Posted on 04/01/2023 1:22:36 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas. 🚴‍♂️👍
I picked up an absolutely beautiful like-new Trek Madone (carbon fiber without a single scratch) some years ago (for $800) and have put upwards of 5,000 miles on it without a single problem. In fact, I'm going for a 20 mile ride on it this morning.
Side note: Many young couples buy beautiful his & her bikes, do a little riding, and then the babies start to come. Bikes gather dust and young family needs some extra cash for all those baby things.
Bottom line: There are a ton of beautiful barely used bikes out there.
As to Shimano 105, it is the workhorse of bike components and over the years has benefitted from "trickle-down" technology (where the tech of really high-end bikes becomes incorporated in medium price components over time).
I recommend against spending big bucks on a first bike because you really don't know your style of riding and what your preferences will be. On top of that, many of your preferences can be met with after-market equipment.
Side note: I have a good friend who bought a new bike couple of years ago (hadn't ridden since childhood). He studied every angle and shopped and shopped. He decided to buy a new bike for around $3,000. It had every bell and whistle that his "analyses" told him he would need. I offered several of my old bikes to him so that he might ride a bit and get the feel of the road. But no...he said he would just wait for his new bike.
Well, he has put perhaps 50 miles on it. He found out that biking is painful. The seat hurts his butt (that usually goes away) and, he thinks, his bike is too long for his frame.
Point being, there is no--I repeat, no--substitute for miles in the saddle in determining if a bike is right for you. Ergo, buy a nice used bike for very little money and learn the sport.
You are a rare bird indeed!
I like to help my good friend Berlin Freeper to celebrate his lifestyle. Too many people bash bicyclists, soccer lovers, tea drinkers, and gay bicycle pants wearing Euro metrosexuals. I, for one, will not stand for it. I fully support Berlin and his lifestyle choices. I do not judge.
Regarding spandex pants, I would say that if you bike any distance, you will wear padded spandex shorts or you will seriously regret it.
As a side note, I have been biking (road and mountain) for about 35 years. I have never met or heard of a gay bicyclist.
Too much pain.
I think it was Chris Carmichael who said that the pain from biking didn't stop as he trained by riding more and more. "The pain never stops. You just get faster."
Gay people are sissies. Sissies don't ride when riding means a lot of pain.
It is a well known scientific fact that gay men enjoy pain in their buttocks. In fact, its their entire raison d'etre, if you will.
#ItIsKnown
Sitting on a bike saddle for hours every day isn’t the kind of pain in the butt they have in mind (I would think...I don’t actually).
Wow...
This thread went downhill real fast! 🤪
I bought a used Mixte 10 speed when I moved to Santa Fe (no car). I loved that bike. I tried biking up Hyde Park Rd once. I think I quit when I rode uphill for 45 minutes.
May God grant all “repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (2 Timothy 2:25)
Cheap Walmart bike prices rising. The lowest right now:Huffy 26-inch Rock Creek Men's Mountain Bike, Blue (3.0)3 stars out of 202 reviews 202 reviews Now $98.00About the best buy I see right now: Genesis 27.5" V2100 Men's Mountain Bike, Black (3.7)3.7 stars out of 232 reviews 232 reviews Now $148.00was $228.00
Now you are ranting about tea drinkers. LoL!
#GettingWorse
#ObsessedWithMe
From the linked article above:
Despite not publishing potentially dangerous records, such as those involving the "consumption of live ants, chewing gum or raw eggs with shells", an exception was made for the eating of a bicycle because it was "unlikely to attract competition."
His name was Michel Lotito (b. 1950 - d. 2007), some guy from France who gained a small measure of fame by eating inedible objects.
His life achievement was the consumption of an entire aircraft - a Cessna 150 - between 1978 and 1980.
He achieved these feats by breaking down metal, plastic and glass components and grinding them into shavings that he would then consume - up to two pounds of these shavings a day.
He died at 57. It is not known if his strange diet had anything to do with his premature death but his own doctor admitted that Lotito's diet was "more of a mental problem."
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