Perhaps you would like to make your home in Castro's Paradise. Your comments are offensive to everyone who has suffered under Castro's ruthless dictatorship.

I normally don't like to get into political discussions on BF, that's not why I come here. But your comments, including the use of "sarcasm" reflect an abysmally myopic and ignorant view of Latin America history.

Remember this my friend: Sarcasm is the last refuge of the intellectually bankrupt.

Most of my riding is in areas with rolling hills and not much elevation (<300 ft), so most (>80%) of the time riding is spent in the big ring. My big ring was also becoming shark toothed.

I run a 50T big ring with a 12-23 cassette. Most of the time I spin at about 86rpm, in the 15-18 cogs.

West of Phoenix is pretty darn flat, and the hills that we do have are short sprints. I'd rather crosschain it for a moment, than shift into the small ring.

+1 on political discussions on BF, I hope this post better explains my position, but I have no desire for a back and forth. Hopefully this strikes a better tone than my previous post, I suspect we will agree to disagree.

Never said I liked or supported Castro in any way. You might disagree, but the point is simple and well-supported by the historical record - political violence, intimidation, and suppression of political opposition has been a part of political life in Latin America and the Caribbean for quite some time, long before communism appeared on the scene. In Cuba specifically, there was a long history of political violence, intimidation, and the suppression of political opposition long before Castro (and, for that matter, before Batista). Life in Cuba would probably not involve political liberty, or a good standard of living if Castro had never been born, any more than not being communist has given any number of other Latin American countries political liberty or a good standard of living. There is a deficit of both things in Latin America, under the control of all sorts of different governments.

Acknowledging this historical reality does not make one a Castro supporter. Right wing suppression has generally been worse, according to the academic historical literature (the Dirty War in Argentina and Pinochet's Chile represent probably the most intensive and extensive episodes of severe suppression), but it is bad whether suppression and violence is happening in the name of communism, or republicanism, or anti-communism, or whatever. To lay all of these problems at Castro's feet, or the feet of communism, is just not adequate.

One of the basic elements of cause and effect is that the cause is prior in time to the effect. Political violence and suppression were a feature of political life in Latin America long before communism was a social force. I am not sure what else there is to say.

"+1 on political discussions" followed by three paragraphs of political discussion. :rolleyes:

That's almost as good as, "I have no desire to go back and forth, but I would like to expound on why I'm right and you're wrong."

When I saw this thread I thought it was going to be something like " I'm 5'2" and I just spent $3000 on an imported Italian frame and didn't notice it was size 60 cm."

It's just a "my chainring is off one tooth and all I got was a lousy T-shirt."

We we all really need a warm spell. If you're from SoCal you have no excuse.

Cuba is great. Only place where you can ride in peace. Ppl are nice, no traffic, little violence.

try riding in the dominican republic. Youll get killed.

Hey, look what I just found !

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdispl...s-amp-Religion

(sarcasm) he said, that makes it all okay...I at least recognize that I will never be right in any opinion I utter, and therefore feel unfettered by moral restraint...peace to all, yet also, viva la revolucion

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d6...aggletooth.jpg

Eeeewwwwww!

That forum is where you go to learn how apolitical the mods are :lol:

I got the chainring used on a nice crankset, so I have no idea how many miles are on it. I have put over 3,000 miles on it. My bearded bike wizards at the LBS said I would not notice it. Btw, I'm kind of glad my avatar got discussed a lot, and not... I was hoping someone would debate me about my wife being the most wonderful person in the world.

that is where posts go to die

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=364639 need I say more

I have 52 and 53 on different bikes and riding the same route, I can't tell the difference.



Since there are 2 themes to this thread:
Who watches Fox news?

Wrong "big chainring" = "big oops" I'm guessing. :p

FWIW Shimano have a 52 option for most of their 130bcd cranks.

:lol: