Thoughts On Bicycle Design

Now that I'm back home in Vermont and trying to resume a “normal life” again, I have all of these revelations that I want to pass along. This one is kind of earth shattering. Seriously. I'm probably going to be drowned in derision from the people I usually associate with, but hey, I'm a cyclist and as such, comfortable with derision. Racing bicycles, as in the kind of bicycles that road racers ride, are not your friend. They provide a huge disincentive to the growth of cycling as a leisure activity and as a mode of transportation. Earth shattering, I told you. Now that I've identified myself as a heretic, I've got to move quickly. If this blog suddenly goes blank, or I disappear, suspect The Man. By that I mean Specialized, or Trek, or Cannondale, or one of the other peddlers of bicycle hype. Here's the deal: 99.9% of the human population cannot assume the bodily position dictated by the design of modern racing bicycles. What about the 0.1% that can, you ask? Well, if you were one of them you would know because you would currently be recovering from having just completed the Tour de France. The modern racing bicycle, as pretty as it is, is just not suited for use by human beings. Except for human beings who employ a full time staff of sports physiologists and massage therapists. The bikes are too stiff, the tires are too small and hard, the handlebars are too low in relation to the saddle, and, believe it or not, the bikes are just too light. If you want to buy a comfortable bike that will last the rest of your life and never cause you to say to yourself “I'm not riding today because I just can't face that torturous machine,” then you should talk to Grant Peterson at Rivendell Bicycles. He's a visionary and, while I can't say that I follow his formula completely, he speaks the truth.

What qualifies me to make all of these blasphemous claims? I've tried it both ways. I worked diligently to adapt my ordinary body to one of those svelte racing bicycles for over ten years. With some success, I might add. More recently, I rode a different kind of bicycle about 1000 miles over the course of 14 days. I rode an average of around 65 miles every day for two weeks. Between those 65 mile rides I slept, mostly, on the ground. My body has never felt better. Seriously, I would wake up in the morning with fewer aches and pains than I've ever had. My lower back felt great. I had better than usual flexibility and my banged up left knee was stiff only one day - most likely from a weather system moving in. The only discomfort I had was some stiffness in between my shoulder blades for a couple of days early on, and a little pressure from saddle contact that I attribute to breaking in a new Brooks saddle. That was it for the whole trip. My touring bike doesn't look as cool as the racing bike I've got hanging in my basement. I probably can't get as aerodynamic on my touring bike either. But now when I look at that racing bike, I say to myself “I'm not riding today because I just can't face that torturous machine.”