After much consideration, marketing departments at bike companies decided the consumer trajectory was first being awesome like this
then upgrading to cool with disposable income
and alternatively hip options for the urban areas.
Hat tip to @CtrlFollow for the awesome photo, Mark V posted about Popular Mechanics man earlier this year, and the hip photo is from the photographer Robert K. Hower in the Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection.
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In the “How to be AWESOME” image, what exactly is the “Special Purpose” caption pointing to? A pretty ambiguous feature to begin with.
It’s pointing at the top tube pads to protect your ‘nads.
Frankly I think it is just pointing at the kid’s crotch.
if that were the case, then it should have been labelled “mushroom grip” instead of the handlebar
I prefer Kung-Fu grip over mushroom anyday.