THATmanMANNY
Well-Known Member
to sum it up, kev is saying
Moon Shadows are Evil
- Thread starter stb222
- Start date
The Kalmyk
Well-Known Member
The Kalmyk Likes this....
I went to the 2007 National Cross Race at Mercer and knew it was "other peoples shit"... Like Kevin, Matty and Luke, I'm on board for long rides in the fall
Arwen's Mom
Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains
This is the best thing I have read on this forum in a long time.
In all my years of riding I have never told anyone what they should ride. yet I have people tell me all the time what I should ride. Been there, done that, rode one already. If its new, I will try it. But I like what I like, and I ride what I like. I just want to see people riding. I dont care what it is. Just ride. But let me just ride too.
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HeavyMetaLance
Well-Known Member
This is quite possibly the most insightful statement on this entire topic. I couldn't agree with you more.
You were not dragged into that conversation. You joined it of your own volition. Freely and willingly.
I wanted to clarify this on that twitter thread, but it's hard to do in 140 characters: Why do you even bother thinking about what other people are doing in a soccer field? By your own admission, it is "hard to let go." ?
Why not use your mental energy for things that you DO like doing, instead of lamenting about how you hate things that other people do? Live & let live. Ride & let ride.
Second most insightful statement.
Third most insightful statement.
Team skips biggest cross race of the year to go to Kingdom trails, invites you, you bail bc you "dont like group rides" Stop pretending that you are the normal one 😉
1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Is it so bad, though, when people try to get you to try the stuff they like? Aren't most people who try to get you to do the kind of rides/races they like doing so for benevolent reasons? For example, if you like to do long rides and invite others to come along with you, you aren't generally doing so to instruct them on a "better way to ride" -- isn't it usually the case that you're just inviting them because you enjoy that kind of ride and want to share something you like with your friends? It only sounds like they're telling you how you should ride if you choose to interpret it that way. If someone invites you to try a cross race, it's probably not because they are trying to convince you to waste 5 hours in a car on a beautiful fall day -- it's because they really love the sport and are inviting you to come find out why.
I know this was said in jest, but this speaks volumes. Everyone has their own perception of normal and this all spirals back to getting other people to do the same things you do. I would like to go by the ride and let ride thing, but making fun of people would be eliminated and what fun would that be.
FTR, there is no excuse for knee warmer and short sleeves, ever. I am not even sure if it is one of the rules, but if it isn't, it should be.
gtluke
The Moped
Robin
Well-Known Member
I was texting Kevin stuff on the matter, calling him mean names and stuff because really, I just have fun trying to piss him off. 😉
Nice post. Kudos Tee Shirt.
It said one on of my Rapha tags the following under care instructions:
If thou even-th think-th of wearing knee warmers with out-th wearing a longsleeve jersey or ss jersey with-th arm warmers, said knee warmers will-th disintegrate.
You take the chance, I am not.
Robin
Well-Known Member
HAHAAAAHAAAAAAA!!!!!
you can laugh and point at me when I wear my arm warmers down rather than take them off.
i am undecided on this particular situation and I witnessed it at coverted bridges. It may get a pass as I would rather keep riding then take them off but it is also the reason I wear wool arm and knee armers as they regulate temp better and you don't have to take them off. Oh, and I really never need to take mine off..
Delish
Well-Known Member
I don't know that we've ever actually met but I really enjoy soaking in your moon shadows, mostly because your style riding is pretty much the antithesis of what I'm doing these days.
There are as many types of cyclists as there are types of bikes these days. Actually that may no longer be true because there are way too damn many types of bikes these days. In any case, to the casual observer there appears to be very little resemblance between this guy:
and this guy:
I used to read bikesnob back in the day and he proposed a very simple test to distinguish who is a cyclist from who is just a guy (or gal) on a bike:
1) Do you ride a bike even when you don't have to?
2) Do you own a floor pump?
If the answer "yes" to both questions then you are a cyclist, otherwise you are just a guy on a bike. The idea being there are lots of people who ride a bike only because they have to (delivery guys, convicted DUIs, bike cops) but that does not make them cyclists. And, buying a fancy bike does not make you a cyclist unless you have the commitment to buy the simplest of home maintenance tool--a floor pump--to make sure your tires are properly inflated.
Kymbaya Moment:
The fact is that we are all cyclists and that makes us in some nontrivial way different (I would argue better) than the rest of the the population. It's not my place to tell anybody else what sort of riding they should be doing. Though I was a cyclist for many years before ever pinning on a number, racing bikes just happens to have renewed my love for the bike.
