Fir

I mentioned on James's page that back in the old days we used to besmirch the vintage 3-speeds. The body position wasn't exactly the raciest image for a young fellow and the examples we got our muddy paws on were mostly either wrung out ladies models or faddish bannana seat and sissybar choppers with the stick on the Toptube... But some of my most absorbed recollections are of tooling around on a lady's Raleigh. I was fortunate enough to explore some of Gloucestershire on my Aunt's machine in 1970 and 1974. Wish i were posessed of a photochemical image of that. And I had a copper-brown ladies' 3spd for a short time in ca1990 - can still feel the elegant if not aerodynamic riding position. When I got my Sports recently I simply assumed that it would never compete with my aluminim Scott Lightflight with XTR componentry on my 6 km commute. Qu'el surprise, when I timed it out of interest and my watch was unable to declare which bike is faster, missing a second hand. Besides, if you really want excercise, an aerodynamic posture is totally counterproductive... And then some of the time saved on a derailleur bike is lost on gear adjustments, chain replacements, and if you're at all like myself, frequently staring between one's legs to learn whence all those grinding and clunking noises arise.