u/saucerb0y

Maybe its the simplicity and the fact people do it because they love it. You may not have the terrain and vert and the outdoors, but It feels like the asphalt sprawlscape of East Rutherford, New Jersey brings out some of the best people. When I think about a tiny corporate ski fridge hamster hill I always get this cozy, friendly, down to earth feeling I don’t feel anywhere else.

Certain cycling clubs are oriented primarily around the ride: you show up at the meeting point 5-10 minutes before the ride starts, ride the route, and then disperse from the finishing point. In such clubs, I know many people only by what their bikes look like, since I don't interact with them outside of the ride itself. Thus, when going through the Group Activity list after the ride, I usually don't know who some of the people I'm auto-tagged with are, because their profile pictures are faces I've never gotten a good look at. It would therefore be nice to be able to click on the bikes each user tagged for the ride and see a photo they uploaded of their gear, so that I can then associate them with, say, the rider on the red Trek who pulled hard on a certain climb, or the rider on the black Specialized who was a beast descending.

The names often don't help, since bikes are either tagged generically ("Madone"/"Tarmac") or monikers ("Trusty Steed"). It's only when someone has an unusual bike with a descriptive name (e.g. "Look 795 Mondrian") that I can put a name to a rider. Having pictures would solve this for those riders who don't have such esoteric/expensive tastes.

It’s not just him either, none of the Tour pros seem to have these! Maybe we can start a GoFundMe. They deserve better.

Dialing in a new (to me) TT bike (Cervélo P2). I've put about 200 miles on the bike thus far (across rides from 10 to 50 miles) and haven't felt any aches or pains. Despite this, one weird thing I noticed is that I had great difficulty riding with no hands: even for a few seconds to stretch or grab a snack from my back pocket, the bike would start to wobble after just a few pedal strokes. I initially attributed this to the twitchy TT geometry and front-heavy cockpit, until I realized that the wobble was caused by my hips subtly rocking. I lowered the saddle by half a centimeter, and not only can I ride no-handed just as easily as I can on my other bikes, but I actually feel like I'm putting more power down. I was very surprised that such a subtle adjustment had such an obvious tell; I doubt I would have noticed this otherwise.

I’m a somewhat dedicated road cyclist: if the weather cooperates, I try to get in 4-5 hours each week, split between two ~40 mile rides and a handful of shorter rides. Recently, I got into riding fixed gear on a whim, and found I enjoy it way more than I thought I would. These days, I’ve actually been taking the fixie out on my roadie routes more often than I take my road bike! (I live in a relatively flat area.) While the 3.2 gear ratio means I’m certainly not setting any KOMs, it’s fun to cruise along the flats at a sustained 22 MPH at 90 RPM. As a bonus, it’s fun to get quizzical looks from hipsters and MAMILs alike when I ride the fixie in my normal road cycling kit.

Any other roadies here who also enjoy riding fixed on their usual routes, or am I as weird as the looks I get?