The King of Pants
Jan 20, 2008 · 09:16 AM · permalink
While I was at CES, I missed the whole Rock Racing, King of Pants thing, but Andrew got me up to speed.
Out on a ride, I heard Cipo is signing with Rock and the Pants King, but then again maybe not. During Interbike, I stood with others at Rock’s Lamborghini display and wondered, “what does this have to do with bikes?” Later, I bumped into Frankie Andreu (I did notice he was wearing some really tight pants), talked with him about it, and figured out it was this guy with money throwing it around the sport. I didn’t meet Ball, but did hear all of his primes during the Interbike crit and saw his team pull up in Escalades. Not my thing, but hey he could’ve thrown his money at stripper poles and hip-hop culture.
So, I’m all for bringing rock and roll to the sport, fill the office park crit with fans, but also realize the sport has its traditions. We’ve worked with Hed Cycling on our bike projects — Jet 60s will complete the new race bike — and companies like Hed are what drive this industry and sport. While Ball can pop off all day, it’s what he does and makes some headlines, I’m sure Hed would rather just get back to building wheels.
An interesting footnote to this story, is that Andrew raced with Cipo and Tim Mulrooney from Hed during Rock Racing’s crit — here’s the photo.
Frankie Andreu, captain of Postal, wearing tight pants? I guess that makes him “Captain Tight Pants” (and you Firefly fans know what I’m talking about!)
Frankie’s distancing himself from RR now, isn’t he? Or so I thought I’d read in CyclingNews.
Who took out Cipo at that crit anyways??
Captain Tight Pants is right! But yes, he’s moved on.
Andy,
Cipo rolled a tire is what I heard.
I am a bike guy…have been my whole life. At about the same time I really began to understand, respect and fall in love with bicycles I also came to understand, respect and fall in love with Hip-Hop… Above you mention Hip-Hop with a negative connotation as if putting money into hip hop would be akin to putting money into the sale of cattle guardes to brush cyclists off of the front of someone’s Escalade… I think it is important to remember that rap music, as we know it today, is a pretty serious perversion of one aspect of Hip-Hop. A multi faceted culture that for too brief a moment gave a voice to people that didn’t have one. Not unlike Punk Rock, Rock and Roll and many other art forms that have held popular imagination in this country since it’s inception… Don’t bag on Hip-Hop because of the face it has been given by corporate America any more than you would bag on insert favorite big bike company to bash on here because they have managed to grow their business in an ever dwindling market…and be profitable. Bag on the people that write the contracts and sign the “talent”. Not on an entire culture of people; most of whom have never even held a “mic” or uttered a rhyme.
Duncan,
No diss intended at all to hip-hop. My reference was more to this dude can throw his money at bike racers or hip hop, or basketball, or whatever. I’m a hip-hop fan myself and your points are well made.
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