Originally Posted by
Chuck Naill
Concerning speed. Have we gotten ourselves into this need for speed? I passed an old boy on a touring/commuter, seen him many times, going into where every he goes. He was riding really slow and carrying a load. It made me stop to consider that he is probably not going to crash from speed or not paying attention since he would have more time to react.
Not everyone can spend hours getting to their destination. Going slow enough that you won't
ever crash isn't an option for most people.
Nor does everyone
want to go slow all the time. Part of the allure of bicycle riding is the thrill of bicycle riding. Making mistakes and crashing is also a way of learning how
not to make those same mistakes in the future. A few bumps, bruises and crashes along the way teaches you more about how to ride a bike than never crashing in the first place.
Frankly, in life as well as bicycling, I learn much more from making mistakes than I ever learn from successes.
Originally Posted by
andrewclaus
This. Conversely, I refused to ride with someone once after observing his style for just a few blocks. Later I found out this guy was routinely in crashes, like once a year. I was not surprised.
Unless the person is crashing into me on a regular basis, I would never refuse to ride with someone because of their "style". I might even ride with them if they were crashing into me on a regular basis in order to teach them how to avoid crashing into someone on a regular basis. I might carry a baseball bat if they were a slow learner but I'd a least
try to teach them something.
Originally Posted by
andrewclaus
There are no old, bold cyclists.
I completely disagree. I know, and have known,
lots of old, bold cyclists. I've kind of reached the point where I'm one of those old, bold cyclists I admired 30 years ago. One of the toughest "old, bold cyclists", I know went on a mountain bike ride with me back in the 1990s two days after breaking his collar bone because "I just wanted to do your ride". He broke his collar bone while mountain biking. I didn't even know that he had broken it until we reached the bottom of a long downhill with lots of braking that hurt my (then) young skeleton and he was 60 years old! He got to the bottom of the hill and said in a very matter of fact manner "Well, that hurt a bit" and told me about the collar bone. I've been on rides with him since and he's still going strong at 90.
I knew another "old, bold cyclist" (he's gone now) who took up mountain biking at 70 and rode until he died at about 95. He was probably one of the best mountain bike riders I've ever known. He crashed a lot...it's inevitable in mountain biking...and just dusted himself off and went on down the trail.
Now that I've reached that point in my life, I'm not timid about riding. All those bumps, bruises and scars are part of my diploma of cycling. Without them, I wouldn't have learned how to avoid crashing (without riding all the time at walking speed) or, when the inevitable happens, how to avoid getting more seriously injured by learning
how to fall.