on 11/19/09 5:39 AM, Mark at mclbicy...@gmail.com wrote: > Efficiency is a funny word to those who ride a bike for fun! I agree > it may be important if you are in competition, but when I ride and I > am out looking at the birds and the beautiful scenery, effeciency? To > me, thats why I was attracted to Grant, because his whole philosophy > about bike riding has been forgotten by the industry that has > forgotten what it was like as a kid to just go out and have fun riding > a bike. Thats what makes the RIV so much better and fun! > > No offense intended Eric, People do ride bikes for different reasons > and if training or competition is important, stay with the deraileur!
I think the bicycle is the most wonderfully efficient tool we've managed to come up with, and don't find the ideas of effiency to be at odds with GP or Rivendell in general. My Go/No-Go moment really came with rise of full suspension (well, actually _front_ suspension, as I kept asking myself why the heck I had to overhaul my old Judy fork every 3-4 weeks, and why it made sense to own three cartridges, so the other two could be rotated back to Rock Shox when they failed...). Everything seemed to be complexifying and corrupting a simple system until the tinkering and finicky-ness of the equipment almost became an end to itself. When the idea of Stable Plaform Valve systems in bicycle shock absorbers came out, it was an interesting idea, but it allowed designers to start re-using designs that had horrific effects because it allowed them to shift the fixing of the drawbacks back onto the shock. You could put the rear pivot point outside of the chainrings again, because you could correct for the pedaling induced suspension with the valving. It reminded me of the "stealth" airplanes, which, if I read it right, are actually unstable in flight and need multiple computers to correct and recorrect to keep it flying. All of which is a darn long-winded way of saying that for some, the efficiency is exactly at the heart of GP's ideas, and for most, a simple fixed hub, coastable hub or externally shifted multi-gear setup embodies that. Now that I've got the Quickbeam back up and running, one of the things I love about it is the simple efficiency. Certainly, if I had the stray funds this year, I'd be playing around with the S-A 3 speed fixed hub on the Quickbeam. (Also, I do snag my wife's Nexus-8 hubbed bike now and again, which is perfect for mail and farmer's market runs.) I guess my feeling is that all of the Riv designs invite adaptation and allow us to add complexity where we want it. - Jim -- Jim Edgar cyclofi...@earthlink.net Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc Cross Bike Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx Single Speed Garage Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg Working Bikes & Practical Hardware - http://www.cyclofiend.com/working Work Shops of the iBob's - http://www.cyclofiend.com/shop Send In Your Photos! - Here's how: http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines "That which is overdesigned, too highly specific, anticipates outcome; the anticipation of outcome guarantees, if not failure, the absence of grace." William Gibson - "All Tomorrow's Parties" -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=.
