone’s sense of humor, a thing must be funny. I’ve seen funnier sidewalks.

Dave
11 years ago
Reply to  oskarbannks

Agreed. You even said it’s bad parody. Do you make a habit of laughing at bad jokes?

oskarbannks
oskarbannks
11 years ago
Reply to  Dave

I giggled at parts of it, this much is true. Do I see it a some kind of vehicle that will lead bastions of haters to cycling’s door? No. What I do find amazing is Portland’s over reaching concern of the walking contradiction known as Bike Snob, and his potential outcry! whoa !

q`Tzal
q`Tzal
11 years ago
Reply to  oskarbannks

At least he’s funny.

A.K.
A.K.
11 years ago
Reply to  oskarbannks

I thought “shit cyclists say” was a pretty good one, personally. Hit the nail on the head quite a few times. Google it if you haven’t seen it.

whyat
whyat
11 years ago

I’m usually one to lean towards an attempt at humor over nothing at all, but that is REALLY bad. The stop sign thing p*sses me off. Where’s the law abiding biker that is saving gas money for an earlier retirement?

Rol
11 years ago

I am cyclist. Me want fish sticks now. Bye bye.

Kristen
Kristen
11 years ago

The beginning is good, but it still falls flat for me.

Rol
11 years ago

I agree with all the legitimate concerns above, yet oddly enough it’s the name of the campaign itself that galls me most. Are you allowed to just drop the indefinite article like that? Maybe in an engineering specification or some poorly-translated instructions from a land where things of value are actually made.

This ad actually has a long list of predecessors though, in terms of being ham-fisted attempts at “satire” that only succeed in literally talking you OUT of buying what’s advertised. Can’t think of any off the top of my head and it would be too nauseating to go find them, but just think of your favorite ad showing someone using a product in a manner completely douchey that “humorously” points out all the problems you’re going to have if you buy it.

Alan 1.0
Alan 1.0
11 years ago

Ian the ‘Australian’: “I am Cyclist.”

oskarbaanks
oskarbaanks
11 years ago
Reply to  Alan 1.0

I think with all the revelations arising around Ian there should be a Pedalpallooza “Team Ian” ride complete with tall boys of Bud’s and copies of US Today.

are
11 years ago

the fact that anyone is worried about how “the cyclist” is portrayed in popular media means we are still suffering under a slave mentality. okay, so i am not represented in these (obviously extreme) caricatures, but i have no difficulty presenting myself without caricature on the streets.

9watts
9watts
11 years ago
Reply to  are

I too am not concerned with ‘how this reflects on us as a group who ride bikes,’ but even so I’m confused about what these folks hoped to achieve, what their point was, why they went to the trouble to write this particular script and get their subjects to deliver their lines with such a flat affect.

K'Tesh
K'Tesh
11 years ago

I think it’s unanimous, this is more of a bad joke than an ad.

Belongs on FAIL blog.

K'Tesh
K'Tesh
11 years ago
Reply to  K'Tesh

If they should feel the need to try again, perhaps they should try “I am a person on a bicycle”

q`Tzal
q`Tzal
11 years ago
Reply to  K'Tesh

How about a Driver parody?

I am driver.
I drive too fast for conditions. Rain, sleet, snow, black ice: 60 MPH +. YEEE HAAW!
I drive 1/10th of a mile to the post office. Every day.
I think it’s fun to play chicken with pedestrians! No one ever gets hurt and they’re stupid to be walking out in the road anyways.
I have entire business models dedicated to ME. They’re called “drive thrus”. Get with the program you commie cyclists
I drive 5 minutes to a local mall and spend 15 minutes fighting for a parking spot 10 feet closer to the doors.
I play video games on my laptop and smart phone while driving; it’s so boring in traffic.
I love the freedom driving provides me. Every day I commute 18 miles and it only takes me about 65-75 minutes each way.
I’ve only had a few, I drive better when I have a few in me.
I once went in to 20 minute tirade about someone walking too close to my paint job and scuffing the wax.
It is my God given RIGHT to drive when ever and where ever I want, it says so in the Constitution.
I am driver. Get the F#$% outta my way.

Rol
11 years ago
Reply to  q`Tzal

Good one! In a weird way I think all the existing car commercials showing the car cruising along on deserted picturesque highways in exotic locations are almost the best parody there is, but you have to read between the lines to get the joke. Or especially any commercial where they feel the need to warn you that it’s a “Professional driver on closed course,” those are always pretty ridiculous.

