A sure path to cycling popularity...

The Wall Street Journal has a nice article on the rise of bicycles as fashion accessories. The nice thing is that it highlights bicycling not as spandex cruising but tools for getting around everywhere. I find it really funny though that like many thing in life like say the iPhone 4. Style is more important than substance and the retro look is really in. What amused me was the following:

It's a testament to our love affair with retro that people are importing Flying Pigeons, a simple bike used in China since 1950.

Now the Flying Pigeon is legendary and about as prol' as you get. Hipsters are about as un-Prol' as you get. This my friends is called irony. The PA-02 is about $150 in China today, and in the U.S. it fetches about $500. The original bike was built about durability. We have new technologies and for $500 you can a good light weight bike that will be more practical, but maybe with a little less style.

But if style will get more people on the road then that's a good thing.