On 05/18/2015 11:13 AM, Anne Paulson wrote:
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.
But you are experienced, intelligent and wise. You are not in the first
flush of new conversion, brimming over with new "knowledge," new
"truths" and full of certainty, recently assimilated from an intensive
study of bike magazines, etc. Some of these people, like new converts
to any religion or enthusiasm, cannot help being jerks. I suspect it is
not -- or at least, not entirely -- gender-based, because it definitely
does happen to out-of-the-mainstream men too. I'm sure when they look
at something out of the norm they do not see a carefully chosen solution
based on experience; they see someone who hasn't gotten The Word yet.
I have had people on a long ride in the middle of a torrential downpour
stand there and tell me that my fenders are "worthless," and this after
they have been riding inside of a rooster tail in a pace line for a
couple of hours.
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