Originally Posted by Turboem1
I agree 100%. I have been getting upset reading some of the threads in here and I know not to take them personally. I just bought a road bike and I feel a lot of the posts are condesending towards bigger riders with more "You cant's" then "Go for it!".
All of the post seem to steer bigger guys away from road bikes and towards hybrids and mountain bikes. They make it seem its impossible to ride a road bike. Oh you have to have atleast X amount of spokes, Y width tire, and Z frame material because A,B, and C wont cut it.
If you want a roadbike get one and be realistic about what to expect. I just purchased a road bike. I understand I need to keep the tires inflated, I need to true the wheels more often then other people and I plan on upgrading the wheels when I break these, but I can still ride a road bike. Its not an impossible thing to do.
Sometimes I read to much and ride to little. The more I see on this forum the more I feel like I can't do what I am doing because I may not have the best stuff out there. I can't afford DuraAce, Ultegra, or even 105. I dont have a carbon frame, a titanium frame, or a carbon/whatever frame.
Turboem, I ride a nearly 20 year old road bike. I started with a Mountain bike when I got to the point I could restart riding a bike, before that I rode a semirecumbent trike! As much as possible, I try to steer a new Clyde rider to a '90's geometry rigid mountain bike because those are essentially a heavy duty road bike with 26" wheels. I try as much as possible to keep them in 26" wheels because those are the strongest wheels out there. I generally recommend a road bike for anybody 330 and under weight wise, and for the "Uberclyde" (
of which I was one at my peak body weight of 581 pounds!), I recommend the strongest, safest components possible due to the stresses that they put on the wheelsssss, etc. My feeling is that someone should get the best bike they can afford....forget what they say over in the road forum! If a dept store bike is all the $$ they have, then they are at least riding! If I can hook them up with a quality ride for their money, I will! I am most assuredly not elitist!
The reason I try to steer them to the strongest components because a wheel failure when you weigh in the Uberclyde category can kill you! I know what cycling has done for me, and I do what I can to encourage others to ride as well.