L
Luigi De Guzman
Guest
in the vein of all the recent new-bikie threads...
I got a phone call from my friend S the other day:
"Hey. Are you in-country this summer?"
"Yeah. I'll have to stick around London, though; I'll be writing-up the thesis...."
"Oh. I was wondering if you wanted to ride from Lands' End to John O'Groats.."
S has recently decided that riding a bike is actually great fun, & wanted to know if I could
recommend a bike that could carry panniers...and I told him. Of course, what I told him was a bike
that would cost on the order of UKP 400. "Oh. he said. I was hoping 200 or so.."
That got me thinking. What got me to the point where I was willing to drop USD 500 on a bicycle?
I suppose it was easy for me; I already liked bicycles a lot, & I had a a pretty good idea of what I
did and didn't want. I lucked out at the pawnshop with the old raleigh...& when that broke, I took
the advice of the local used-bike dealer: "You're a strong young lad. Go buy yourself a new bike!
Do we all have to go through a cheap--i'm thinking USD 70 or so--bike before we decide what we want?
& when we give new bikies buying advice, do we really advise them or are we really buying for
ourselves in the past tense? Is it really about the bike?
I've seen people doing surprising distances on POS bikes. I've seen bicycles costing many times the
worth of both of mine combined ridden by incompetents. When did the equipment make it more fun?
No answers, no axe to grind. Just wondering.
-Luigi
I got a phone call from my friend S the other day:
"Hey. Are you in-country this summer?"
"Yeah. I'll have to stick around London, though; I'll be writing-up the thesis...."
"Oh. I was wondering if you wanted to ride from Lands' End to John O'Groats.."
S has recently decided that riding a bike is actually great fun, & wanted to know if I could
recommend a bike that could carry panniers...and I told him. Of course, what I told him was a bike
that would cost on the order of UKP 400. "Oh. he said. I was hoping 200 or so.."
That got me thinking. What got me to the point where I was willing to drop USD 500 on a bicycle?
I suppose it was easy for me; I already liked bicycles a lot, & I had a a pretty good idea of what I
did and didn't want. I lucked out at the pawnshop with the old raleigh...& when that broke, I took
the advice of the local used-bike dealer: "You're a strong young lad. Go buy yourself a new bike!
Do we all have to go through a cheap--i'm thinking USD 70 or so--bike before we decide what we want?
& when we give new bikies buying advice, do we really advise them or are we really buying for
ourselves in the past tense? Is it really about the bike?
I've seen people doing surprising distances on POS bikes. I've seen bicycles costing many times the
worth of both of mine combined ridden by incompetents. When did the equipment make it more fun?
No answers, no axe to grind. Just wondering.
-Luigi