Excellent bilingual gender neutrality... ________________________________ From: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com [mailto:rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of PATRICK MOORE Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 1:31 PM To: rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Re: [RBW] Re: Can I rant just a minute?
Well, while I agree that weight obsession is silly (at least, I am largely over it now) and conventional racer gearing is also silly for most mortals, I would not discount weight and compact doubles altogether. I had a very nice 2X9 mountain bike that had a 20" low -- no reason compact doubles can't have very low gears. And, again, it is a joy to push a bike 10 to 15 lb lighter than my heaviest vehicles up a hill in a highish gear. Chacun/e a son/sa gout/e. On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Anne Paulson <anne.paul...@gmail.com<mailto:anne.paul...@gmail.com>> wrote: On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 9:50 AM, Joan Oppel <oppel...@verizon.net<mailto:oppel...@verizon.net>> wrote: > Recent interaction to add to the rant: I joined a local club group for a > 'Christmas lights' ride a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday evening. The > route involved part of hilly Arlington County (but not the truly devilish > hilly sections of the county). A friend of mine invited me, he wanted me to > meet 'Bunny', a woman he described as "70 and doing adventurous rides with > her group of friends". So Bunny and I met, and being close to the same age, > we bonded quickly. But I was on the Bleriot and she was on a Specialized > carbon fiber, compact double bike - and struggling on the hills. She asked > me why I could so easily go up the hills (well, I do ride a LOT and usually > on hilly terrain). I said, well, you might do better with more gears. She > replied, I know, I shouldn't have listened to the guy in the bike shop who > sold me this bike and told me it had all the gears I would ever need. > > THAT KIND OF ATTITUDE AT BIKE SHOPS MAKES ME CRAZY! That's ridiculous. The best guess for a crank for a 70-year-old woman riding in an area with hills is a triple, with very low gears. Isn't it usually possible to install a triple on these bikes with stupid compact doubles? I would have suggested that the woman get her bike changed over. If one is in one's 70s, one shouldn't be missing out on good riding-- when we start getting on in years, we need to take advantage of all the riding we can squeeze in. One of the people I was ranting about is the 98-pound woman, who is in her 60s and a strong climber. She has a compact double on her bike, and she assured me that a triple would be too heavy. And yet-- I was stronger up some of the *very steep!!!* hills, she was stronger on one long *steep* hill, though she ended up zigzagging. But then, at the end, there was one more steep hill. And, having not had to kill myself in a too-high gear on all the other hills, I rode up it and she skipped it. People should ride the bikes they want, but it seems to me that some of these riders have chosen bikes that are keeping them from doing riding that they would enjoy on a different bike. And the other thing about these light bikes that annoys me is, OK, you will ride faster up hills on a lighter bike, all other things being equal. That is perfectly true, and in my club we do a lot of hills. But... this is only a positional good. That is, if everybody buys a lighter bike, then everybody will be just that little bit faster, but nobody is any better off. That is, Ted can still beat Susan, and Susan can still beat Alan, but the order of arrival at the top of the hill will be exactly the same as if they all rode Rivendells. It's a pointless arms race. And my club is big, so we have lots of rides for people of all abilities, so riders can always find people of about the same speed anyway. A Riv, on the other hand, has intrinsic value that doesn't depend on what other people are riding. No matter what my riding friends are riding, my Roadeo will still be beautiful. It'll be comfortable, and it will handle like a dream. Unlike those carbon fiber bikes, my Roadeo fits fenders so I will still be able to ride through winter storms while they're staying home. My green Atlantis will still go anywhere anytime carrying pretty much anything I want, and my purple Atlantis will be the perfect touring machine that I can ride every day, loaded, for weeks and months, through mountains and forests. I get pleasure out of my bikes, independent of what other people have. -- -- Anne Paulson My hovercraft is full of eels -- 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-bunch@googlegroups.com<mailto:rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com>. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<mailto:rbw-owners-bunch%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. -- Patrick Moore Albuquerque, NM For professional resumes, contact Patrick Moore, ACRW http://resumespecialties.com/index.html -- 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-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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