McCall St. Brewer
Well-Known Member
I just read an article in the paper where it says that a local college is giving away a free bicycle to any student who pledges not to bring a car to school.
I looked at the picture of the free bikes and they are brand new Trek mountain bikes. My first question was "why mountain bikes?" Last time I checked, the town where the college in question is located (Ripon, Wisconsin) has no shortage of paved streets and not very many mountainous trails running through the campus.
As a person who has done quite a bit of bicycling in his life, I know that generally speaking when you are riding a bicycle you want it to be fast and easy to pedal. This normally requires that the bike be as light as possible and have thin tires for low rolling resistance. The wide knobby tires on mountain bikes are just the opposite of what I want when I am riding on streets.
I guess I'm thinking, is this pretty much an American thing? We tend to like things to be made big and strong. Look at the popularity of 4x4 SUV's and pickups over the past 10 years or so. How many of the folks who bought those things actually ever took them off-road? When it comes to bicycles, I suspect that many Americans look at a skinny tired road bike and to them it's got "French" written all over it and is something to stay away from.
Still, I'm willing to bet that many, many folks who have bought mountain bikes over the past 10-15 years because they have been the "in" bikes to buy, would have been much happier had they instead bought something that was made to go fast on city streets.
I looked at the picture of the free bikes and they are brand new Trek mountain bikes. My first question was "why mountain bikes?" Last time I checked, the town where the college in question is located (Ripon, Wisconsin) has no shortage of paved streets and not very many mountainous trails running through the campus.
As a person who has done quite a bit of bicycling in his life, I know that generally speaking when you are riding a bicycle you want it to be fast and easy to pedal. This normally requires that the bike be as light as possible and have thin tires for low rolling resistance. The wide knobby tires on mountain bikes are just the opposite of what I want when I am riding on streets.
I guess I'm thinking, is this pretty much an American thing? We tend to like things to be made big and strong. Look at the popularity of 4x4 SUV's and pickups over the past 10 years or so. How many of the folks who bought those things actually ever took them off-road? When it comes to bicycles, I suspect that many Americans look at a skinny tired road bike and to them it's got "French" written all over it and is something to stay away from.
Still, I'm willing to bet that many, many folks who have bought mountain bikes over the past 10-15 years because they have been the "in" bikes to buy, would have been much happier had they instead bought something that was made to go fast on city streets.