Race if you want to. Don't race if you don't want to. Who gives a fuck. Do your own thing, but just make sure that thing on two wheels.
And, as far as I'm concerned the only real way to waste a perfect fall day is to care enough about what other people are doing enough to twitter or facebook about it.
P.S. I too am a little on the fence about "Flashdance" arm warmers. When I lived in San Francisco there were days (pretty much all of them) where the ride would go from 55 degrees to 85 degrees then back to 55 degrees within a few miles. Being able to pull one's arm warmers down around the wrist was a godsend.
There are as many types of cyclists as there are types of bikes these days. Actually that may no longer be true because there are way too damn many types of bikes these days. In any case, to the casual observer there appears to be very little resemblance between this guy:
and this guy:
I used to read bikesnob back in the day and he proposed a very simple test to distinguish who is a cyclist from who is just a guy (or gal) on a bike:
1) Do you ride a bike even when you don't have to?
2) Do you own a floor pump?
If the answer "yes" to both questions then you are a cyclist, otherwise you are just a guy on a bike. The idea being there are lots of people who ride a bike only because they have to (delivery guys, convicted DUIs, bike cops) but that does not make them cyclists. And, buying a fancy bike does not make you a cyclist unless you have the commitment to buy the simplest of home maintenance tool--a floor pump--to make sure your tires are properly inflated.
Kymbaya Moment:
The fact is that we are all cyclists and that makes us in some nontrivial way different (I would argue better) than the rest of the the population. It's not my place to tell anybody else what sort of riding they should be doing. Though I was a cyclist for many years before ever pinning on a number, racing bikes just happens to have renewed my love for the bike.
Race if you want to. Don't race if you don't want to. Who gives a fuck. Do your own thing, but just make sure that thing on two wheels.
And, as far as I'm concerned the only real way to waste a perfect fall day is to care enough about what other people are doing enough to twitter or facebook about it.
P.S. I too am a little on the fence about "Flashdance" arm warmers. When I lived in San Francisco there were days (pretty much all of them) where the ride would go from 55 degrees to 85 degrees then back to 55 degrees within a few miles. Being able to pull one's arm warmers down around the wrist was a godsend.
Seasons of Change
Seasons of Change
As sure as the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, riding talk on the interwebs is a buzz with discussion of said change how this and that is abnormal, how cold or warm it should be and how they still haven’t figured out how to dress properly after 10 years of riding. I also fall victim to this but try to stop remembering when we were kids and the average temp was 1.12589785125 degrees cooler and it actually snowed every winter and a time when we would be snowboarding on Thanksgiving in the mid-atlantic region. While it is nice in the summer only ever having to worrying about if you wearing your fig colored Rapha jersey or the chartreuse one and if you are sporting the 6” or 12” socks, I always welcome the change in weather and bid farewell to the humidity. Unlike many, I am fond of my cool and cold weather riding gear and while I still ease into wearing it, when I start seeing temps below 40, I am not reluctant to throw some of it on. Hell, there were a few mornings in August that were below my SS jersey temp of 54 and saw the arm and knee warmers come out. Unlike mattyb who apparently has kneecaps made of windstopper and JimV who has hands are made of leather, my tender little knees just can’t take it, or at least it isn’t worth being chilly just to look bad ass.
In any case, there isn’t anything you can do aside from moving to central America to avoid the change in seasons and even then you will be breaking out the arm warmers after a few years when the temps dip below 75. I haven’t looked at what the October averages should be in an attempt not to feed the office chatter regarding how it is double the normal temp, but I do know by Halloween that a few chilly rides will have been had as was the case this year. Last week I saw my first sub-freezing temps of the season, right around the time of someone else’s sub-50 ride, which I admit I found amusing as that was two months ago for me. Below 40 is when you need to start thinking about what you are wearing for the time you will be out and then below 30, this becomes even more of a necessity, however many people stop riding well before that becomes a concern, at least on the road anyways. Seeing the new strava leader board thing has made this apparent that riding for some just falls off completely while I am looking for any place I can squeeze in more riding time.
