What’s Not wrong with this picture.

A person says honestly he has never ridden one. I’d say that is true for most of the cycling community. But ... immediately the conversation goes from fat bikes to personal assault. An dumb assault, at that.

I have never ridden a carbon racing bike, a bent, a fat bike. Not because I don’t leave my home, but because no one goes around offering strangers to test their bikes. I know folks who ride with the same group every weekend and I’d bet not three percent of them have ridden one another’s bikes. How the Internet is involved .... sorry but that was a dumb, cheap, almost meaningless personal shot. No value to the thread.

Inpd responds reasonably. Whether he uses the Internet or not, it would be pretty weird to go up to people and say, “Hey, I have never driven a car like that. Slide over, let me take it for a spin.” or, “I don’t have kids, let me take yours home for a while to try it out.”

WhyFi suggests talking to fat bike riders about their bikes ... a much better idea but still totally off the point. No matter how many conversations one has about fat bikes (online or in person) one has still Not Ridden a Fat Bike. And of course, the fat bike rider will say it is great.

I don’t know about you guys, but if some random person on a the road or trail chatted with me for a few minutes and then said,. “Let me try your bike,” my answer is “No” one hundred percent of the time. Maybe if the guy leaves $10000 cash as a deposit, so i could replace the bike if he broke it .... but probably “No” anyway because I wouldn’t trust someone who claimed to have ten grand in cash in his hydration bag.

So ... not as offensive, but still not a rational response.

Well ... swing and a miss.

No One Ever has offered to let me ride his or her bike. Any more than anyone has offered me his wife, no matter how much we chatted. It would seem strange to me if some random guy said “Here, ride my $2000 specialty bike, and if you wreck, too bad for me.”

And as for “gushing” about it ... People like what they like. I know people who think rap music is the only stuff worth listening to, and they can explain why endlessly ... or they could if I would listen. I have heard a bunch, some of it is interesting almost all of it is pure crap (to me) so all their “gushing” about it transmits no information.

After all the “gushing, Inpd still wouldn’t have ridden a fat bike.

And really, going to the root of it ... ThermionicScott attacked Inpd for not having ridden a fat bike. Really?

Yes, really.

Anyway ... none of this means anything,. I just found the exchange amusing and I decided to pay some silly games with it ... get my brain woken up a bit by poking at the keyboard and poking fun at some random chat-room posts.

I have never ridden a fat bike .... what do I know.

Have good holidays.

[Now That, my friend, is gratuitous snark.]