| Re: My 'Bent Is Starting to Annoy Me
"Tim McNamara" <timmcn@bitstream.net> wrote in message
news:timmcn-4FDF4D.22431826122006@news.iphouse.com...
> In article <zq6dnWrqwqzKMQzYnZ2dnUVZ_syunZ2d@prairiewave.com> ,
> "Edward Dolan" <edolan@iw.net> wrote:
>
>> I have been around bikes for the past 35 years and consider myself an
>> expert on the subject of comfort. If you are young and physically fit
>> you can more or less be comfortable on an upright for several hours
>> at best, but even then you cannot be comfortable on them all day
>> every day for weeks at a time.
>>
>> A recumbent is the ONLY way to go if you want TOTAL comfort. You give
>> up some speed, especially on hills, but the comfort is more than
>> worth it. This is actually a subject not even worth talking about as
>> anyone who knows recumbents can tell you.
>>
>> Those of you presently on uprights who think you can live with them
>> will find out that as you age that you in fact cannot. At that point,
>> you will either give up cycling - or you will graduate to recumbents.
>
> Oh bull**** as usual, Edward. I find my uprights comfortable enough to
> ride up to 400 km in 24 hours. How much more comfortable do I need my
> bike to be? I'm 47. I know people in their 50s and 60s and even 70s
> who do this kind of riding on uprights quite comfortably.
But you do not get TOTAL comfort on an upright like you do on a recumbent. I
am insulted when discomfort kicks in on a bike, but maybe you do not mind
being insulted by discomfort. This is all a function of one's intelligence
of course.
I do not know of anyone in their 70's who can ride an upright with any
degree of comfort. Hey, live long enough and even you may get to be wise
like me.
> Once again you are overgeneralizing. What is true for you may not be
> true for others. If recumbents keep you riding I think that's great and
> more power to you. If I develop some kind of health problem which
> results in a choice between not riding and getting a recumbent, I'll get
> a recumbent. A few friends of mine ride recumbents because they just
> like 'em. Two friends of mine with cervical disk problems have gone
> this route quite happily because they don't aggravate their proximal
> and/or distal pain. I have a cervical disk problem of my own and who
> knows? I might be on a recumbent one of these days too. It's great
> that there are options!
It has nothing to do with health problems. It has everything to do with
getting old and feeble. You will be more comfortable on a recumbent and you
can leave speed to the teenagers where it belongs. The most pathetic sight
in the world is a middle age slob attempting to keep up with teenagers,
whether on a bike or in other department of life.
> As far as the comfort question goes, for some reason most people I see
> on recumbents around here are middle aged guys who are 50-75 pounds
> overweight. I think I have spotted the problem with normal bikes being
> uncomfortable for them. I hear a lot of complaints about "recumbent
> butt" to make it clear that recumbents are no panacea.
Yes, almost all Americans over a certain age are overweight. What else is
new?
Recumbent butt only kicks in for those too stupid to solve the problem. All
that is required in most cases is just more foam padding and a sufficient
lean back. It is the main reason why you do not want the BB to be too low.
Regards,
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota
PS. Are you any relation to Jim McNamara, an adversary of mine on ARBR from
Chicago that I have been feuding with for years?
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