Yearly Archives: 2017

MTB Design and Preferences

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not at the forefront on knowledge of all the “new designs” of MTB’s.  I only race them a few times a year and most of the races that I do you could get by on a MTB from the 1990’s.  The longer, not mountainous races in the midwest don’t need a big movement full-suspension bike normally.

I saw a few comments on a few posts about how “ancient” my dual suspension bike looks.  “My stem is too long.” “My bars are too narrow.”  “Bar-ends.”  Etc.

There is a real difference between bikes you want to race and bikes that you ride around.  Jimmy Mac told me a long time ago that he thought one of the reasons that MTB racing, at a National Level, was suffering was because the bikes that are fun/great to ride aren’t the same bikes that you would want to race.  I didn’t know enough about it to understand back then, but do now.

The bar width thing is a preference.  I can’t, and don’t want to, ride super wide bars because some, or many of the races that I might go to around Kansas, super wide bars just don’t fit. Plus, I don’t need them.

I was at Ned and Todd’s (Overend and Wells) Grand Fondo last year in Durango and I saw John Tomac.  I hadn’t seen John in a long time and he was telling me about his son and motorcycle racing.  Anyway, he looked at my bike and said, bar-ends, I need to get some of those.

I climb on bar-ends.  I don’t understand how riders get power while standing up without them. I do understand that wider bars give more leverage, but you aren’t using the same muscle group.  I tell you that a road sprinter could not go nearly as fast without the hands and arms being in the position they are.  Flat bars hinder off the seat climbing and accelerating.

I could go on and on.  I love my Eriksen  and might mess around with position a little, but it is never going to look like a enduro bike with a $400 dropper seatpost and a super short stem.  I might get a bike like that, I’ll just never race x-country on it.

On a side note, Vincent is shipping his fork and shock off to DirtLabs in Longmont to get tuned. These are off his tandem.  He’s sending my rear shock too.  I hear those guys are pretty much best in the business.  Guys that focus on one thing usually end up being that way.

From Kent Eriksen website.

 

 

Fake News??? What to Believe??? – Helmets

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling, Important Society Issues on by .

I got an email from “a reader”, which was someone I don’t know, that had some conflicting views about illegal immigration.  He sent me a link to a Fox News story about percentages of serious crimes done by illegal immigrate.

I responded giving a couple links to, what I view as more credible sources, that were pretty much the opposite of the Sean Hannity story.  But, it is a quandary.

All these sources and it is up to us to figure out what is correct.  I don’t think that used to be the situation.   The problem is that most of us don’t have the time, energy, or maybe even the interest, to do our own research to try to decipher the information.

That is the current state of our political system.  Different news outlets presenting conflicting stories.  “Our president”, tweeting incessantly.  Plus all the extraneous stuff.   It is crazy.

I was forwarded a link to a story about helmet use.  It was from The Guardian, a British outlet.  The title was

The big bike helmet debate: ‘You don’t make it safe by forcing cyclists to dress for urban warfare’

Subtitle –

The question of whether cyclists should wear helmets provokes fury – often from those on four wheels. But which has the bigger benefit: increased physical safety, or creating a better environment for people to cycle helmet-free?

Here is a link to the article.  

The article is pretty in-depth, trying to addresses many issues involving helmet usage, other than people whacking their heads on the pavement.

I am interested in this, since I just had a TBI from the very thing.  I wrote in a post that I was in a indefensible position.  I still feel that way.  But, it is way more complicated than what we all think.

According to The Guardian article, so many more things are involved in our safety than just the fact we put a helmet on our heads.  They cite studies that show that automobiles go closer to riders that wear helmets.  Another study that showed when mandatory helmet laws have been passed in different countries, cycling dramatically takes a hit.  And on and on.  You should just click the link and read the article.

Anyway, this kind of fits into the fake news deal.  It is very hard to change someones beliefs in subjects that seem straight forward.  Such as wearing a helmet riding a bike.  Seems pretty straight forward.

But as Chris Boardman states – “I understand why people wish to use them. But these actions seek to deal with an effect. I want to focus the debate on the cause, and campaign for things that will really make cycling safe. That is why I won’t promote high-vis and helmets – I won’t let the debate be drawn on to a topic that isn’t even in the top 10 things that will really keep people who want to cycle safe.”

He thinks he knows what makes cycling safe and says helmet usage isn’t in the top 10 of issues to address.  I have to agree with him somewhat.  Our overall safety has so many obstacles, it does seem that the helmet issue is so overblown and divisive.  I wonder what that is?

From a bicycling article about counterfeit gear.