Sorry man, and glad to have your comments, but you should've 'let sleeping dogs lie'. I've copied my response to here:
You don't get fixies?!
Harden up! Nothing good is easy: that's why we have to train and do foreplay. If you don't ride fixed, your cadence is square. "Coasting is a pernicious habit", and once you ride fixed you don't coast road bikes anymore, unless descending mountains. You don't know anything about gearing until you have only one you'd better get right. You don't know anything about efficiency until every hill and intersection is an equation to be solved in an ideal way. You don't know shit about traction, until you get feedback through all points of contact. You don't know anything about the machine, until you work on it yourself: sending a fixed gear in for servicing is like having someone cut your wood for you. Man up.
Why steel?!
It shows class. It's cheaper than plastic.* It looks better than aluminum or plastic. It rides better than either. All three can crack: plastic cracks and immediately drops your face into the road, aluminum cracks and gives an hour to notice, steel gives you between a week and forever. Steel weighs only a pound or two more than plastic, and most of us should shed that off our asses rather than out of our wallets. Plastic frames never have enough tire clearance, and aluminum rarely does. You can spread the rear-triangle for a longer axle (aluminum or plastic would fail); and if really ambitious change the bend of your fork or dent a tube for particular fittings. You can have a welder fix it, put in more braze-ons, or change the drop-outs. Most of all, the real reason to get steel is that titanium is too fucking expensive...
*(carbon fibre reinforced) PLASTIC
So this is what happen when a button is pushed?
ReplyDeleteThis is where blogs shine IMO. You can really be clear...CLEAR about what you want to say.
Hey, we've all got our schtick. I can't for the life of me understand why people pay more to ride uglier machines.
DeleteAnt, you are good value! You are a real sweetie for dedicating a post to me.
ReplyDeleteWell I don't coast EVEN going down a mountain (unless it is a shitty road) or unless I am buggered. I think I am allowed to coast when I've done over 100 kms in a day. Can you even do that on a fixie? Anyone who could even do that would be a bit of a silly bugger I reckon. Like bragging about riding a donkey for 100 kms when everyone else is on a horse. Even if I am costing per se, I am still rotating the pedals.
Plus I like my aluminium frame because it makes the bike easier to pick up for poses in my photos for facebook and myspace (!!).
I don't think foreplay or training is that hard, otherwise I wouldn't do it. Work is sometimes hard, but I need that to eat.
Actually it is a shame you are leaving as I wanted to go riding with you, maybe on that twisty road you put up earlier.
My pleasure. You gave me a topic to write on, for which I appreciate.
Delete"You are a real sweetie..." Are you a woman or a man? The word 'sweetie' is not much used by 'straight' men in Canada, where I am from. I have no issue with you being any gender or preference, or keeping it a mystery, but the use of the word 'sweetie' does make me curious.
Not leaving for over a year. I have not met anyone from blogging. I don't even know their real identities. It could be interesting to meet them... or not; that's as true for them to meet me.
You cannot coast on a fixed gear indeed, but you can on a singlespeed (it has a one-cog freewheel): that is to say that singlespeed is the worst of both worlds of fixed gear or geared riding. Descending hills on a fixed gear can be some crazy egg-beating, especially for the dumbasses without brakes.
I am a man and the sweetie thing was a joke. Aussie humour gone wrong?
DeleteIf you are keen to have a crack at that windy road, let me know. How about the September public holidays when things start to cool down a bit? We can wear masks the whole time to maintain our internet anonymity.