Pete
Pete
11 years ago
Reply to  Rol

Have to admit, when I see TV ads for the make and model of car I drive I usually feel just as embarrassed. “Aggression, in it’s most elegant form”… yeah, that makes sense for a conservative Japanese sedan.

“I am Blog Commenter!” 🙂

To be fair, BnH is a good LBS with some good folks, always treated me (and my bikes) well.

El Biciclero
El Biciclero
11 years ago
Reply to  K'Tesh

“they should try ‘I am a person on a bicycle'”

…Don’t you mean, “I am person on bicycle”?

Paul in the 'couve
Paul in the 'couve
11 years ago

It is irrational to defend this video as “humor” because it is intended as marketing by a Bicycle retailer. Certainly they wanted to make it funny, and that is legitimate, but when you fail this miserably at advertising and promoting your own business and industry the suckiness isn’t just that you didn’t succeed at getting laughs. This is total failure as advertising and shows a creative process and possibly an entire organizational mentality that really doesn’t “get” cycling. They want to sell stuff to us, but clearly they are clueless about the marketplace.

John Beaston
John Beaston
11 years ago

I like this definition of “a cyclist.”
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/12674956/cycling-explained

Mickey
Mickey
11 years ago

They forgot “I am a cargo-cyclist… I have a chicken coop and participate in community gardening….”

Pete
Pete
11 years ago
Reply to  Mickey

Now that’s funny! 🙂

aaronf
aaronf
11 years ago

I thought it was a funny parody.
Also (unrelated) I have had only positive experiences at the bike n hike on MLK.

They certainly missed one demographic which folks here appear to value:

“I’ve complained about the mandatory sidepath law to perfect strangers”
“I comment on BP at least twice a week”
“I once got all hot and bothered talking to Matt Garrett about lane striping”
“I am cyclist”

q`Tzal
q`Tzal
11 years ago
Reply to  aaronf

“I’ve read “Effective Cycling” cover to cover more than twice and want to explain it to you. All day long.”
“I blog about my hatred of cars”
“<generic insult about diminutive manhood of large SUV drivers>”

J_R
J_R
11 years ago

I’d suggest editing out the “hit by car” and “what stop signs?”

Once the Oregonian get’s ahold of it, it will be cited as proof positive that cyclists are scofflaws. Good idea (parody), but poorly executed.

Pete
Pete
11 years ago
Reply to  J_R

Every time I start reading comments on Oregonian articles that Jonathon points to, I cure myself by going out riding and realize that most people aren’t dangerously oblivious dipsh!ts. Bicycling on roads with cars simply isn’t as unsafe or contentious as people make it out to be.

Dave
11 years ago
Reply to  Pete

Yeah, that’s why I stopped ever, EVER reading Oregonian stories.

Dave
11 years ago
Reply to  Pete

That being said, other people’s view of the world is shaped by the Oregonian, so it is somewhat important what they say about the world.

Kirk
11 years ago

Ugh. That doesn’t help things…

Joe
Joe
11 years ago

I am Joe, I am carless

tim
tim
11 years ago

the same video production company is soliciting other local bike shops for their marketing services. i wonder if they read bikeportland.org…

q`Tzal
q`Tzal
11 years ago
Reply to  tim

Same advertising flack as was/is at WebTrends?

Evan
Evan
11 years ago

I watched it. Other than the fixie dude, I don’t think anything in there is particularly offensive or could be construed as such. But that fixie dude only perpetuates a myth that all fixie riders, and most other cyclists, blatantly disregard the law. If you have to tell someone it’s parody, then you’ve failed in your message. Of course, the rest of the ad falls pretty short as an invitation to consider riding a bike. Double fail.

Erik E
Erik E
11 years ago

The other spot in the ‘campaign’ is better than this one at least.

Andy
Andy
11 years ago
Bikenhike
Bikenhike
11 years ago

Hey everyone we really appreciate all your feedback and involvement in the online cycling community. We would really appreciate it if you took a look at another one of our videos and let us know what you think. http://youtu.be/1y2_RIVGfs0 Thanks a lot! -The Bike n Hike team

gcrays
gcrays
11 years ago
Reply to  Bikenhike

Now THAT’s better.