Jacob Dickinson

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since April 30, 1999

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April 30, 1999, on Bicycles:
Even road riders do themselves no favors by skimping on gloves, in my experience. Shock absorption typically both reduces a bicycle's mechanical efficiency, and raises its cost. This suggests that mountain and road bikes both shake the rider up about as much as he or she is going to be able to take. Road bikes just shake riders with less amplitude and higher frequency. I vividly remember going from an ordinary, decent, 30+ pound bike to a 20+ pound double-butted Reynolds 531 frame with sew-up tires years ago. (I had to lose the tires; couldn't look at them funny without a puncture.) On my first long ride, about 60 miles round trip, the bicycle seemed to want to jump out from underneath me. It felt like a spirited horse. But I also remember that at the end of the day my forearms felt like they'd been worked over with a rubber truncheon. These days I ride a Marinoni disguised as a Raleigh. It's a very stiff ride; perhaps not quite as much as newer bikes with even shorter wheelbases....