Letter to Cycling Weekly.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Simon Mason
As for keeping my opinions to myself, what do you think a letters page in a magazine is for, for heavens sake?

Positive comments that people want to read and move cycling forward or real issues that need raising to the general cycling community.

Can you really not see anything positive in having fashionable/trendy/cool/popular bikes as long as they are safe and functionable?

Quoted message said:

Just zis Guy, you know? posted ...

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Does it really matter what anyone rides, so long as they do ride.

Yes, if the bike they have been sold by Toys R Sole is so lumpen and heavy as to turn the joyous
activity we know and love into a pogoing tyre-rumbling chore. That, along with saddles adusted so
as to allow the rider to place both knees on the ground when seated, is one of the True Paths to
Cobwebs for a bike.

In my experience, the people who buy from Toys R Us, Makro, et al are not really committed cyclists
yet, they're merely trying it out. Would you try something out by buying cheap, cheerful, and
mostly knowing it to be [censored] but getting a 'flavour', rather than spending a grand or so on a
decent bike ?

False dichotomy. You can get a bike that is a lot more suitable for moderate commuting for a lot
less than a grand, even new. But it's getting harder.

Just zis Guy said:

Tony Raven said:

And they are much less likely to ride a "proper bike" that is forced on them than one they think
is "k3wl"

My nine-year-old wants a drop-bar bike for his next birthday :-)

Any suggestions on where to find a reasonably priced one, in case my eight year old wants one when
he needs a new bike?

And suggestions for 20" tyres for road use (that will fit rims that currently have fat (20x1.75 and
20x2.0 I think) knobblies on, so not Stelvios), for use on the bikes my children currently have/are
getting for Christmas? (They are rigid conventional frames, and the older one isn't obviously
"oversized" tubing, but asking about not-mountain not-BMX children's bikes the response was
basically "no, no-one makes them anymore".)

Alan Braggins posted ...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Just zis Guy, you know? posted ...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> Does it really matter what anyone rides, so long as they do ride.

Yes, if the bike they have been sold by Toys R Sole is so lumpen and heavy as to turn the joyous
activity we know and love into a pogoing tyre-rumbling chore. That, along with saddles adusted
so as to allow the rider to place both knees on the ground when seated, is one of the True Paths
to Cobwebs for a bike.

In my experience, the people who buy from Toys R Us, Makro, et al are not really committed
cyclists yet, they're merely trying it out. Would you try something out by buying cheap,
cheerful, and mostly knowing it to be [censored] but getting a 'flavour', rather than spending a grand
or so on a decent bike ?

False dichotomy. You can get a bike that is a lot more suitable for moderate commuting for a lot
less than a grand, even new. But it's getting harder.

Of course you can, you know that, I know that, and most other cyclists know that, but someone who's
never cycled or been 'into' cycling before won't know that ..

The bikes we're discussing are marketed at such newcomers to cycling. Yes, they're [censored], but no-one
outside cycling knows that, and they _do_ look like they mean business ... to the layman ... 😉

--
Digweed .... 😉

2LAP <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Simon Mason said:

As for keeping my opinions to myself, what do you think a letters page in a magazine is for,
for heavens sake?

Positive comments that people want to read and move cycling forward or real issues that need
raising to the general cycling community.

Can you really not see anything positive in having fashionable/trendy/cool/popular bikes as long
as they are safe and functionable?

Whether you agree with it or not, Simon's point was that these fashionable bikes will deter the
people who ride them from becoming long term cyclists. Therefore it is an issue for the general
cycling community.

--
Dave...

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Whether you agree with it or not, Simon's point was that these fashionable bikes will deter the
people who ride them from becoming long term cyclists. Therefore it is an issue for the general
cycling community.

I'm not sure that it's a valid point though. When I started riding off-road again this summer I soon
came to the conclusion that my old off-road bike wasn't up to what I wanted to do. So, rather than
giving up discouraged, I've saved up and I'm having a new one. If someone is really interested in
cycling that is what they will do rather than giving up altogether. If it was just a fad then the
most pimpy bike in the world won't stop them getting bored and giving up.

Juliette, who notes that she now lives with a man who is being seduced by the dark side. I hold you
lot responsible you know😉
--
nowt

[email hidden] (JoeyRamone) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Simon Mason retreated with the words:

Quoted message said:

That's it, I'm off bye :-)

Bye. Off to write another enthralling letter to Cycling Weekly eh? 🙂

No - for good. I'm not paying good money to be verbally abused! (Hang on, your at work aren't you?)
Yes well, I'm not being paid good money to be verbally abused either.

Thanks for the last 4 years - It's been great - and take care all :-)

00000 CONET
Simon

In "]news:[email hidden], Simon Mason <[email hidden]> typed:

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (JoeyRamone) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Simon Mason retreated with the words:

Quoted message said:

That's it, I'm off bye :-)

Bye. Off to write another enthralling letter to Cycling Weekly eh? 🙂

No - for good. I'm not paying good money to be verbally abused! (Hang on, your at work aren't
you?) Yes well, I'm not being paid good money to be verbally abused either.

Thanks for the last 4 years - It's been great - and take care all :-)

Hey Simon, you can't just leave us just because of some people who'd rather be nasty than understand
your point.

If I'd been posting at the weekend I'd have defended you. I'd also have been glad to point out that
there were lots of rigid bikes at the 100 pound mark in Halfords when I was in there yesterday, so
all is not lost.

Enjoy your cycling. Glad we converted you.

Ambrose

"Ambrose Nankivell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hey Simon, you can't just leave us just because of some people who'd

rather

Quoted message said:

be nasty than understand your point.

If I'd been posting at the weekend I'd have defended you. I'd also have

been

Quoted message said:

glad to point out that there were lots of rigid bikes at the 100 pound

mark

Quoted message said:

in Halfords when I was in there yesterday, so all is not lost.

Enjoy your cycling. Glad we converted you.

unfortunately I've only caught bits of this thread ( a pox on NTL and their eternally flaky DNS);
but having belatedly read it I frankly could not see a problem with Simon's post; particularly as I
agree with his views on *cheap* suspension bikes!

I couldn't see how sending his opinions to a mag presumably read by cyclists is going to *deter*
teenagers or other people from taking up cycling just because they "only want a kewl suspension
bike"! IME Cycling Weekly is (duh!) usually read by those who are *already interested in bikes*
rather than novice cyclists; they would be unlikely to be affected by a comment in the letters page.

Nor is it the case (at least in my city) that suspension bikes are seen as that much more "kewl"
than others.

I regularly go to lots of places where young people are found; on a Dawes Horizon, and no-one there
has dared called me an old grandad yet. Especially when you ride 26 miles for a social occasion and
people 10 years your junior use a car for anything greater than a walk to the shops 🙂 if anything
people seem to think its a "racing bike" of some sort 😉

The only sort of kids who would be taken in by this are 11 year olds who know no better (I would
expect an 11 year old who already read cycling weekly would probably be a junior time triallist or
similar 😉

Simon [M] has contributed a *lot* to this group; it is a sad loss if he does not post here. (and
this is from someone whom Simon originally thought was a troll due to the bizzare way in which I
rediscovered my interest in cycling!) [1]

Alex
[1] this was sorted out amicably; and we both discovered a common interest in bizzarre noises and
5-digit numbers heard on wireless sets 🙂