Choosing to take this as a compliment

"... theoretical physics is the cheapest of endeavors. Its practitioners require no expensive equipment. All they need is legal pads and pencils and blackboards and chalk to ply their trade, plus room and board and health insurance and a place to park their bikes. "

(via Jim Holt in the New Yorker, this is a direct quote from Lee Smolin's book, “The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next” (Houghton Mifflin; $26)

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/critics/061002crat_atlarge

This is perhaps a homage to the famous picture of Einstein on a bicycle.