> On May 12, 2015, at 8:05 PM, Jan Heine wrote:
>
> I think he was talking about the average "weekend warrior". It is funny (or
> sad) that middle-aged men and women on their "team replica" racing bikes are
> still toughing it out on super-hard, puncture-resistant 23 mm clinchers,
> while the pros roll in (relative) comfort on hand-made 25 mm tubulars and
> much lower pressures.
I know many people who will choose puncture resistance over ride quality.
A few days ago on a nice sunny day I had my second puncture of the year, having
hit a nice shard of glass with the rear tire. I had an enjoyable stop on the
side of the road in the sun to replace the tube, pump up the tire and carry on.
No fuss, minimal bother and actually a rather pleasant break. But for many
riders a flat tire is a catastrophe- they don’t have adequate tools (if any)
and they have a 6” pump that takes 15 minutes to fill the tire to a reasonable
pressure, they’ve got tight folding tires that are hard to get on and off…
basically it’s a huge chore to deal with. Hence the “puncture resistant” tires
with extra weight and high rolling resistance.
As for middle aged: I hit 55 last fall and a few years back I realized that
there is no one- literally no one- who wants to see me out for a bike ride in
Lycra. There probably wasn’t anyone who wanted to see me in Lycra when I was
30 and racing with less than 10% body fat and certainly not now. I like
cycling shorts but now they are under MUSA baggies and I have rediscovered the
comfort of riding in a regular old T-shirt instead of a cycling jersey. Three
things have happened. I spend less time getting ready to go for a ride and
have a little more time to ride; bike racers have stopped acknowledging my
existence; drivers are much nicer to me. The first and last are great and the
middle one bothers me not one bit.
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