Originally Posted by
Drummerboy1975
I think a dionysian "whatever makes you happy" approach to a serious sport is pretty jackass. I can agree with them on the points about riding for fun or casual recreation but saying that whatever saddle angle makes you happy is good or endorsing the use of any bike for racing really makes a mockery of people who take their riding and racing seriously. I don't expect any olympic coaches or nutritionist tell their riders to eat whatever makes them happy and smoke a pack a day if you think it looks cool. Same with having the proper equipment for any kind of riding you want to take seriously.
In the case of Massan, it doesn't grind my gears too much because he (for the most part) seems to be doing it for fun. When it's touted as some sort of epic touring journey in an astonishing time I think he's crossing the line of taking a novelty ("track" setup on the street) too seriously.
I do think this discussion is worth having though because most of us here fall somewhere on the spectrum from ridiculous tarck to utilitarian and we tend to determine jackassary along that scale. And I'm not trying to call anyone out - hell, I have a spinergy, lots of saddle to bar drop, and a bike with track geo that hasn't seen a velodrome ...yet.
coming summer 2012