genejockey 

You can buy only large differences in performance if you start low enough. The jump in performance from a $300 bike to a $3000 bike is enormous. Beyond that, it's all incremental.

Which makes being waterproof to 300 m superfluous.

livedarklions

BS
Snobbery is still a thing, get real.

And for someone who doesn't care, you sure went a long way to tell us what you spend on things.

genejockey 

So, you're saying that right now, people go to bike shops and buy bikes that are unaerodynamic to mimic the pros, who, you say, ride those unaerodynamic bikes in aerodynamic positions when it counts, like on breakaways or at the front of the peloton, but most non-pros will give up cycling because they're too comfortable and will thus grow fat and die, and instead they need to get a rig like yours where you can rest your sternum on the top of the stem and you had to get a toilet seat for a saddle because your gonads were being crushed, and that having a goal of being skinny enough to ride this torture device will motivate them to lose weight and not die?

To quote Ebenezer Scrooge, "I'll retire to Bedlam."

njkayaker

Yes.

It's not any more superfluous than the rest of the watch. It's part of the mystique of the Rolex.

This monstrosity is a better example of "superfluity".

https://watchmydiamonds.com/rolex-da...ch-126231.html

ofajen

I think the really disturbing statistic is that 100% of people who are sold comfortable bikes will, in fact, die.

Otto

Atlas Shrugged

You are correct snobbery is a thing. Just check these forums and there are countless posts of people bragging on the great deal they got or how they spend less than the other guy. It’s a version of reverse snobbery. People who spend liberally and pay list price rather than grind the shop just stay quiet about it and enjoy their bikes.

My post seems to have hit a nerve with a few people yet everyone has selectively edited out the part we are all being ridiculous discussing price points when 50% of the world lives on less than $6.00 a day. From the preferred Continental GP5000 tire to Wahoo Bolt bike computer are all exorbitant luxuries for billions of people.

livedarklions

You flatter yourself, no nerves were hit. I don't like the snobbery or the reverse snobbery, but there's plenty of both on bf.

Atlas Shrugged

Here is a post of yours earlier today. No snobbery or judgement from you!

“I'm pretty sure a "long ride" for this guy is 6 minutes”

3alarmer 

...most of the people in this particular "general" forum do not post in the Politics and Religion form, which is a separate deal.
You can get permission to post in that forum, since you have enough history on BF to qualify, but you need to contact the moderation team

Then you can start a thread on exactly this topic. And no one will care much or respond, because there are only like, maybe a dozen people who post in there regularly.
As a bonus, with the username "Atlas Shrugged", I can only imagine the joy and hilarity you will bring to that place, which has been pretty grim lately.

3alarmer 

...who is John Galt ?

timtak

Bedlam? no no no.....

People go to bike shops to buy a road bike. Road bikes are lighter (which makes surprisingly little difference), and have a little less rolling resistance (which also makes surprisingly little difference, if you pump up tires) but their major advantage is in the rider position, especially torso lowering. Road bikes are, if they are to be faster, bikes which incorporate torso lowering. Aerodynamic drag of the riders body is about 60% the resistance that we are trying to overcome. It is difficult to get our legs out of the wind (unless we ride a recumbent, which are faster still than roadbikes), so dropping the torso is by far the biggest advantage of the traditional road bike. Bending elbows to get forearms out of the wind, and using narrower bars help but only a little.

In the past twenty years the pros and the bikes that bike shops like to sell, and our egos like to buy, that mimic the pros ride have become more like mountain bikes, with a more upright less aerodynamic riding position. This may be due to the fact perhaps that there are fewer breakaways these days in the pro peloton - which enormously reduces the effect of aerodynamics.The change in bicycle style may also be partly due to the type of bikes that bike shops can sell to overweight people.

