I rode my bike to a shop in Cleveland last time I was through town. It was a pretty nice 12 mile ride there, and though the staff were friendly enough, they could not comprehend why someone would be riding an old steel Trek when there was such new and lighter stuff available. Then the owner (!) Asked me why my two rings were so close in size, and I explained half-step.

Went and saw a movie, and was riding back to the truck stop when I slowly overtook one of the employees on a long uphill. IT was pretty gratifying to hear him trying to hang onto my rear wheel. Just to rub it in, at the top of the hill, I flipped the lever to engage the generator because it was starting to get dark out.

I imagine the conversation around the shop the next day was interesting.