I don't want to get into an argument about whether a guy of my age would have gotten the same comments about clipless pedals. Maybe, maybe not. And I certainly believe that the comments were well-intentioned.
But Will, I think you're missing the point. It's not about the cost of the item; it's about how out of the mainstream it is. Some bikes are more obviously intentional than other bikes. It's easy to end up with a $5K carbon bike; if you walk into a bike store with $5K and a desire for an expensive bike, you are not unlikely to walk out with a $5K racing-style carbon bike. That'll be the default, in many cases. There is nothing unusual about a $5K carbon bike, at least where I live. Someone could have one because they carefully evaluated all the alternatives and deliberately chose exactly what was on their bike, but they could also have one because they got the thing that people buy. The same is true for an expensive Graco stroller; it's expensive, but nobody has to go out of their way to buy a Graco stroller. On the other hand, some bikes are clearly chosen. If I see someone touring on a generic Surly Long Haul Trucker, well, that's a pretty common bike to tour on. But if I see someone touring on a singlespeed 'cross bike, I'm going to figure they chose to tour on a singlespeed 'cross bike, and I'm not going to tell them they should consider using gears. I might have a long and interesting discussion about the merits of gears versus singlespeed when bike touring, but I'm not going to assume that they're riding a singlespeed because they never heard of gears before. I always enjoy looking at individualized bikes, and talking to their owners about why they made the choices they did. It's one thing that's fun about meeting up with other Rivendell riders. Here's the baby example: if you were changing the baby, and a woman noticed you were using cloth diapers, would you like it if she started telling you about disposable diapers? That would be annoying. People who use cloth diapers chose cloth diapers. And people on bikes with Rohloff hubs, Gates belts, dynamos and flat pedals chose flat pedals. But other On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 7:35 AM, Will <waller.will...@gmail.com> wrote: > That's true. But when I walked the babies I didn't think the advice that I > received was ill-intentioned, nor did I get into a gender wrangle with it > (or post to a use-group). > The second point is: do not assume that your bike's (or stroller's) setup > implies credibility. I have seen lots of folks riding expensive carbon bikes > that don't make sense (to me). Does the fact that they are riding a 5K bike > mean they have a clue? -- -- Anne Paulson It isn't a contest. Enjoy the ride. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
