The GURU bike costs about 7 thousand dollars and is made with carbon fiber and all kinds of gee whiz, hi tech cycling components. But the fact that this particular road bike has ten speeds marks it as a bicycle for the masses, not a racer. Road bikes make for racing usually have 21 or more gears. Of course, most people looking for cycling equipment aren’t looking for pro quality racing gear.
I was not a jock when I was in school, and didn’t much like the kids that were. I was always a little too thin and wiry for ‘real’ sports-and not much of a team player. So the idea of cycling fitness had a bit of appeal for me. You can spend time alone, workout, and show the world you don’t care what they think by wearing skin tight apparel cycling. You develop a bit of bravery wearing those cycling knickers.
Bike gear can be addictive, as with all hobbies your bike accessories can become more exotic and less useful as you go along. I had one of those cycling products that was meant to improve your energy conversion-it was a not quite round crankset. That one didn’t really catch on. But I do love my cycling gloves, cycling shoes, cycling Jerseys and my cycling shorts. I don’t take as much time to cycle as I used to, but once the warmer weather sets in and I have a day off, I like to cruise around for a few blocks and think about taking a long ride out into the country. I don’t ride a lot any more, but I do think about it.
My own bike is old TREK 15 speed that is a pretty good machine. I can still hop on and let the old muscle memory spin me up to a nice cruising speed before my out of shape lungs protest that I need to stop. I also tend to feel a bit more fear on the desents than I used to and I am not really interested in going over thrity miles an hour. Also, a lot of the old country roads I used to ride have more traffic than they used to.
It’s not just the riding that I miss, its the way you feel when you are off the bike. The small pride you take in silly things like low resting heart rates and being able to run up stairs without getting winded. Ok, I am also older and returning to my bike won’t make me young again. But hey, I’m not that old.
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Hi. Please join the Bicycle to Work! LinkedIn networking group. Members pledge that they will try to ride their bicycle to work or on an errand at least once a week. Although the benefits should be obvious, let me outline them here.
Right now people in the industrialized world are facing two very grave problems: obesity and a growing scarcity of oil. Compounding this problem is the new food shortage brought about, in part, by the conversion of food cropland to bio-fuel crop production. Most people feel powerless to help, but there is one thing that we can do. Ride our bicycles to work.
If everyone would agree to ride their bikes to work one day per week we could cut oil consumption by as much as 10-15%. No one would argue that riding a bike burns more calories than driving the car. Although popular politically right now, most bio-fuels consume more energy than they produce. We would be much better to eat those bio-crops then use our own energy to transport us around.
So spread the word. Make it a movement! Bicycle to work one day a week and do your part to cut back obesity and the overuse of oil and precious cropland.
Just go to my profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreylstevenson and you can click on the group to be included. While you are there, don’t forget to ask to link to my network of more than 7,000,000 like-minded professionals. I accept all invitations and look forward to meeting you.
Jeff
Thanks for the info.
My current job required that I haul a lot of equipment around with me, but I do like the idea of riding at least once a week.