Admittedly, I had almost the exact opposite issue as a college student. I grew up without cyclists in my family, and think it's so rad that there are parents like Leah to give a good starting point of living a happily car free college life.
I was messy messy messy in my hyperfocus niche interests (bikes). As an adolescent I got into bmx bikes. I had a very high end BMX I kept in my dorm room under my bunk for the first two years. I worked at a skatepark and rode with many professional friends. Eventually, a visiting friend "from the city" brought his IRO fixed gear. I was absolutely smitten. He taught me about fixed gear conversions - so I went to one on one bike studios in Minneapolis and Gene helped me pick out a beat Schwinn Letour in my size and parts I needed to convert it to fixed. Within the next few months - I befriended a local bike shop worker who talked me into buying a 54cm Surly steam roller frame (I am 6' 2" mind you) for nearly wholesale as it'd been sitting for ever a year. My IRO friend came back and took me down the biggest hill in town (sanfrancisco style) on that brakeless steamroller. Literally probably the stupidest day of my life. We continued on a 40+K ride in the country side to a waterfall and it blew my mind. My friend with the IRO was also into racing on a geared bike - and informed me on the magic of "geared bikes" I sold the steamroller and dropped all my savings on a Long haul Trucker. Except - except they all fit weird and I didn't like the loooong top tube after a short period. So I traded it for Cross check. I despised the cross check frame even more - but somebody offered to trade a geared Karate Monkey for my Cross check. I rode the Karate Monkey for a while, but fell back in love with single speeds, so converted it to single speed and rode that a long time. To my detriment "Ride the Divide" came out. Mark Remier's first Generation Salsa Fargo was on display - dirt and all at the premier. Within the week I rode to Angry Catfish and picked up a Fargo in my size. I loved that bike. That concluded my undergrad....I wont even start on my bikes during my "Grad school years" I was quite..."promiscuous" in my bike building because "college" is for experimenting right? (I never drank or did drugs - most of my bike dealings were trade/second hand based being in QBP land) There was just so much to learn and try out - I couldn't get enough. There were definitely other bikes and builds in there I am forgetting like a shogun touring bike etc. and lots of BMX bikes. That was just my undergrad...20 years later. Oof - not going to think too hard about it. But the enthusiasm hasn't stopped. I think it's super cool to have an option for such a versatile bike from the get go and supportive parents for a *much* better starting point. I absolutely believe that Leah's kid is in good hands. Who knows what'll happen, but he's got a great bike to work with and obviously a lot of love and support which is super great. On Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at 11:46:56 AM UTC-7 Joe Bernard wrote: > This is going great you guys. I think it was clear after many days and > many posts that the question is "what bike?", not does the kid even want > one. It'd be super if we could stick with that. > > On Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at 11:38:13 AM UTC-7 Patrick Moore wrote: > >> Sorry, I have to agree with both Johns; the question seemed to be serious >> and without condescension. The triple question marks indicate reserve in >> asking the question and not exasperation or putdown; "Perhaps you might >> consider ...?" >> >> On Tue, Aug 15, 2023 at 12:02 PM Doug H. <dhansf...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> John, >>> I took the question exactly as Leah interpreted it. The triple question >>> mark at the end of the question was pretty emphatic. Take a breath? Really >>> man? >>> Doug >>> >>> On Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at 1:57:37 PM UTC-4 John Phillips wrote: >>> >>>> Leah, please take a breath and count to 10. >>>> >>>> John's question wasn't rude, and was a fair question in that the *strength >>>> of his desire *for a bike at college *could* correlate to the amount >>>> of attention he would give to keeping the bike secure. >>>> >>>> You did ask for people's opinions, so please just ignore those you >>>> don't like. >>>> >>>> John >>>> On Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at 2:22:12 AM UTC-7 Bicycle Belle Ding >>>> Ding! wrote: >>>> >>>>> John, >>>>> Text makes it hard to tell sometimes, so I suppose I’ll ask. >>>>> >>>>> 1. Is your question asked because you have the perfect bike waiting >>>>> for him that you would like to gift him? >>>>> >>>>> 2. Is your question being asked because you are genuinely confused >>>>> about the topic of the conversation? >>>>> >>>>> 3. Or is your question posed so as to look down on me, as if I was >>>>> imposing my choices on my son? >>>>> >>>> -- 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/ce23de1f-e729-48ed-9b9c-5cf66a110a1fn%40googlegroups.com.
