Additional to yesterday’s put up, during which I discussed my weblog’s anniversary, I discover myself nostalgic for among the Bikey Web Celebrities of Yesteryear. And one in every of them is Lucas Brunelle:
At present, if you wish to search for biking thrills and chills there are heaps and many 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 fascinating about SAFA Brian. In no way do I want him ailing, nor am I a kind of individuals who thinks that he’s setting a foul instance or no matter. (Or, extra precisely, I do assume he’s setting a foul instance, however I couldn’t care much less. Exemplars are solely as unhealthy as their imitators are silly.) Principally, I simply assume he’s the roadie equal of a Watermelon Humper, and I’d fairly 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, using round and searching for bother with a pair of cameras strapped to his head:
I imply I believe there was, anyway. Frankly I’m slightly hazy on the chronology. But it surely 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 whenever you’re selecting up groceries?
Sure. Each seat I’ve is as sharp as a razor, so that you all the time play to roll.
To today, I’ve completely no thought what meaning, nor has anyone else supplied up a passable rationalization.
Then, like many growing old folks from the Northeast, he grew to become 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 reside, which was simply bizarre:
Although often he’d return to fabricate more and more weird and pointlessly harmful conditions for himself:
Anyway, it not too long ago 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. Nonetheless, a fast scroll of his current movies suggests this isn’t the case, and that his viewership truly will increase the extra irresponsibly he behaves. For instance, this video during which he runs a cease signal, rides proper into oncoming site visitors, then defends himself by saying he was “within the grime” has exponentially extra views than his different movies:
By the best way, I’m undecided what the grime has to do with something. I assume the implication is that he couldn’t maneuver on it. Possibly 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 a lot of views on this video, during which he as soon as once more has a contrived interplay with the police proper down the road from the place my grandmother used to reside:
Hey, all of us hate getting stopped by the cops, however whenever you run a light-weight in full view of them you actually haven’t any alternative 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 “rather a lot longer than you might have,” no matter meaning. Oddly, the one factor the Jobst Brandt of Outlaw Biking Videography doesn’t do is take the actually badass possibility, which might have been to trip away and drive the cops to present chase, which might have instantly catapulted his numbers into SAFA Brian territory.
All of this may occasionally make it appear to be I’ve nothing however contempt for Brunelle, nevertheless it’s precisely the other: I too have grown outdated and irrelevant through the years, so I understand how he’s feeling. However I need him to know that it’s okay, and that there’s nothing improper with sitting up and letting youthful and dumber idiots take all of the laborious pulls up entrance. There’s a way in our tradition that it’s higher to burn out than fade away, and that we must always all rage in opposition to 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.
