Dustin -- Not to pile on, but I'll tell you an illustrative story about the wonderful QB.
I had not been on mine since early December. Lately our weather has been unseasonably superb here in San Francisco and Northern California. So, last Sunday I decided to dust off the QB and take a spin around Paradise Point in Tiburon. I live in the San Francisco, and door to door that is a 40 mile trip for me. I have done it many times on the QB, and enjoy riding that route and the QB very much. So, Sunday was a sparkling clear, warm day. I walked downstairs into the dark garage. I was wearing my sunglasses. I pulled the QB out of the corner, pumped up the tires, placed on a bottle of H2O, and got on and left. I wanted to ride the whole route in the 32x18 gearing rather than the more commonly used 40x18. It was my first QB ride in over a month, and I was in no particular hurry, thinking I'd just cruise along and enjoy the day. So, I hop on and make the ride, traveling clockwise along the loop route after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. It's not a flat route, but there are no really long or difficult grades, save possibly the return to the bridge from Sausalito near the end of the ride. I stopped in Tiburon for the first and only time of the entire ride to eat my banana and some nuts. That's a bit more than 2/3 of the total distance. I was feeling pretty good, and thinking I might switch up to the 40x18 for the rest of the ride. I set up to make my "Rivendell Gear Change" and was surprised to find that I was already in the 40x18! I put an exclamation mark at the end of the preceding sentence because I truely thought that I was riding along in the lower gear, but found that I had never shifted down back home in the garage, probably side-tracked with the tire inflation. As I was wearing shades in a dark garage, I really couldn't see that I was in the higher gear combo. My long-winded point is that once astride the QB, all considerations about gears and changes and terrain sort of go by the wayside. One merely rides just to enjoy the ride, so much so that I never once glanced down even to see which chain ring I was using. It never entered my mind to do so like it does on a bike with derailers. That, in my mind, is the essence and the most delightful thing about riding the "Beam. Ray --- On Thu, 1/22/09, Dustin Sharp <[email protected]> wrote: From: Dustin Sharp <[email protected]> Subject: [RBW] Re: Let There Be Quickbeam (Orders). To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, January 22, 2009, 1:58 PM I've always wanted on of these. Kinda hard to justify one now that I am in hilly San Diego. I needs me gears! Dustin > From: Esteban <[email protected]> > Reply-To: <[email protected]> > Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:52:57 -0800 (PST) > To: RBW Owners Bunch <[email protected]> > Subject: [RBW] Re: Let There Be Quickbeam (Orders). > > > But Ethan - its now '09! (OT - I picked up at Tikit - now iBobing > it.) > > On Jan 22, 1:41 pm, Ethan <[email protected]> wrote: >> Ooh. wish I could get one but I spent too much on bikes in 08 (a very >> well appointed Atlantis as well as a Bike Friday folder.) Just not in >> the budget... >> >> On Jan 22, 2:30 pm, John at Rivendell <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Shameless promotional plug from number-crunching GM: >> >>> http://www.rivbike.com/blogs/news_post/104 > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
