On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 11:26:08 -0700, Slacker did issue forth:
Quoted message said:So what are you girls & guys using for sunscreen lotion while riding?
Not remotely helpful with regard to your question, but I'm going to post this again:
WEAR A HELMET
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, a helmet would be it. The long-term benefits of
helmet use have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering cycling. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and shininess of your drivetrain. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power
and shininess of your drivetrain until the teeth have stripped. But trust me, after 20 miles uphill,
you'll look back at the Shimano catalogue and recall in a way you can't grasp just how much better
the bike performed with teeth on the sprockets. Your bike is not as heavy as you imagine.
Don't worry about punctures. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to true a
wheel with an adjustable spanner. The real troubles on your bike are apt to be things that never
crossed your worried mind, like the headtube breaking off on the ride home from work.
Do one thing every day that scares your riding buddy.
Schwinn.
Don't be reckless with other peoples bikes. Give people a good kicking if they are reckless
with yours.
Lube.
Don't waste your money on posh frame materials. Sometimes your bike's lighter, sometimes it's
heavier. The race is long and, in the end, it's often won by an old bloke on a '96 Muddy Fox.
Remember which screw is which on Campag mechs. Forget about stupid ideas like Biopace. If you
succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your receipts. Throw away the manuals.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know which way to turn the pedal thread. A lot of the mechanics I
know didn't know at 22 which way to turn the thread. A lot of the more useless 40 year olds
still don't.
Drink plenty of water. Check your brakes work. You'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll become a roadie, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll become a frame builder, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll bonk after 40 miles, maybe you'll win the TDF on your 75th wedding anniversary.
Whatever you do, don't inflate your tyres too much, or underinflate them either. Your unicycle is a
half bicycle. So are everybody else's.
Enjoy your 5mm allen key. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people
think of it. It's the greatest tool you'll ever own.
Spin, even if you have nowhere to do it but on the way to work.
Read the directions, then laugh at the Engrish they're written in.
Do not read MTB magazines. They will only make you feel stupid.
Get to know your mechanic. You never know when he'll decide to stop doing stuff for free. Be nice to
your riding buddies. They're your best link to civilization when you've gone over the bars and need
an ambulance.
Understand that frames come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to fill
the gaps with weld bead and glass fibre, because the older it gets, the more you need to replace
chunks of the frame that have gone missing.
Ride in New York City once, but leave before you get run over. Ride in Northern California once, but
leave before you decide to buy a house there. Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Travel will rise. Gary Fisher's beard will look stupider. You
too, will become an old gimmer. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, forks
were rigid, Gary Fisher looked sensible and children didn't ride £100 full sussers.
Inspect your chain wear.
Don't expect anyone else to support your bike. Maybe you'll have a workstand, maybe you'll have a
bit of bungee hanging from the roof. But you'll never know when either one might get "borrowed".
Don't mess too much with your wheels or by the time you've got there they'll be severely taco'd.
Be careful whose second hand stuff you buy, but try to beat them down on the price when you buy it.
Second hand stuff is a form of con-artistry. Selling it is a way of pulling it out of the attic,
filing the frame number off, painting over the rust and getting rid of
it.
But trust me on the helmets.
Huw "Baz" Pritchard