For the love of the wheel
 

As some of you guys know I tried my hand at being a roadie a little while ago...

****uncomfortable silence****

...for some of you thats enough explination.

For the rest of you, this is what went down. I hadn't ridden a geared bike since i was 16 or 17 (Im 25)
and I had been going on alot of longer 30+mile rides. I wanted to see if I had a road bike would things be better. So I putone together and started doing rides with a club out here and then a century and the tour de cure ride. I learned that "from my experience" the "majority" of roadies "here" didn't care as much about riding as they did about being really fit, and beating people, and making themselves feel better than the other riders (either with their bike, or assumed knowledge of how many watts per whatever they were putting out). Alot of them don't even love riding their bike. Its just another way of getting their heart rate up. The ***** themselves out to running and triathlons and everything else they can do.

I love to ride my bike. Hell, I love to ride any bike. I never got that feeling from being around roadies. I get it fixie riders. and mountainbikers. and from the bmxers that i know.

So, Im building up a hardtail freeride bike and getting an eno rear wheel for my road bike. Im moving next month and I'll be in the bay area (most likely Daly City) in January.

No matter what happens i always wind up back in thie forum. Thanks for loving your bicycles!

A derailure doesn't make you a "roadie" at least not the kind you describe. As you pointed out it's a state of mind. I ride everything. I'm not a "fixed gear rider" or a "roadie". I'm a bike ****.

what mattface said about being a bike ****.
(fwiw i'm also a trailrunning **** and a climbing ****).

you do it 'cause you love it.

Yeah, I'm a fixed gear roadie. I'm usually the only one on a fixed on weekly training rides. I get a kick out of answering dumb fixed gear questions thrown at me during these rides. Some roadies seem to 'get it'.... but most don't. I at least wear my lycra so I can 'blend in'... :D

so thats what my semi-twin has been up to.

maybe once you're on the mainland you'll get into touring, and we'll run into one another.

We'll always love you INKD no matter what you ride, at least until you start carb counting and riding to get your max heartrate(which will be never, for I would stage an intervention)

I totally know what you mean, I was talking to this roadie on my club team and I told him I could build him up a fixie street bike. I told him he could ride it to work/school and for groceries like I usually do and he got kind of confused as if he didn't understand the workout. Then he asked why my fixie didn't have a computer.

In my experience when you hit the road with the local hammer fiends, the herd separates into two groups. There are the folks with the expensive bikes who are out there training for their next big ride or their next big race or their next big whatever. Then there are the people who enjoy riding. Sometimes these people look just like the first group and sometimes they're complete dirtbags (that's me!), but they get their miles in and they have a good time.

They don't find excuses not to ride and they don't just ride on the weekends. They ride whenever they get the chance and they enjoy themselves.

These people usually drop the first group pretty quickly because whether they're "serious" cyclists or not, they just like to get out there and go.

The last club-style ride I did, I went out with the fast group, stopped to help a person on a shorter loop who'd left something at a stop, and still ended up leading the long ride in on my track bike. My #2 hot on my wheel was riding a glorious old steel Casati with downtube shifters. We were just having fun.

Im glad to hear that people have good experiences. I just happened to ride with people that sucked. Plus none of my other fixie friends (RANCID) would ever ride with me. I did the honolulu century alone and signed up for the tour de cure with the roadie guys I was with and I stopped to help an older lady change a flat and they all took off. I didn't see them until the finish. Maybe its because Hawaii is small and there aren't alot of people that ride to begin with. Thats another reason im glad im leaving.

Honestly, Boston has a pretty great bike scene. There are a lot of pretty serious riders here who still understand that the important thing is to have fun. These folks will go out there and kick your ass on a 60 mile run and then offer you a hit on the one-time after you're over the finish line. Or maybe you spin along 20 miles next to them while they talk about how they've been meaning to build up a fixed gear or how they used to have this one... It's nice, like just going out for a ride with your friends.

I feel bad for people who only have an OCP roadie scene.

What's an OCP?

obsessive-compulsive poseur... ie, you have carbon chainring bolts.

Hey, I have a computer on my track bike.

Should I be banned from the FG/SS forum? :eek:

We love IDW, don't we? I heard he got a geared bike and I nearly fell over my self. Then I saw him in a spandex riding uniform and I nearly fell down the stairs.

But, reading this, has brought all faith back in humanity.

He's more a rider than most.

…that depends, if you use it to calculate things like: how much beer you can buy or correct proportions of the ingredients for a gigantic pie, then no.

I use the computer on my bike to post on ssfg forum while I'm riding.

hey if you can use the word ****... why cant you use the word cnut?

Riding everything makes you the 'town bike'... ;)

banned.

hey i used to have a computer too, spent a whole 10 bucks on it. but i used it for the clock and it keeps me entertained

You guys are lucky everytime I showed up to a ride on my fixie all I get is wineing. No brakes....not safe.... dont ride near me with that think. So I ride it by myself. I have a computer on my bike and I us it.

Funny I started out riding for fitness only I was really overweight and just started a diet and needed to get out and exercise. My dad is a roadie and has been pushing me to ride for years so I finally broke down. That was 2.5 years and 120 pounds ago. I still ride for fitness (it helps me maintain my weight) but it has become much much more then that. I love bikes any kind really. But there is just something about fixed gear that keeps me coming back. My road bikes sees less and less time on the road these days. The only thing I regret is not getting into bikes 10 years ago . I am 31 now and feel like I missed out on a lot being big and lazy all those years.

Can't wait to have you join us for a ride!

You'll like riding with him. I think he has mastered the art of the superman down hill posistion.

Then I've got just the hill for him.

computers...i like them because i like knowing how fast i'm going. that's about all it's worth to me. or how far i've gone and what time it is, i guess those are nice things to know.