In article <[email hidden]>,
Mark Hickey said:Claire Petersky said:but my husband bragged
about it to the guy ahead of us in the chowline. The guy smirked at me so
condescendingly, I wanted to smack him.
And I do see noobs getting the arrogant, "I'm a vastly superior cyclist"
treatment from vastly superior cyclists from time to time, and I just want
to smack those guys, too.
Claire... violence just isn't the answer. It's much better to invite
them out for a ride and then drop them like the worthless noobie scum
they really are. Better if you preface the ride with "take it easy on
my, I'm only a gurl"...
... which really only works if you are faster than them, of course -
but of course, all us loyal readers at r.b.m. are obviously vastly
superioER cyclists.
;-)
Maybe this is the right place in this thread to share a recent tale. My
father and I went out for a semi-purposeful ride together a few weeks
ago. To make things marginally fairer, he rode his usual commuter bike,
an old Mikado tourer, and I rode my one-speed Pinarello (you didn't
misread that), 52x18 or something.
At one point we had to ride up a short, sharp hill. My father was of
course spinning a nice low gear, and watched as I pulled some atrocious
cadence up the hill. 10 rpm? 20? I was probably doing 5-7 km/h. He
chuckled that I should have used the lower gear on my bike (I also have
a 40x20 or something on the bicycle, but using it is a
stop-and-move-the-chain operation).
I smiled at dad, and accelerated. He knows I can ride pretty well, but I
think he was still shocked at how fast I went away.
There is, of course, always somebody faster.
I think it is useful to draw distinctions in skill and confidence, since
that defines what roads a person might be able to ride at all. I ride
roads that most other cyclists wouldn't ride, but then I look at
couriers and pronounce them crazy (and, for that matter, see riding by
very casual cyclists that I consider suicidally oblivious).
With regard to speed and distance, I can enjoy almost any bike ride.
Sometimes the key for me is to bring a bike that somehow handicaps me
(as I did on my ride with my father), or just to enjoy the view. It's
all good.
I've played the role of slow, humble rider often enough to not feel too
arrogant.
Right now, the rider whose riding interests me the most is a friend of
mine toodling around on a 60s-vintage folder. He uses it to do
neigbourhood errands and extend transit (he was car-free before he got
the bike). He tells me of 60-90 minute rides that thrill me, because I
know this is the first time that he has ridden a bicycle in years, and
that both he and I can see that he is getting deeply sucked into the joy
of cycling.
My experience is that almost all of us started out in a place where a
7-mile ride was a big deal. Some people never do any more. Some people
go on to become racers, randonneurs, etc.
My bike club has a weekly club ride which is reasonably quick (30 km/h
average for 2-3 hours) but the ride sheet lays out the responsibilities
of club members: carry extra tubes, food, and water in case someone
shows up a bit underprepared, and nobody gets dropped.
The illustration of this principle is given by naming a specific young
rider, who, when he first showed up at the club ride, was so unready he
needed all of food, water, and encouragement just to make it through the
ride. Plus, he couldn't ride in a paceline very well.
That rider went on to become the fastest young racer in the club, then
one of the fastest riders in the club, then moved to a local semi-pro
team.
From tiny acorns,
--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos
