Newspeak

[nicknack]

Messenger bag - It's Musette!

Bollocks - a musette is a bagpipe.

cornemuse was bagpipe when I was a lad.

Is musette newspeak for bagpipe, then?

More likely oldspeak.

[Cudzoziemiec]

As noted, some people have lost the distinction between fixed wheel and fixed gear. 

Some? I would say most. Which is understandable as a fixed wheel almost always means a fixed gear in practice (apart from the S3X of course) - although a fixed gear does not usually mean a fixed wheel.

[clarion]

Fixed?  It should be On t'cog!

Cog is an americanism. We have sprockets.

Middle English cogge, probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish kugg, kugge

Blame them USAnian Vikings!

[Kim]

Do people actually use 'cockpit' when referring to anything on a bicycle except those enormous handlebars you get for ASS recumbents that bash your shins/thighs as you steer?   


But yeah, I'm still learning all this bicycle-speak, so it's interesting what people think of as old and new...

[clarion]

Yes.  The magazines use 'cockpit' to refer to your position and the crap technology on your bars...

[nicknack]

Yes.  The magazines use 'cockpit' to refer to your position and the crap technology on your bars...

Really? That's awfully wanky.

[hatler]

Messenger bag - It's Musette!

Water bottle - What's wrong with Bidon?

That's right. Keep to simple, English words, we don't want this new-fangled, complicated language. 

A heard a quote the other day, I'm told it was Churchill.

'Short words are good. Old words are better.'

[mattc]

Yes.  The magazines use 'cockpit' to refer to your position and the crap technology on your bars...

Including the saddle, I think.

There is some logic to this, grouping what Kim might call the 'human interface' elements together!

[clarion]

Ah, but contact points include the pedals.

[LEE]

Fixed?  It should be On t'cog!

Cog is an americanism. We have sprockets.

Is "Americanism" an Englishism?

[mattc]

Ah, but contact points include the pedals.

Yup, you could group pedals in there if you wanted.

Doesn't make the rest of the category illogical. In an interconnected system, no grouping system will be perfect.

[Toady]

The American term for bike mudguards is "fenders".  But "fenders" on a car are bumpers.  So when I read in a US publication about a bike having fenders I envision a bike with big chrome bumpers.

[Andrij]

The American term for bike mudguards is "fenders".  But "fenders" on a car are bumpers.  So when I read in a US publication about a bike having fenders I envision a bike with big chrome bumpers.

Fenders are the bits that cover the wheels; bumpers are at the very front and back of the car.

[Kim]

Fenders on a car are wings.  They evolved out of mudguards.

[Feanor]

And I thought Fenders was a cat...

[clarion]

It is, of course!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Nah, Fenders iz guitarz.

[Toady]

Fenders on a car are wings.  They evolved out of mudguards.

Really? So I've been imagining bikes with bumpers incorrectly. What are bumpers in the US?

[Kim]

I'm fairly sure they're still bumpers.  As in "bumper sticker" - a chiefly US phenomenon.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Getting back to musette/courier bag - I think there is a slight difference between them. A musette, traditionally, does not have a chest strap, is smaller and lighter and doesn't always have a fold-over flap. I think.

[Andrij]

Fenders on a car are wings.  They evolved out of mudguards.

Really? So I've been imagining bikes with bumpers incorrectly. What are bumpers in the US?

As per my previous post, they're the bits at the very front and rear of the car (chromed, back in the good old days).

[Efrogwr]

Yes.  The magazines use 'cockpit' to refer to your position and the crap technology on your bars...

Really? That's awfully wanky./quote]

Indeed it is. I first saw it in American magazine articles; I assumed that the writers suffered from identity crises and wanted to seem more butch by implying analogies with Big Boys' Stuff like racing cars and jet fighters.

Anyway, it's silly.

"Brifters" really gets up my nose. Discuss.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I assumed brifters had been coined as more manufacturers (Campagnolo, SRAM, there's another whose name I can't recall) produced integrated brake and gear levers. A way of both avoiding copyright problems and indicating that you're referring to a whole genre rather than a particular firm's product. It does sound ugly, but that's just my opinion, I'm sure some like the sound of the word.

[tatanab]

I assumed brifters had been coined as more manufacturers (Campagnolo, SRAM, there's another whose name I can't recall)

Again probably aimed at American speakers because we used gear levers not shifters.  I don't use the term because I just say Ergo levers and I assume the others say STI. I do not know, or can imagine, what SRAM and Microshift users might say so I suppose brifter covers all eventualities.

An abbreviation that sticks in my craw is alu.  The English abbreviation for aluminium alloy used to be pronounce as alley.  Alu just sounds so wrong but I assume again it is the magazine editors trying to write in a manner that an international market will understand.

[clarion]

Brifters really makes my hackles rise.  Shifters is bad enough.