Your car makes you fat.

November 22, 2010 9:29 AM

Yehuda Moon and the kickstand Cyclery is a three year old daily webcomic about Bicycles, advocacy, and beards. You'd probably want to start at The beginning.
posted by djduckie (27 comments total)

I really enjoy this comic, and it helped me get into cycling as a lifestyle - I probably wouldn't have become an all-weather bike commuter without it. It's a little alternate universe where proper bike luggage and lights matter - oh, and great characters and an involving plot.

I enjoy the early strips the most, where Fred is a frequently recurring character...
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:38 AM on November 22, 2010

it might be helpful to point folks to the Rivendell Bicycles website for some insight, if desired, into some of the humor.
posted by hollisimo at 9:40 AM on November 22, 2010

Yeah, I followed the comic early on and even donated to it monthly, but at some point a few months ago I gave up. I think it got kind of preachy and too inside baseball with the amish custom bike painter stuff. I even used to work at a bike shop when I was in high school so the cast of characters are very familiar but even as much as I love bikes I got tired of the strip, sorry.
posted by mathowie at 9:44 AM on November 22, 2010

As a bearded, all-weather cyclist that volunteers an inordinate amount of time in a community bike shop, I really, really want to like this but I can't find the funny. Am I broken?
posted by glip at 9:46 AM on November 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

After a while, Mr Ardelli's first-post observations about whether the comics "dovetail" with his own experience begin to be off-putting.
posted by malusmoriendumest at 9:47 AM on November 22, 2010

I read it for a while but then the author went on hiatus for a while and I never noticed if it came back after that.
posted by octothorpe at 9:47 AM on November 22, 2010

I have a beard and a bike, but I'm guessing I'd have to actually be the writer of this to understand this.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 9:55 AM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Been reading for awhile now, and while it sometimes borders on comedy it is often just relief more than the point of the strip.

Fizz needs to ditch her non-bikey husband and shackup with Joe
posted by wcfields at 9:56 AM on November 22, 2010

Hey, I found this a couple weeks ago and read the whole thing in a day (up to current). Kind of a welcome respite to the snark and snobbery of a lot of bike blogs.
posted by ghharr at 10:01 AM on November 22, 2010

Yay! Bikes and comics. Can't wait to read it.

Thanks.
posted by mmrtnt at 10:10 AM on November 22, 2010

I am really glad bikes seem to be taking off in the US and becoming "legitimized"-- meaning that I get screamed at less for riding on the road, and sharrows, and so forth.

I also really like wine, and pizza, and books, but I don't wear wine-specific clothing or read wine comics. I'd like to get to a point where adults biking is normal and unremarkable, like adults eating wine and pizza.

Yehuda Moon is well drawn, but too much Living To Bike. All good, but not my thing.

I do read books about books, so I guess I am full of shit.
posted by everichon at 10:12 AM on November 22, 2010

I also really like wine, and pizza, and books, but I don't wear wine-specific clothing or read wine comics.

You're riding behind the pack if you don't have any pizza pants or literature jerseys by now. Pedal harder and acquire more lifestyle-specific garb to catch up with the cultural peloton.
posted by peeedro at 10:40 AM on November 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

I don't have wine-specific clothing, but I definitely have my eating dress (the empire waisted one that expands to fit all fooding).
posted by sciencegeek at 10:53 AM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

I have three bikes, a collection of tools and workstand, and enough jerseys to last two weeks without doing laundry, but I have three whole rooms of my apartment dedicated to the storage, preparation, consumption and elimination of food.

I'd like to get to a point where adults biking is normal and unremarkable

I like to track public goodwill towards cyclists is by counting how many bikes I see in TV ads. It's been a lot lately.

I read a bit of Yehuda Moon but it didn't really grab me. I'm fine with comics not being "ha-ha" funny, but in this one everyone's got too flat of an affect. A little variety of expression goes a long way. It doesn't help that we can't see the main character's eyes.
posted by hydrophonic at 11:05 AM on November 22, 2010

I can't say that it's hilarious, but I enjoy the style a lot, and it's kind of sweet.
posted by redsparkler at 11:09 AM on November 22, 2010

I also really like wine, and pizza, and books, but I don't wear wine-specific clothing or read wine comics. I'd like to get to a point where adults biking is normal and unremarkable, like adults eating wine and pizza.

