[rollei_list] Re: OFF-TOPIC - Bicycles

  • From: "dnygr" <dnygr@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 19:08:43 -0500

Marc, my knees feel better when I bike. Sorry to learn it's not good for you. 
Biking has other dangers, as I all too well know.

One point I'd like to note. An American firm makes great carbon bikes. It's one 
of the things we do well and Trek should be given credit for this. I regret to 
report that they have many of their bikes made in the Orient. Their top bikes 
are made here, and one can be had for slightly less than a Leica M and 
considerably less than a new Rollei TLR.

I believe Trek got help from someone who had worked in the airplane industry 
where carbon fiber had been used.

To ride a good bike is a pleasure and a great revelation if you grew up riding 
Schwins and the like where poor metal absorbed a lot of energy before any 
effort was passed on to the wheels.

You are right about Japanese brakes and gears. The Italians do a great job as 
well.

As for nonsense, where that begins pricewise is a matter of opinion. But it is 
safe to say that there is a certain amount of money one has to spend to get a 
good bike--frame, wheels, gears, shifters. After that point, higher levels of 
"perfection" can be purchased, but the increase in quality doesn't match the 
steep increase in price.

That noted, I have to point out that if you don't spend the minimal amount to 
get a good stiff frame with decent wheels, gears and shifters, you won't enjoy 
your bike as much.

I have a couple of bikes and use one for riding to pick up small items from the 
grocery store or to get out of the home ot have a cup of coffee and to read. 
The other bike I use for longer rides where the purpose is to exercise at 
lenghth. The quality of each bike fits its purpose. I don't feel the need for 
high end, but I don't want to buy something that takes the fun out of cycling.

I know that fun is a subjective term. Let me define what I mean through sharing 
an example of how I came to see what a decent bike is like.

The bike was a highbred (part road, part mountain bike). It wasn't expensive 
and it wasn't cheap. The first time I stood up to climb a hill I was expecting 
the usual slow response. Instead the bike jumped ahead. A friend explained that 
had happened becasue the bike had a stiff frame, something my old Schwinn 
didn't have.


Riding a poor bike is just a lot of needless work.

Doug


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Marc James Small <msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date:  Wed, 07 Jun 2006 19:04:37 -0400

>Hmm.  I'm a friend of John Forester, the fellow who wrote a number of books
>and articles around 1980 which revived interest in serious bicycling.
>(John is the son of CS Forester, the creator of Horatio Hornblower, but, to
>my fairly certain knowledge, neither John nor his father nor, for that
>matter, Horatio Hornblower ever used a Rolleiflex camera.)
>
>A good basic bicycle has been available in the US for the past thirty years
>which is light of weight, capable of rough service, and realtively easy to
>use.  This came about when frames started being made from aluminium alloys
>instead of from steel or, in Jerry Lehrer's youth, wood.  <he grins>  It
>took the Japanese thirty years to learn how to get the stuff right, but
>Japanese gear clusters and brakes and shifters built since 1980 or so have
>been first-rate.  If I were seriously into bike-racing, yes, the best is
>worth it, and  those European fiber-frames and the like are worth the
>funds, as are tube tyres and all the rest.  But for simply puttering down
>to the market, a solid bike can be had for not a lot of money.  Get a
>10-speed or better and get toe clips, but much of the rest is so much
>nonsense.
>
>I rode regularly until 1997 or so.  About two years back, I dug my bike out
>and inflated the tires and went off to ride it.  I fell off three times,
>proving that you CAN forget how to ride a bicycle!  I then spent hours in
>my back yard, relearning the intricacies of balance and so forth.  And
>then, just when I had it all in hand, my Physical Therapists told me NEVER
>to ride a bike again due to my bad knee, so there it goes.
>
>But a solid and decent bike can be had at a decent price in the US, and a
>REALLY good bike can be had for a LOT of money, on par or more with the
>forthcoming Leica Digital M.  But the most of us would not be able to
>appreciate the difference.  From years in the darkroom, I do know the
>difference between a Rolleiflex or a Leica and a more plebian type, but I'm
>not sophisticated sufficiently in bicycles to note the differences with
>increasing levels of quality.  Now, for kayaks, I'm a Klepper guy, but that
>is a tale for a different day.
>
>Marc
>
>msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
>
>
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