>e-RICHIE wrote in part:
>I have a modern bicycle that I like and I wouldn't enjoy my cycling as much
on a bicycle with less efficient parts, or on one at weighed 4 pounds
more...
my reply,
As someone working extra hours on the weekends to make the $$ to buy a Richard Sachs (oops, I guess I should get back to really working...) I agree, and also ride expensive modern stuff, and mostly admire my vintage gear, but I had an interesting experience last summer.
My preferred ride is titanium, and I have a couple of nice Ti bikes. For whatever reason, last fall I began riding my older Serotta steel bike, which I consider vastly inferior to modern Ti bikes I own. Fall riding is great here in Toronto, all coloured leaves, lots of parks and path trails. Feeling like this older bike owes me nothing, it's well worn, and has done it's duty, I give the bike no thought while riding it, and rode places I'd never take a "good" bike. Mud, dirt, gravel roads, rain, snow, whatever. I ended up riding that bike all last season, about another 10K. and loving it.
So there's some in-escapable irony here.... If the best bikes "disappear" from consciousness by design in performance, what about when they cost 25% of a year's salary, or are so pristine vintage, and irreplaceable?
Grant McLean
Toronto, Canada