Cycling tribes: lifestyles, values, and aesthetics

ABSTRACT

Popular literature (Magnusson 2012; Weiss 2010; 2012; 2013) has celebrated varying ‘bike tribes’ including road cyclists, mountain bikers, BMXers, touring riders, commuters, and urban hipsters on fixed-gear bikes. Such literature identifies how each ‘tribe’ is differentiated by habits, clothing, aesthetics, and values. With these varying cycling ‘tribes’ in mind we explore the lived experiences of road cyclists in the San Francisco Bay area of the United States as they negotiate the varying practices, rituals, meanings, and material culture that cycling offers. We engage in broader discussions within the sociology of sport regarding the utility of Maffesoli’s (1996) idea of contemporary life being characterized by ‘neotribal’ affiliations. We use ethnographic methods drawing upon both participant observations and interviews to explore the extent to which the fluidity and transience of road cycling also intersect broader structural forces, and how riders navigate their engagement with the cycling industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Neotribes
• Maffesoli
• road cycling
• consumption
• bicycle industry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Maffesoli has not been without his critics. As O’Reilly (2012) notes, ‘Maffesoli did not bring any specific empirical research to support his notion of a neo-tribe’ (p.343). Accordingly, he has been criticised by ‘those sociologists who prefer a more empirically rigorous or critical form of social science’ (Dawes 2016).