Speaking of riding time, these are the days of trying to take advantage of the last nice day in the short term and that in itself can be a little frustrating. Case in point as Tuesday produced a fine day to which I rode in the morning and while it was nice, riding in the afternoon when it was 60 would have been even nicer. So I saw 60’s for Wednesday and planned to ride at lunch (it also coincided with all of my 16 bosses being out of the office on the same day, so I took a 2 hour lunch, how’s that for fucking sticking to the man! Yeah, and I was in at 6 to make up for it! Oh wait. Fuck.) only for it to stay cloudy and the temp be 50 at lunchtime, still in the arm and knee warmer zone, meh. Even so, I’ll take what I can, when I can.
Token Foliage* Shot:
*until now I thought it was Foilage
Similar to the yearly seasons it would seem that our lives go through the same kind of thing, however in not any kind of predictable ways. We have all gotten caught up in things that once were in either form or skill or some kind of combination of the two. These things are both good and bad and I would be lying if I said they were easy to forget or not try to get it back. Whatever the case may be sometimes the changes happen so fast or so slow that you are hardly aware that they have changed. As I mentioned, I used to skate and I used to be pretty damn good. I started skating again with my son in the spring and started to get back some of it but was/am still a shadow of my former self on hardwood and urethane. At some point I made peace with that and just focused on that I could still do some of that stuff and at least I am not the dad standing there watching his kid, not doing any of it. What other option does on have? Pretty much either that or getting pissed about it.
Speaking of watching, I took my kids to the trails (come on, you know dirt jumps are called trails by now) the past two weekends for some time riding and working on the rollers. Watching him progress on his own is just satisfying and allows me some riding time other than the road. In any case, he was riding this little roller step down faster and faster and on the last time, did a nice face plant. He screamed like crazy but still rode home the ¼ mile to our house. He had a damn nice bump on his lip that scabbed over pretty good. Since it was on his face, I got a boat load of shit from the misses regarding this and having been tortured all week with it. Looks like a full face helmet is in his future….
But really, everything we do and everything we have done make up who we are and how does one not feel lost at times? Or do people never stop long enough to care or to figure it out. Maybe some don’t want to know. One day you are riding BMX, the next flash riding MTB, then Road and before you know it you are wearing fluorescent kits and signing up for your local triathlon (oh the fucking horror). I don’t have the answers, but these are the some of things that occupy my mind while riding on these dark cold mornings.
I plan to start posting a little more often because I think I have something to offer, even if it just a bi-product of my highly critical view of most things or buying a shit-ton of stuff and writing reviews on it, with my latest purchase being this nifty king cage that you can put a little bag for tube and such in, which seem promising in eliminating my seat dingle-berry or forgetting to put the stuff in my jersey pocket:
But considering I started writing this on Monday, we will see how that goes….
Seasons of Change
As sure as the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, riding talk on the interwebs is a buzz with discussion of said change how this and that is abnormal, how cold or warm it should be and how they still haven’t figured out how to dress properly after 10 years of riding. I also fall victim to this but try to stop remembering when we were kids and the average temp was 1.12589785125 degrees cooler and it actually snowed every winter and a time when we would be snowboarding on Thanksgiving in the mid-atlantic region. While it is nice in the summer only ever having to worrying about if you wearing your fig colored Rapha jersey or the chartreuse one and if you are sporting the 6” or 12” socks, I always welcome the change in weather and bid farewell to the humidity. Unlike many, I am fond of my cool and cold weather riding gear and while I still ease into wearing it, when I start seeing temps below 40, I am not reluctant to throw some of it on. Hell, there were a few mornings in August that were below my SS jersey temp of 54 and saw the arm and knee warmers come out. Unlike mattyb who apparently has kneecaps made of windstopper and JimV who has hands are made of leather, my tender little knees just can’t take it, or at least it isn’t worth being chilly just to look bad ass.
In any case, there isn’t anything you can do aside from moving to central America to avoid the change in seasons and even then you will be breaking out the arm warmers after a few years when the temps dip below 75. I haven’t looked at what the October averages should be in an attempt not to feed the office chatter regarding how it is double the normal temp, but I do know by Halloween that a few chilly rides will have been had as was the case this year. Last week I saw my first sub-freezing temps of the season, right around the time of someone else’s sub-50 ride, which I admit I found amusing as that was two months ago for me. Below 40 is when you need to start thinking about what you are wearing for the time you will be out and then below 30, this becomes even more of a necessity, however many people stop riding well before that becomes a concern, at least on the road anyways. Seeing the new strava leader board thing has made this apparent that riding for some just falls off completely while I am looking for any place I can squeeze in more riding time.
