In 1817 Baron Karl von Dreis introduced the draizine, a pushbike, where the rider sat on a wooden seat affixed to a wooden frame and pushed the bike along with their feet. It took HALF A CENTURY for a Frenchman to come up with the idea of a crank of sorts, affixed to the front wheel -- Pierre Michaux called his vehicle the velocipede. Scotsman Thomas McCall developed a rear-drive, rod driven bike in 1869. The penny-farthing - that's the funny looking thing with the huge front wheel -- must have been hard as hell to ride. In 1885 Starley, a Brit, introduced what looks like today's modern bicycle.
So, we're coming up on the 200th year anniversary of the bicycle. I love bikes - have loved them since I was a kid. I rode BMX as a pre-teen and was on a mountain bike when the sport was still pretty young. Today, I looked at my first road bike.
I feel like a traitor. Roadies are queer folk. Very, very odd bunch. Odd is good, generally speaking, but odd and asinine is not and, I have to say, most roadies are asses. I've got a friend, Mark H who's rides on the road and rides on dirt for fun and we like him. But there aren't many out there. Mark S, our rabbit, seems to have gone to the dark side. He's been mountain biking forever and bought a road bike to train and get faster in the woods. Now, I don't think it's a means to an end for him anymore. It begs the question - can you be a roadie and a mountain biker?
Anyway, I borrowed Doug M's 2001 Jamis today. Doug M is the only guy we know that can drop Mark S in the mountains. I asked him, "do you ride on the road to be faster on dirt?" No - he enjoys both. Two ends. It's nice to be able to leave from your driveway and ride -- no gearing up, driving, etc. And I like the idea of riding in a peloton, zipping along at close range. The Jamis looks sharp -- black and yellow; all steel; 18.2 pounds. Sweet. We'll see. More later.
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