>From this distance, I'm still in awe of Anne's bike. But I had one of the best chats with a couple of roadies at yesterday's halfway stop that I can ever remember. These guys had followed me on my upright for 8 miles before they gained momentum to pass. As we came out of the creek bottom with its protective cypress tunnel, onto the open fields and headwind of the flood plain, they distanced me pretty good. I caught them at the highway intersection, and stayed pretty close up the 2-mi hill at least until I neared the shallower slope at the top and again, the teeth of the headwind. When I landed at the county park for a water break, they were stretching out, about to load their bikes and wanted to talk about mine. If I have anything to brag about on this bike, it's the gearing, five single step cogs 12-16, then 4 wide steps, 18-21-24-29. Compact double crank, 42/25T. But I have narrow steps where we live, 60" to 85" and can find a cruising gear for any condition and pace, and, likewise, have great choices on the small ring, narrow steps below 55" all the way down to 23". When I ride from home, every ride ends with a 400' climb that includes some 14% grade. These guys have been riding out here a long time, know the area and the climbs. Their one "defense" was throwing out how heavy my bike must be. I explained to them it wasn't that bad, and that's OK - everybody wants to believe their own choices have merit - and they do.
On Monday, May 18, 2015 at 10:13:27 AM UTC-5, Anne Paulson wrote: > > 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....@gmail.com <javascript:>> > 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.
