Wait! Bicycling is NOT the source of all 2-wheel wisdom? I want my money back. GeorgeS
On May 17, 8:09 am, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery <thill....@gmail.com> wrote: > Just Ride was on my mind yesterday when I tried to help a woman decide on > her first nice bike. She wants a sporty-ish bike for Burley-pulling and it > would be nice if it had a rack. Easy enough. But she's also athletic and > aspires to the racer archetype. I should add that she's the type of woman > that most men would notice in any crowd, which means that various bike > dudes have tried to "help" her with all sorts of advice. All the usual > suspects were present: the necessity and efficiency of clipless pedals, the > magical properties of carbon, and the (baffling-to-me) popularity of > time-trial bikes, none of which are necessary, or even desirable, in a bike > for daily errands and family rides. Anyway, she was clearly struggling with > the perceived compromises between making a bike useful and making a bike > fast (or at least light/expensive enough to impress the racer wannabe > crowd). I thought to myself: this would be a lot easier if she could drop > the racer notions and stop hanging out with guys who read Bicycling > Magazine as a comprehensive source of cycling wisdom. > > On Thursday, May 10, 2012 1:15:32 AM UTC-5, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > Maybe there should be a spoiler alert here - be advised that I will be > > discussing various aspects of the new book, so navigate away from this page > > if you prefer the content of the book to be a complete surprise. > > > I finished reading the book tonight, which if I can summarize in a line, > > is about all the good things about bikes that appear only when you toss > > racer prejudices and attitudes out the window and Just Ride. After the > > first few chapters, I thought that maybe the editors really sanitized GP's > > historically familiar against-the-grain opinions to be more blandly > > vanilla, hopefully to be appealing to a broader audience. The general > > content wasn't unpredictable to me, having read the Readers and Catalogs > > and most everything else Riv going back to 2004 when I wanted a touring > > bike and couldn't find any to buy except the Atlantis (that's how I first > > found Riv in the internet universe). But I was somewhat surprised that > > there was little to no discernible lug evangelism or quill stem absolutism > > or singing the praises of friction shifters, and the Retro-Grouchiness was > > held to a dull roar. > > > But as I got further along in the book, I started to think that maybe Mr > > Petersen has simply mellowed about the trivial details over the years (I > > know I have!). Or maybe more accurately, there's less to be peeved about in > > the bike industry now than there was 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. > > After all, smart, sturdy bikes with ample tire clearance and useful > > braze-ons and some attention to classic, non-billboard aesthetics have > > become, dare I say, normal. If racing bikes and gear are the status quo in > > the world, then I must live in a lucky bubble in South Minneapolis where I > > ride and fix bikes every day, as I see lots of reincarnated 1980s > > sport-tourers, old steel MTBs, and new(ish) Surly Cross-checks and LHTs on > > a daily basis, but feel like I see relatively few "road bikes" being ridden > > by obvious faux-racers. To the extent that bike trends have steered toward > > the benefit of the "Unracer" over the past decade or so, my opinion is that > > Grant and Rivendell played a large part in it. This is not to say that all > > smart bike designs and product offerings are shameless Riv-ripoffs, but > > that Grant gave voice to a backlash movement and opened a long-neglected > > market to a lot of smart, creative people who maybe couldn't or wouldn't > > have done it without some pioneering coattails to ride on. -- 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. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