Pros generally ride very highly, too highly, aerodynamic bikes (time trial bikes) when they are riding on their own. The features that time trial bikes have to allow solo riding pros to go fast, such as two sets of bars, very narrow bar spacing, and brakes separate from gear shifting make them unsuitable for most amateurs riding on roads with cars. Amateurs ride solo, but unfortunately it is almost impossible for them to mimic the pros' solo bikes.

As far as I know the pros do not change their bike when they intend to be part of a breakaway. Even in breakaways the pros tend to use an aero line where they take it in turns to go at the front. Quite amazingly to me in the recent national championships in the UK, Marc Cavendish seemed to be the only one of the four (?) in the lead breakaway that seemed to be concentrating on aerodynamics, partly by using a bike smaller that would ordinarily be offered to someone of his height at bike shop (he has in the past described his bike as a kids bike).

Amateurs are not given enough advice about the enormous effect of aerodynamics but are instead pointed towards the road bikes that the pros ride using the logic that as pros whose earnings depend on speed choose these bikes, these must be the fastest. This logic also promotes the sale of branded, sponsoring bikes which are considerably more expensive than unbranded bikes that might do the job just as well. But this advice is incorrect because the pros bikes are increasingly unaerodymic due to the increased dominance of the peloton.

The comfortable unaerodynamic bikes may allow more people to take up road bike riding, but for some people, (me at least) they prevent people from enjoying it. They are based on the bikes used by those riding in a group (which is a bike like riding behind a truck, or with a gale force tailwind) so for the lone rider, riding a comfortable bike is like dragging a parachute. It is like going to a racket shop and being offered a tennis racket to play badminton. The tennis racket has advantages (such as it is strong) and the Pro-road bike has advantages (such as it may be very light) but the tennis racket is not made for playing badminton and the Pro-road-bike is not made for solo riding.

As you can imagine, people equipped with devices unsuited to the recreation that they are taking up are more likely to give it up, less likely to really enjoy it, less likely to do it with vigour, and use calories and be exhilarated. This (as many other changes in our society) has negative impacts upon health and longevity.

I have become, via Nietsche, Shinto and Buddhism, a Christian in my old age, or I am tending that way. Christianity seems to be now to be really scientific in some ways at least, so I wonder if in fact everyone does die. But there is a road bike related part.

All over the world when people engage in religious activities they bow their heads and look down (Christian, Shinto and Buddhist prayer), in supplication, and prostration (Islam, Tibetan Buddhism) and get into traditional (but not recent) road bike position. I am unable to give the reason but I think that Dali does in his picture below. Please note that the apostles are in road bike position, that Jesus is pointing to himself, and to a torso floating in the air above. Then ride your bike long and low.


The apostles in road bike position

Mojo31

Uh oh. I ride a Domane and a hybrid. Probably should get my affairs in order.

This.

I told my wife, and told her that to avoid such a fate I need a more racey bike. She just smiled and said, “Okay, but you don’t need another bike.”

Mojo31

Weird just got weirder.

WhyFi

"Just"?

ofajen

Smart. Alternatively, she could have noted the equally disturbing statistic that 100% of people who buy racey bikes do, in fact, die.

Otto

Kapusta

And Jesus in the Comfort Bike position. Think about that next time you ponder..... What Would Jesus Do?

tomato coupe

Switch to 21 mm tires inflated to 140 psi, and avoid smooth pavement. The lack of comfort will increase your life expectancy by several years.

Mojo31

Surrender so he could be nailed to a cross in a parachute pose?

tomato coupe

I thought Japan had very strict laws against recreational drug use ...

Also, why am I suddenly craving a bowl of Fruit Loops?

Mojo31

And here I thought I was punishing myself switching the 32s to 28s. 😔

tomato coupe

No, 28s are still too comfortable -- they're a veritable death sentence for anyone with a BMI > 23.

genejockey 

What a load of horse ****.

tomato coupe

A true prophet would pray in the Superman position.

Camilo

I can't believe anyone could make such an objectively wrong statement.

Camilo

Seated Jesus in the Comfort Bike position, Floating Jesus in the Mountain Bike position