TBAKEL

I was living at King Harbor from 90 to 95 and trained with Jerry at Domingez Hills Velodrome. I admit my post was a little over the top. I normally just cruize through the postings and have a good read. I had read some postings in the 50+ group about what should be used to enhance performance when climbing and the such and just blew them off.

However

The day after Thanksgiving I rode a 25 mile fund raiser on my Strida-5 (a little folding bike), I had to stop at a few places after the ride and did not care to have a bike on top our CRV so I just threw the Strida in the trunk of my wife's car and headed off to the ride.

The reception I got from "real riders on real bikes" was less than kind, little things like "do you think you can really ride that thing 25 miles" and such. The ride was hilly and a Strida-5 is a free wheel belt drive fixed that is geared at 56 inches so climbing is not hard at all on this bike. For the entire ride I was being challenged on the hills and I out climbed most challengers. I did not care for all the complaining that was going on around me and the comments like "you know its a bad day when you can't out climb a freak on a piece of crap bike" and the riders complaining seemed to be mostly in my age group.

Afer the ride while throwing the Strida in the trunk I was asked by a rider my age what I take to climb so well. I said "Miles" and the response was "where do you buy that?" My answer "On the street."

Had I been on my normal 44-18 fixed road bike I wouldnt of been back with these guys, but 25 miles does not seem worth the effort of transporting a full sized bike, next year I wont be so lazy.

Sorry for venting in this forum.

Is Jerry still riding? He was always very kind to me and taught me a lot. He also beat me every time we were head to head.

Troy Bakel