I never understood the need for groups of cyclists to denigrate the kind of cycling other people do.
In the 1990s, I rode with a cyclist who was sponsored by Bridgestone, Eric House (the first man to do Furnace Creek 508 in under 30 hours: https://www.furnacecreek508.com/reports/1992fc508.html). One time he read an article on the Rivendell Reader where Grant wrote about cycling for fun being a better form of cycling than racing. He said: "What, those of us who commute or use the bike for utility can't be in a hurry to get to a meeting on time?" Every time you have to take your kids to school on a bike you're effectively in a race against time, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Sure, it's nice to have lots of time and go as slow as you like, but I found Eric House's arguments compelling as well. And there are times when you feel like pushing hard and there's also nothing wrong with that. Similarly sometimes I read something about how certain forms of mountain biking should be considered "stunt riding", and I find myself thinking, if they're having fun on a bike, I see nothing wrong with that. The first folks who descended Mt. Tam on balloon tires were denigrated by the Sierra Clubs and other conservative organizations as doing something unnatural. In the end cyclists lost the battle and most single-track on Mt. Tam, the birthplace of mountain biking is banned to cyclists. I find that very sad. One of my friends recently convinced me to visit Whistler for a downhill MTB trip. It's the antithesis of what I usually do, taking a ski lift up a mountain and riding the bike downhill (https://blog.piaw.net/2023/07/2023-whistler-day-1.html). When I got off the ski lift I rode up the ramp to the start of one of the trails and the instructor said to me, "You're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to walk up the ramp." It was hilarious since obviously in road cycling, walking means failure. My kids complained about having to take classes and threatened to crash deliberately so they didn't have to do it. But by the end of the 3rd day they were no longer complaining and the older one asked for a fourth day. As one of my friends said: "When you do a jump and get a half second of air time it's one of the most amazing feelings in the world." And once again I find it hard to argue against that. All I have to say is ride bike. Any bike anywhere any time. It's always better than being in a car, and it's always fun! On Tuesday, July 25, 2023 at 1:56:19 PM UTC-7 Clark Fitzgerald wrote: > ... and it was a ton of fun! > > My paddling buddy called me a couple days before the Great American > Triathlon <https://www.greatamericantriathlon.com/> because they needed a > cyclist to ride as part of a relay team. I've never raced before, but I > have been riding touring bikes and commuting since 2007, living the "Riv > Life". Along the way I've picked up a fair amount of prejudice towards > racing, but now I realize that my attitude was indeed just that- prejudice. > Racing offers its own kind of joy. > > I rode my craigslist special, a steel fixed gear Bianchi San Jose with > 40mm tires and a 76.5" gear. Among the relay teams, it was the only fixed > gear, and the only single speed. Most people had carbon road bikes, and > there were a handful of time trial bikes. I did see one classic, high > handlebar laid back Rivendell. I performed better than I expected, > averaging 22 mph over the 12.5 mile course to place 8th out of 129 teams > for the cycling leg. Drafting was allowed, but I didn't have a chance to > draft anyone, because our runner (the first leg) was extremely fast with a > 5:20 mile pace, and that gave me a 3 minute head start. > > I would do it again, because I enjoyed pushing myself as hard as I could. > If there were convenient local bike races, then I would go, but I don't > feel compelled to go seek them out. I feel no desire to buy a faster bike, > although I might increase the gear ratio a bit if I train and get stronger. > > Bikes offer so many ways to have fun! > -- 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 on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/7488ffd7-e0a6-4c06-b388-aa00505125c8n%40googlegroups.com.
