Trivia Question: Willis Carrier installed his first residential air conditioner in a home in which U.S. city?

Hint: Probably not where you'd think.

Your pronouncements come across as orders, Slim. Whether it is telling us that it is wrong to ride a dual suspension bike on the road or that it is wrong to ride aluminum or that it is wrong to ride in bicycle clothes, it all sounds the same. You are telling us what to do. You are telling us that it offends your sensibilities so we should stop doing it. You are judging the rest of us by your standards. But we get to make our own decisions and decide what works best for us. Once you...and Petersen...step over the line and start telling us how we should live our lives, of course you are going to get push back.

Nobody asked if riding to work in bicycle clothing or in regular clothing was 'acceptable'. It depends on the circumstances. If you live in cool Northern California and you have no problem with wearing regular clothes, great. Have fun, ride all you like that way. Here in Colorado where it's hot and/or cold...often on the same day...I'll dress as meets my needs. If you don't like it, well tough turkey. It's none of your business.

I know exactly what you mean. It is truly bizarre how your can be overheated and freezing at the same time.

I'll guess Boston. Second guess would be NYC.

I personally take exception to that remark, Cyccommute! I'll tell ya what to do whenever I get ready!

...And you'd better do it too, or else! :roflmao2:

does anyone know why GP is well known at all? Anyone ever seen him out riding? My understanding is that he ordered some bikes from a pretty good bike company in Japan once. I see no reason to listen to anything he has to say.

If I remember right, his first commercial air conditioner installation was at a print shop in Brooklyn so NYC is close sort of. But the first residential A/C he installed was some place pretty far from there.

These aren't really hints but interesting trivia (to me anyway). The house it was installed in was 38,000 sqft. Yeah, you read that right. It was a mansion. It was also lived in less than 3 years and demolished only about 20 years after it was completed. Basically the depression hit and few could afford such a monstrosity.

I do like his approach to touring and touring bikes and he did preserve Brooks in the dark ages of the late 80s/90s.

I think if you realize that GP is preaching to beginners, not to us, it makes more sense. I think he's wrong in a lot of cases but he's trying to get folks on bikes and they can figure it out from there.

Neither Grant nor myself are ordering the average cyclist to do anything whatsoever. What we are doing, is trying to get people to strive to be more practical. You don't necessarily have to associate full kit with a road bike. Especially, since you're just commuting a few miles to work in October. Many cyclists live only several miles from their work place. Grant is merely suggesting that cyclists take a moment to reassess the fact that their cycling clothing may be a result of marketing, more so than being environmently appropriate. At no time is Grant nor myself ordering anyone to do anything. That's probably, just your wayward mind taking its usual trips again, Cyccommute!

You should really be more careful as to where you might blow your smoke! I'm personally adversed to second hand smoke of any kind! :D

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

I didn't mind Sheldon Brown's advice because he and his shop were selling everything. Grant, on the other hand, has a particular style and particular agenda.

And Slim -- by "uniform", I'd say "dress shoes, slacks, and button-down shirt with tie."

Funny how Grant says, "There shouldn't be any debate at all," and continues to stir the pot.

What would be interesting to me is an actual survey of what commuters ride and what they wear plotted against how far they go. Along with that what sort of factors influenced their choice of bike and their clothes.

Without that info, Grant and everybody else are just speculating. In my office there's maybe a dozen people that commute at least semi-regulary. Four of us wear some amount of cycle specific clothing (of the spandex variety). 3 out of those 4 (probably not by coincidence) are triathletes. Most of the rest wear "regular" clothes but definitely not their work clothes on warm summer days. They change when they get here.

We also have a map posted on the break room wall of where people are commuting from. As you'd expect, the ones that the live the closest are the ones most likely to ride in their work clothes. The ones that live farthest away are the most likely to change.

Seems that people managed to figure it out without Grant.

One side note. We did have an intern who tended to ride in either knickers or tight jeans. In the case of the tight jeans in moderate weather, he wouldn't change. He would change out of knickers. I'd argue that in his case, the knickers were cycling specific clothing but more socially acceptable than spandex in the circles he ran in.

Another thing I just realized. It's us spandex wearers that are also the ones that ride through the winter. When you don't limit yourself to office clothes, it makes it easier to ride in a variety of conditions.

^^ I think you're right on the distance thing. I'll bet geographical location (in relation to climate) has some to do with it as well.

All I know about the guy is he wants to sell tweed and other expensive bike stuff (I guess to newbies) and likes the idea of one night out-and-back camping rides. Anything else I should know?

I don't think you need anyone telling people they can do this. Who wouldn't want to get dressed once and go to work in their work clothes if they could. I cant imagine people really put on "kit" just because they never considered riding in regular clothes. We go through the hassle because its better than the alternative.

I guess you could read the book, or any number of his blog postings/rants. He's a proponent of utility cycling and is rabidly anti-racing/race influence. I like some of his perspective, I don't like other parts. His bikes are purdy.

Every post about Grant Petersen devolves into chaos and goes 100 posts...it's just one of those things, like helmet threads.

I consider him to be anti-cyclist, and someone who gives out a lot of bad advice in hopes of making money. I am pro-Fred, pro-recumbent, pro-old-people-on-tricycles, pro-cyclist. I really don't appreciate anklebiters like GP criticizing other cyclists. I keep hoping he will go out of business and leave us alone.

And this only post #68. By now most of us here have figured out what works for us, and many did it without his help. My 5+ mile commute to work is leisurely in the morning and faster paced on the way home, and I wear a mixture of cycling and casual clothes, and I bet he wouldn't care what I did or wore if it was on one of his bikes.

I thought it was funny that he said a $300 bicycle is all you need, but all of his bikes start at $1200 :lol:

I love his bags. I've drooled over them many times, but cant justify that kind of money.

I don't think he is. In his book he basically says that if your commute is in any way remarkable (the distance or the weather or the traffic actually come up in conversation) then you should be driving, and save cycling for fun. And fun is best served with twine tying your bar tape down instead of other tape, a leather saddle, a front fork that angles and tapers just so, and a quill stem.

Interesting - I didn't read it, just some summaries and have heard interviews he gave about it. Serves me right for speaking without having read it!

He must not be pulling them up high enough.

My grandfather had that down. His shorts went almost to his armpits.

But it's things like the distance, weather and traffic (bike, car and ped) that make bike commuting fun and challenging. He has it completely backwards.

And lugs. And retro-odd wheel sizes.

That's a very interesting idea, and there are a few other factors I'd like to see correlated. What type of commute (roads), how much non-commuting riding, work environment, shower and changing facilities.