Speaking of riding time, these are the days of trying to take advantage of the last nice day in the short term and that in itself can be a little frustrating. Case in point as Tuesday produced a fine day to which I rode in the morning and while it was nice, riding in the afternoon when it was 60 would have been even nicer. So I saw 60’s for Wednesday and planned to ride at lunch (it also coincided with all of my 16 bosses being out of the office on the same day, so I took a 2 hour lunch, how’s that for fucking sticking to the man! Yeah, and I was in at 6 to make up for it! Oh wait. Fuck.) only for it to stay cloudy and the temp be 50 at lunchtime, still in the arm and knee warmer zone, meh. Even so, I’ll take what I can, when I can.
Token Foliage* Shot:
*until now I thought it was Foilage
Similar to the yearly seasons it would seem that our lives go through the same kind of thing, however in not any kind of predictable ways. We have all gotten caught up in things that once were in either form or skill or some kind of combination of the two. These things are both good and bad and I would be lying if I said they were easy to forget or not try to get it back. Whatever the case may be sometimes the changes happen so fast or so slow that you are hardly aware that they have changed. As I mentioned, I used to skate and I used to be pretty damn good. I started skating again with my son in the spring and started to get back some of it but was/am still a shadow of my former self on hardwood and urethane. At some point I made peace with that and just focused on that I could still do some of that stuff and at least I am not the dad standing there watching his kid, not doing any of it. What other option does on have? Pretty much either that or getting pissed about it.
Speaking of watching, I took my kids to the trails (come on, you know dirt jumps are called trails by now) the past two weekends for some time riding and working on the rollers. Watching him progress on his own is just satisfying and allows me some riding time other than the road. In any case, he was riding this little roller step down faster and faster and on the last time, did a nice face plant. He screamed like crazy but still rode home the ¼ mile to our house. He had a damn nice bump on his lip that scabbed over pretty good. Since it was on his face, I got a boat load of shit from the misses regarding this and having been tortured all week with it. Looks like a full face helmet is in his future….
But really, everything we do and everything we have done make up who we are and how does one not feel lost at times? Or do people never stop long enough to care or to figure it out. Maybe some don’t want to know. One day you are riding BMX, the next flash riding MTB, then Road and before you know it you are wearing fluorescent kits and signing up for your local triathlon (oh the fucking horror). I don’t have the answers, but these are the some of things that occupy my mind while riding on these dark cold mornings.
I plan to start posting a little more often because I think I have something to offer, even if it just a bi-product of my highly critical view of most things or buying a shit-ton of stuff and writing reviews on it, with my latest purchase being this nifty king cage that you can put a little bag for tube and such in, which seem promising in eliminating my seat dingle-berry or forgetting to put the stuff in my jersey pocket:
But considering I started writing this on Monday, we will see how that goes….
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I think more about stuff this time of year as the weather starts to turn and I have more time away from work. For me the changing of the seasons seem to highlight the passage of time which puts me in a reflective mood.
Robin
Well-Known Member
Yesterday I was tempted to ride the drainer with the rain I had on my drive home. Then I thought of you - and how you were out riding in the yuck. So I opted to head out...and was happy I did. Warm temps, beautiful colors and a minor spritz. Maybe I'm turning over a new leaf? (pun intended).
I go back and forth on what weather/temps I prefer to ride in. Since I'm relatively new to riding in the winter months, I haven't experienced a "harsh winter" of riding. I fear what lies ahead. With camp, I've been out in the hottest parts of the day, high humidity...it seems bad at the time, but looking back...not so bad. Maybe I will start to feel this way about winter riding.
I need to get my feet situation under control. My feet get cold very fast...I did invest in winter mtb shoes - so perhaps I will ride the CX bike more this winter...we'll see.
I also need to get over riding by myself at night/in the dark. Something just spooks me...not sure why.
I go back and forth on what weather/temps I prefer to ride in. Since I'm relatively new to riding in the winter months, I haven't experienced a "harsh winter" of riding. I fear what lies ahead. With camp, I've been out in the hottest parts of the day, high humidity...it seems bad at the time, but looking back...not so bad. Maybe I will start to feel this way about winter riding.
I need to get my feet situation under control. My feet get cold very fast...I did invest in winter mtb shoes - so perhaps I will ride the CX bike more this winter...we'll see.
I also need to get over riding by myself at night/in the dark. Something just spooks me...not sure why.