Non riding friend pi**ed me off today

"Luigi de Guzman" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 23:22:27 -0400, "GRL"
wrote:

Reality check time rolls round yet again.

You could have saved even more money buying a $200 bike at a place like
Dick's.

You cannot get the range of workout on your bike that you can get at a
health club. It is physically imposable. You saved some bucks leaving the
club, but you lost workout quality.

Buying your dream bike will not save you any money, will not help the
environment (does not need your help, anyway) any more than your riding a
$200 bike would.

If all you wanted was a nice workout and to save some gas you could get a
pair of $40 running shoes and ,,,run. Carry some weights and you even
get
a better workout.

Sure. But is the workout fun?

That's the thing of it. I don't give a **** about the "quality" of
the workout. I don't want quality. I don't want measurable results.
I don't want to be quantified, poked, prodded, or probed. I want to
ride my bicycle.

Is that so much to ask?

-Luigi

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike, I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like.

-Queen

On 16 Aug 2004 14:26:05 GMT, (Hunrobe) wrote:

"Roger Zoul"

wrote:

Why can't you take a training ride? It's riding your bike and it doesn't
imply that you have to compete with anyone other than yourself.

I think Luigi's point was that the mere term "training rides" implies that the
ride is secondary to the training. That's why he put quotes around the word
"training".

Correct.

I'll bet he still does intervals even if he doesn't call them that.

Well, it's route selection, mainly. One road is long and flat, and
it's fun to go like hell on it. Another is hilly and winding and
quiet, so cranking up and spinning down and ducking into the curves is
fun, too.


Of course if he doesn't that could explain why he regularly gets whupped by old
geezers.

Fat *******y has its many drawbacks, yes.

-Luigi


Regards,
Bob Hunt

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 15:41:55 GMT, "Bootboiler"
wrote:


I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike, I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like.

-Queen


You know, I almost forgot about that.

and there's the bit at the end of "fat bottomed girls" where he goes

GET ON YOUR BIKES AND RIDE!

Hunrobe wrote:
||| "Roger Zoul"
||
|| wrote:
||
||| Why can't you take a training ride? It's riding your bike and it
||| doesn't imply that you have to compete with anyone other than
||| yourself.
||
|| I think Luigi's point was that the mere term "training rides"
|| implies that the ride is secondary to the training. That's why he
|| put quotes around the word "training". I'll bet he still does
|| intervals even if he doesn't call them that. Of course if he doesn't
|| that could explain why he regularly gets whupped by old geezers.

Well, if that's the case, I totally agree with him. I like to train, but
only so I can ride better, ie, enjoy it better.

Let's not forget the real reason we like riding bikes - we think we look
great in spandex (despite all the evidence to the contrary).


"GRL" wrote in message
...
Reality check time rolls round yet again.

You could have saved even more money buying a $200 bike at a place like
Dick's.

You cannot get the range of workout on your bike that you can get at a
health club. It is physically imposable. You saved some bucks leaving the
club, but you lost workout quality.

Buying your dream bike will not save you any money, will not help the
environment (does not need your help, anyway) any more than your riding a
$200 bike would.

If all you wanted was a nice workout and to save some gas you could get a
pair of $40 running shoes and ,,,run. Carry some weights and you even
get
a better workout.



- GRL


" It's good to want things. "

- Steve Barr (philosopher, poet, humorist, graphic artist, Visual Basic
programmer)
"Actually34" wrote in message
...
About a year ago, I ditched the health club I belonged to when its
annual
family membership fees approached $1,000 a year (and my kids had both
left
home
to go to college) and took up cycling. I use my bike to excercise while
running
errands to the store almost everyday, and commuting to work, school or
the
library. By bicycling and not driving, I estimate I save about $520 a
year
in
gas and wear and tear on the car (more if you count parking fees). I've
already
repaid the price of my Specialized Hardrock (used) and the modifications
to it
for commuting. Over the next 10 years, I figure I'll save more than
$15,200
just in health club dues and auto expenses. Maybe one of these days I'll
splurge, go hog wild, and trade up to a Co-Motion (I can't afford a
Ferrari,
but can afford the Ferrari -- well, mabye the Mercedes Benz -- of
bicycles).
I'll still be up more than 12 grand. Tell your non riding friend to
ponder
that
in all his smugness.

And the environmental benefits are for everybody.

David

wrote:

Let's not forget the real reason we like riding bikes - we think we look
great in spandex (despite all the evidence to the contrary).

