> And in plain point of fact, for the performance envelope characteristic > of brevet riding, even NOS 531 in standard diameters and a fairly light > gauge is perfectly fine.
Exactly. Change for change sake is more marketing than anything else. Case on point: When NASA was planning the Pathfinder, the tech wonks came up with all sorts of new and unproven methods to safely land the delicate equipment on Mars. In the end, they decided surrounding the Pathfinder with a bunch of airbags to bounce it to a landing made the most sense for a lot of reasons. Worked perfectly. On Jun 9, 9:30 am, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: > On Wed, 2010-06-09 at 07:15 -0700, JoelMatthews wrote: > > > So, Bike Snob is talking about retro grouches, their love of hand built > > > wheels > > > with sensible spoke counts, distrust of recent technology, etc. > > > But Rando's do not distrust recent technology. They use what works. > > > For instance, Steve points out above that Randos were early adopters > > of the very modern and highly efficient generator hubs which are > > gaining wider acceptance among cyclists. LED headlights common on > > Rando biked may look similar to the lights used in the 50's, but the > > better ones are designed to work as well as the best car or motorcycle > > headligh. > > > Now the tech market is seeing their value, offering some wonderful > > device chargers that hook up to the generator. Likewise, the Rando > > community has pushed such things as GPS and happily use portable > > computers and other communication devices. > > > I suspect the reference to recen technology is preference for steel. > > This also is nonsense. Modern steel tubing is far more advanced than > > it was 25 years ago. Steel manufacturing R&D is every bit as vibrant > > as carbon fibre. Steel tubing will continue to improve. It is pure > > ignorance to assume steel is outdated. > > And in plain point of fact, for the performance envelope characteristic > of brevet riding, even NOS 531 in standard diameters and a fairly light > gauge is perfectly fine. Carbon per se doesn't give you any real > advantage other than light weight, and the significance of weight for > brevet riding is rather low. Bicycle design means a good deal more, and > in this respect most typical carbon road bikes fall short in that their > insufficient clearance prevents the use of fenders or wide tires, both > of which can make a huge difference in rider comfort on long rides in > difficult weather. > > > In my opinion, ignorance is > > not funny. > > I completely agree. It simply makes the author look like an ignoramus.- Hide > quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- 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=en.
