Guys, it's April 1st. There are so many "clues" in that "story" I'm actually shocked anyone took it seriously.
*"Well, this ends our plans of sending a team on 55 mm tires to * Paris-Roubaix" That and the fact RH makes a very, very specific sized 31 road tire. On Tue, Apr 1, 2025 at 11:20 AM Steve <stevedfo...@gmail.com> wrote: > Different strokes for different folks. Whatever spins your wheels!!! > > If charging up a battery so you can shift gears and emulating the attire > of paid professionals is your thing, then do what you want to do (to > paraphrase the Isley Brothers). If you are enamored of a CF handlebar with > a digital display that tracks your kph and watts per hour then go for it. > > But if you like riding a Rivendell - like I do - then my hat is off to > you!!! > > Steve in AVL . > > On Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 1:58:38 PM UTC-4 Shannon Menkveld wrote: > >> First, riders haven't had to fix their own race bikes since the "Googles >> and Dust" era, and even then it was mostly because Henri Desgrange was an >> utter, flaming asshole... races that he didn't run were much more lenient. >> And, as a spectator sport, somebody brazing their fork back together at 10 >> pm in the rain just isn't that much fun to watch. As a fan, I'd get ride of >> tactical mid-race bike changes, i.e. you pick your bike for the course, and >> you're stuck with it. If it breaks, you get another of the same bike. I'd >> also remove the team radios. Let riders communicate with their team cars >> through race radio, where everybody else can hear what they're saying. The >> radios have made races less tactical and more predictable, less dependent >> on the rider's ability to read the race. But in-race mechanical support? >> No, that stays in. As a spectator, it'd be lame to watch someone lose their >> chance to win a race because their chain broke or they flatted. Plus, I >> like the tradition that attacking someone who's had a mechanical is >> considered poor sportsmanship. >> >> 2nd, adults who ride bicycles when they don't have to are really, really >> weird. And even among those weirdos, the weirdos who ride their bikes to >> the grocery store are really, really weird. Most of the bicycle-riding >> weirdos ride for fun and exercise, not for transportation. and that's >> unlikely to change. If the industry stopped making racing and >> racing-inspired bikes tomorrow, the vast majority of them wouldn't become >> utility cyclists. *They'd just stop riding.* >> >> Really, what we used to call fast-recreational riders who are riding >> those race bikes would be better off riding high-end versions of what we >> used to call sport-touring bikes. Indeed, many of them are... they're just >> called "gravel bikes" these days. Longer chainstays, low gears, wide tires, >> lots of attachment points for racks and stuff, etc. And you know what? >> Their owners still aren't taking them to the grocery store. >> >> --Shannon >> On Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 9:35:14 AM UTC-7 Doug Williams wrote: >> >>> Yes, most likely April 1st. But that doesn't change the fact that race >>> bikes are useless to real people. In times of old, you had to do your own >>> repairs during a race. If racers were required to do their own repairs and >>> to start and finish on the same bike, we would all be riding USEFUL and >>> reliable bikes instead of single purpose race bikes when we go to the >>> grocery store. >>> >>> On Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 9:28:14 AM UTC-7 shannon....@gmail.com >>> wrote: >>> >>>> (April) 1st of all, I'm betting that you got trolled. More importantly, >>>> riding a bike quickly around a paved loop to and from your door, (H/T >>>> Maynard Hershon, "roadies ride from the door",) just for fun and fitness >>>> and because you can, is not a less legitimate use of a bicycle than riding >>>> one to and from work, or the grocery store. Not every bike has to be >>>> "useful." >>>> >>>> And as to "carbon is unsafe," it's simply not true, as shown by the >>>> number of bonded carbon Treks that are still ridden regularly three decades >>>> after they were made. And that includes the mountain bikes, which >>>> presumably got ridden hard and crashed a lot... that's what happens to >>>> mountain bikes. I've rarely seen any carbon frame break in a crash that >>>> wouldn't have broken a metal bike, and the rider would have been equally >>>> screwed either way. I don't ride carbon bikes because I don't care for the >>>> way they feel, not because I think that they're unsafe. They're not, and I >>>> don't. >>>> >>>> And, if there were no barriers to owning all the bikes we want, I bet >>>> that most of us here would have at least one lightweight, modernish, >>>> go-fast bike. Mine would probably be steel or titanium, but that's just >>>> because I prefer the way that they ride. Every carbon bike Ive ever owned >>>> has been weirdly feel-less. All of the aluminum ones have been too stiff >>>> for my taste... I like a bit of bend in the bottom bracket. (And I'd really >>>> like a Vitus 979... blue anodized, please.) >>>> >>>> --Shannon >>>> >>>> On Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 9:05:48 AM UTC-7 Bruce Byker James wrote: >>>> >>>>> [image: Screenshot 2025-04-01 at 12.02.06 PM.png] >>>>> >>>>> On Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 11:55:33 AM UTC-4 Doug Williams wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> This is why bicycle racing is completely irrelevant to people who >>>>>> actually use their bike for transportation. For a long time, I have been >>>>>> saying that race bicycle design is so divorced from real world useful >>>>>> bicycling as to be completely irrelevant. Why on earth would anyone buy a >>>>>> race bike and use it for their commute or for..well, anything except a >>>>>> professional race while being followed by a motorized maintenance crew >>>>>> carrying several backup race bikes? A carbon fiber race bike is fragile, >>>>>> dangerous, and completely unsuitable for any real world purpose. For >>>>>> quite >>>>>> some time, the scientific consensus has been that wider tires are safer, >>>>>> more reliable, and more comfortable. Now that science is equally clear >>>>>> that >>>>>> wide tires are FASTER on real world roads, the reaction has been to...ban >>>>>> tires wider than 31mm? >>>>>> >>>>>> https://www.renehersecycles.com/uci-limits-road-bike-tires-to-31-mm/ >>>>>> >>>>>> Seriously, the bicycling community needs to wake up and stop >>>>>> idolizing racers, race bikes, and the companies that promote them. These >>>>>> people are working to promote bikes that are terrible for any useful >>>>>> transportation purpose. >>>>>> >>>>>> Doug >>>>>> >>>>> -- > 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 view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/b394de67-b8c2-48b6-97e1-751359dd5c73n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/b394de67-b8c2-48b6-97e1-751359dd5c73n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- — Philip M. Watts (917) 514 2207 — -- 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. 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