Speak for yourself. I ride because I like to ride. That the merest glimpse of
my lean sculpted body in spandex draws admiring stares from the opposite sex is
just a fringe benefit. :-)

Regards,
Bob Hunt

In article ,
Luigi de Guzman wrote:

On Sun, 15 Aug 2004 12:21:08 -0700, Ryan Cousineau
wrote:

That's the thing of it. I don't give a **** about the "quality" of
the workout. I don't want quality. I don't want measurable results.
I don't want to be quantified, poked, prodded, or probed. I want to
ride my bicycle.

Is that so much to ask?

Sigh. Luigi, you're never going to make it to the podium with that
attitude.

What if I don't want the podium?

Seriously.

Every other sporting endeavour of my life has revolved around my ass
being handed to me in one form or other.

That's funny, because the same was true for me. One joy of cycling for
me was finding a competitive endeavour where I didn't suck.

When I'm on a bicycle, I'm free. Nobody dictates anything to me--but
me. I can go whereever I want, as fast as I want. I let nobody down
but me.

In fairness, what got me into racing, basically, was that I realized
during my commuting that I was getting pretty fast, and I thought I
would enjoy testing myself against others. It turned out I was pretty
good, and that made racing enjoyable for me.

I don't ever want to take a "training" ride...ever. I just want to
ride my bike.

You see? That's the 'tude I'm talking about!

I have joked to my clubmates that I race so that I will be able to
commute faster. It's truer than you might think. There's something
liberating about knowing how seriously quick my commute times now are; I
have seen my average speeds over my 11.5 km commute go up by 4-6 km/h in
two years. I find that at some point it makes riding a bike in traffic
easier and more fun when you're fast enough to keep up.

As one of my benchmarks, I try to outrun an express bus over a
net-uphill section of my commute. I usually win.
--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.wiredcola.com
Verus de parvis; verus de magnis.

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004 08:41:53 +0800, black wrote:
Let's not forget the real reason we like riding bikes - we think we look
great in spandex (despite all the evidence to the contrary).

I have no idea of what I look like and I don't recognize myself in
pictures. But I do love the fact that I can go out and push for hours
at a time. Today I kept the heart rate monitor pegged at between 160
and 178 (most 160 - 165) most of my 28 mile ride. It just hurts so
good!

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ (Text only)
http://linuxha.sourceforge.net/ (SourceForge)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/ (HCS II)

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 20:33:02 -0700, Ryan Cousineau
wrote:


I don't ever want to take a "training" ride...ever. I just want to
ride my bike.

You see? That's the 'tude I'm talking about!

I have joked to my clubmates that I race so that I will be able to
commute faster. It's truer than you might think. There's something
liberating about knowing how seriously quick my commute times now are; I
have seen my average speeds over my 11.5 km commute go up by 4-6 km/h in
two years. I find that at some point it makes riding a bike in traffic
easier and more fun when you're fast enough to keep up.

In town, I keep up just fine, I guess. For short trips, I'm as fast
or faster than the other vehicular traffic.

It's been a weird feeling lately, the few times I've been able to pass
cars on the left (OK, they were slowing down to make a right turn).
And I admit it's a lot of fun (although probably dangerous) to race
cars down my block and find the drivers somewhat surprised to see a
fat kid holding them at 20, 25, 28...30! miles an hour. Then they dig
deep into the fossil fuels, and I run out of steam.

My friend--who is similarly built and newer to cycling (compared to
me)--keeps talking with worrying seriousness about starting a racing
team with me. I keep telling him that the crack that he is
undoubtedly smoking is clouding his judgement of my riding abilities.
(To say nothing of endangering his chances for real competition).

So, race, me? No. Not next season, either. Probably not even the
season after that. Or the one after that.

I'd need to lose about half my weight and double my power output,
probably.

O for a velodrome! I wonder how it feels to ride a kilometer on a
banked track.

-Luigi



As one of my benchmarks, I try to outrun an express bus over a
net-uphill section of my commute. I usually win.

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004 08:41:53 +0800, "black"
wrote:

Let's not forget the real reason we like riding bikes - we think we look
great in spandex (despite all the evidence to the contrary).

Well, I guess I do. In the sense that when I'm hungry, sausages look
appetizing, and I look like a sausage.

Admit it folks, they're silly clothes. Functionally excellent, yes--I
have shorts. But just a bit silly.

-Luigi