Me too, but there will still be comics &c. about them I think. After all we have wine magazines, blogs, parties. And I think half of the shows on the Food Network have something to do with pizza.

I've read this strip and like someone said it is not usually "ha-ha funny" but it can be amusing and they poke fun at themselves/the bike world and its variety of inhabitants. The artwork is often quite nice too.
posted by mikepop at 11:16 AM on November 22, 2010

I read this every day. It's uneven, but the good part are enough to carry me over. I generally like the observational humor more than the long plot think stories. But I still read it every morning.
posted by cccorlew at 11:38 AM on November 22, 2010

Like many others, I've had an on/off, hot/warm relationship with the Kickstand Cyclery. I think part of it is that while I feel a certain kinship to the retrogrouch-y world of utility cycling; I have a thin buffer of patience for the martyr complex that seems so indelibly attached to it. So blogs, webcomics and newsletters that hang off that particular cross get tiresome for me rather quickly.

Or, rather, I stopped following Yehuda when I stopped caring about what other cyclists wore or rode; or who passed me on my commute or whether some guy at a shop seemed insufficiently impressed by my bicycle.

Oh, and I don't have enough facial hair for a beard so I guess that comic and I were never meant to be.
posted by bl1nk at 11:40 AM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the reminder. I like to forget about this comic for a month or so and then come back and spend an hour reading the comics and the comments. I had not read since the author's break.

I agree this is not a funny ha-ha kind of comic, but it got me to look into Dutch cargo bikes, art bikes, ghost bikes, bike polo, rain capes, fancy pipe tobacco, generator lights, etc... This comic put me on the path of comfortable all weather commuting (as opposed to the "hour in hell" wet weather commuting I was used to).

The part where the barded guy who rides upright on a steel tank wearing a cape plays bicycle polo, is friends with the middle aged spandex wearing weight weenie, the fixed gear riding nun, the bakfiets commuting mom, the tricycle riding kids and the hipsters who lounge on the shop couch is my favorite part.

I wish there were more cyclist solidarity IRL, at least until adult bicycling becomes accepted and respected, after that hipster on fixies can continue to give me the "you are invisible to me" look and I can continue to mock them when I zoom by them going uphill on my granny gear, smoking a cigarette.

Disclaimer: I ride a frankenstein single speed around the neighborhood and when I know I will not be carrying stuff. I ride a hand painted lugged steel bike with full fenders, racks, panniers, giant double legged kickstand with lots of cotton, shellac and polished parts the rest of the time. One of my favorite things is wet weather commuting, with full rain gear. I am excited about the british rain cape that is in the mail.
posted by Dr. Curare at 11:53 AM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's the For Better For Worse of bike comics.
posted by DU at 11:55 AM on November 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

bl1nk: On impressing guys at shops, specially head mechanics, all you have to do is perform a home repair in such a way that they can not figure out how it is physically possible to fuck up the parts so badly. You will be legend.
posted by Dr. Curare at 11:55 AM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, it's more sweet than hilarious, but I had never seen this before and liked it a lot. So thanks!
posted by GuyZero at 12:53 PM on November 22, 2010

Ok, I started at the beginning and was all ready to say that these are not funny at all, and then I found this one.
posted by adamdschneider at 3:23 PM on November 22, 2010

i have a beard. and bikes. and i bike daily no matter the weather for my entire adult life (and really since i was about 5 or so). and i used to work in a shop. but this strip does nothing for me. i'm a daily visitor to bikeportland and check the forums regularly and in far too many of the threads over there someone will always say, "hey this reminds of a yehuda moon strip" and then link it. fuck, it just kills me.
posted by rainperimeter at 4:02 PM on November 22, 2010

Meanwhile, back on the farm.
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:09 PM on November 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Can't believe this hasn't been posted before, but yeah, it's funny. Good stuff.
posted by fixedgear at 5:14 AM on November 23, 2010

Fizz needs to ditch her non-bikey husband and shackup with Joe

Well, this is troubling.

itym thistle hth

I've followed the Kickstand for a while and from the fire on it's been a little too melodramatic for my tastes. Also I read it via RSS so I never have to read the comments on the website, which has extended its staying power significantly.

I did discover the Rivendell Reader thanks to Yehuda, though.
posted by mendel at 8:18 PM on November 23, 2010