Originally Posted by acoldspoon

Butchering?! Um...handlebars are swappable. My back isn't. Tell you what. Do a couple large scale disasters as a First Responder, and then you can begin to have an attitude about how my bike looks. And it isn't any more a bit of a back problem than 9/11 was a bit of a disaster. You might want to take one GIANT step backwards, apologize, and stop with the condescending attitude. Oh, and bull horns and road drops don't give you the same positioning as risers. These are inches that matter to my comfort. If you care so bloody much about how a simple (and utterly reversible) swap of components to my classic bike looks (that I bought new and have personally kept in good condition, mind you), then I hear by give you permission to buy me a nice new steel lugged fixed gear from a comparable or better frame builder. In return you can have my Track 4000 to restore as you see fit. Seriously, the next time you want to play down somebody's 9/11 injury and condescend to them, don't. I'm being relatively nice in my response to you.


I was a mechanic, I know gear ratios. They haven't changed. I also know my knees.


Totally untrue.


Unless it is you that is the one crashing. Seriously, have you ever actually ridden sew-ups? Or are you guessing. Tell you what, I'll ditch my perfect good tubulars set up for a month to compare. All I'll be needing is for you to send me a clincher system to use. I certainly can't drop an extra $300 for no good reason.


Okay, now I KNOW you have never used sew-ups. Fast Tack. Duh.


This is patently untrue, Clinchers are great for certain applications, but sew-ups will out corner them every time.


You assume wrong. I have ridden new clinchers. I'm not to old to remember good clincher rims, kevlar folding clinchers etc. I choose to use sew-ups on my fixed gear having rode clinchers.


You are aware that people ride sew-ups on cobbles, grass, mud, and snow, right? I've ridden sew-ups on a fixed gear over New England fire trails. But once again, if you want to give me a second set of clincher wheels, I'll take them. As it is, these are training wheels for me. I have Ambrasio and Sun tubular rims I can build up when I am more flush and want something even lighter.

Just some opinions.. of course you're free to do what you want
Might want to watch how you express those opinions in the future.