highpants

i tried to do a little on-line research on this, even checking out sheldon brown's defintion, but i'm still a little unclear on this.

i know that just because i throw some moustache bars or chopped and flipped cruiser bars on a bike doesn't mean i get to run around calling it a scorcher, so what is it? tire size? brakes (or lack of, depending on whose definition you go with)? geometry? a brooks saddle?

and please, if you can, try not to reference the wright brothers in your answer. thank you.

poppalurch

from what i understand, "scorcher" refers to the dudes back in the day that would bomb around w/o brakes (before toe clips even) and got a nasty reputation in the eyes of the townfolk. Keep in mind this was before cars, so they were probably the fastest moving traffic out there.

They would bomb down hills and yell "Loose Pedals!!!" as they held their feet up to let the pedals spin wildly.

I think this is all in the Bike Cult book.

dolface

dunno if you found this yet, but it's an interview with the founders of ibis. they give a little background on the whole scorcher thing

https://www.63xc.com/scorcher/scorcher.htm