Bicycle-Related Thoughts while Riding

[Jay]

I like the conversations that are musings about a variety of bicycle related themes.  Here my take on it.

I've ridden 5 days in a row (more below on why that's meaningful), all involved a good dose of local trails and so far, 13/19 days in October.  I think a lot while riding, including a lot about riding and bikes.  Here are some thoughts I recall from the last week.

Nature

- Fall is when mother nature gets all dolled up and heads out to her annual party.  The colours, changing temperatures and weather conditions, no ride feels the same.  In contrast, when it's the middle of a hot and humid summer, all the rides seem more similar

- Where I live, this was "the" weekend for fall colours.  I witnessed this while riding through town, on the streets and trails.  I also had to drive very carefully when heading to my lbs on Saturday as it's situated in a very popular area for changing leaves and the instagrammers were out in full force.  I'm sure there selfies all look unique, right? ;-).  On a busy road with an 80km/h speed limit, one lady riding an old mountain bike, no helmet, decides she wanted to cut across the road and didn't bother to look any way.  Thankfully no one struck her.

- Fall was on my mind today, the colours were exploding everywhere

Comfort

- For me, comfort on the bike is by and far, #1.  It's usually degrees of comfort and I'm always hopeful when something clicks, even if things are still broken.  Lately, though, I have my saddle woes solved (thank you Brooks B17).  I've been cutting out the chamois on some of my 10+ bike shorts recently, as I only ride with some long compression boxers and bib shorts as I find them comfortable, without the chamois.  Those red spots that were on my butt for years, all year long, are suddenly gone :-)

Tires

- I picked up RH Hurricane Ride tires last Saturday and have ridden on them 7 days since.  I love these tires.  I've heard people say a smooth tire is just as good, better? on gravel trails; something about how you just push the gravel on top of one another.  Maybe. I guess it depends where you ride.  I'm cornering with confidence, climbing steep (20%) gravel trails and no rear tire slipping out.  I really like these.  I may go buy a 2nd set for when these wear out.

Flow (being dialled in for a ride)

- Not sure if this is flow, but when I'm riding my local trails, which are curvy and hilly, I sometimes really focus on the ride, thinking of my line choices during cornering, braking before steep descents, little ramps to catch an inch of air, curbs to hop on making it look easy.  When I get through one of these sections, I think I smirk, knowing I nailed it.  My body and mind feel really good on and after the rides.  This morning was such a ride

Bike overlap (not toe overlap ;-)

- I love my Roadini.  In two weeks I'll have 3 wheel sets for it.  It does almost everything I need it to (fast road rides with nice light wheels and fast rubber; all-road rides with 43mm smooth tires for comfortable road rides, rail trails, and more when I want it spicy; and trail rides...nothing crazy - no rocks, drop offs or anything)

- I don't always love my Salsa Fargo.  This is my only other bike.  I recently removed the cables from the swept-bar set up to go back to drops.  But in the end, I didn't want the overlap with Leo and his drops.  I want something different when I reach for this bike.  So I'm putting a longer stem on it to hopefully be more comfortable, new cables/housings.  I've also ordered an Albatross bar to see how I like that over the VO Granola Bar

- I thought of buying a Sam Hillborne.  But I feel like this is too much overlap given the riding I do.  Leo with 3 wheel sets is more than enough.  Fargo has a wheel set with Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro tires for winter.  I hope I'm set and don't go down any rabbit holes

Appreciation

- Above all else, really feeling a sense of appreciation lately.  I appreciate that I can ride a bike, that I have the $ to afford a nice bike, the health to ride for hours, safety where I ride, and many other things.  My goal is to do this into my 70's, 80's even.

What's on your mind lately, when you're on your bike?

[David Ross]

I always end up having bike overlap because I slowly manage to massage all my bikes into exactly the same bike. Sometimes I do so by accomplishing completely unnatural feats with geometry. A couple of years ago, I finally realized this and sold most of my bicycles. Everything I have left at the point is a dedicated swept bar ATB. I finally stopped the urge to own aspirational bikes that I will end up not wanting to ride as much. I love almost every bike in the Rivendell catalog, and I’d like to own one of each, but I realize the only one that really works for me at this point would be a Clem. It’s only taken me half a century to come to this realization. 

--
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-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/4636edde-e61a-4606-acd5-0b4b4075bc8cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Jay]

So interesting what you say about accomplishing unnatural feats with geometry to make your bikes the same.  I've done this too, but I was always starting from an imperfect place (a bike that is not ideal fit), but I didn't know it at the time.  I wasted so much time and money. 

[Drew Fitchette]

Very much empathize with the massaging a bike to be what you want. Having owned an Atlantis, a Sam, an Appaloosa, a Clem, and now a Platypus and another Atlantis(in a different size) all with varying setups, I've realized now how I kind of wanted them all to be the same bike.