A quick adventure on reddit, where is my ect, as I would like to forget the experience.

[February]

Really just went looking for Moth Bars, which I found, and a bunch of dumb assery as well. Anyway, I have two sets of moth bars on the way, one for my 70's stationary and one for my e bike that will be powder coated black to match. I find the lack of suspension, both on ebikes and bicycles to be very disturbing. To each there own, but they have suspension available for forks, bars, seats and if you have enough money, you can get rear suspension on the frame. As a 48 year old young x, I'm having a difficult time understanding a fad that is going to die out as soon as people get a clue about suspension.

In other news, I thought I would post this idiocy video here. With all that's going on in my life, I haven't had time to break down how non ergonomic and non orthotic these stupid grips are. Some call them touring grips. No, unless you have a significant hand injury or your arthritis is so bad you can't hold on to a bar grip, these things aren't ergonomic at all. The good ones were designed to force your wrist into proper alignment with your forearm. The problem is, your body has a righting response, if you're using grips to correct bad wrist and hand placement on handle bars that aren't correct for you, you're just going to create worse problems for your elbows, shoulders and back with these "ergo grips". To those with jacked hands and wrists, or if you just love touring or "ergo" grips, no hate, keep on keeping on, but for those of us without hand and wrist problems, these grips are anything but ergonomic. If your bars don't fit right, there are a billion stems, necks and bars to properly fit your bike or ebike.

Can't wait to get rid of the useless cheap ones that came with my bike.

idiocy in practice.

Moth Bars:

 

[jabberwocky]

Really just went looking for Moth Bars, which I found, and a bunch of dumb assery as well. Anyway, I have two sets of moth bars on the way, one for my 70's stationary and one for my e bike that will be powder coated black to match. I find the lack of suspension, both on ebikes and bicycles to be very disturbing. To each there own, but they have suspension available for forks, bars, seats and if you have enough money, you can get rear suspension on the frame. As a 48 year old young x, I'm having a difficult time understanding a fad that is going to die out as soon as people get a clue about suspension.

To each their own, but I've never found much point to suspension on the road. It adds weight, cost and complexity for relatively minor gain, unless your roads are really awful. It also makes the bike feel mushy under spirited riding. I've run full suspension on mountain bikes for 21 years now (starting with my 2003 Turner 5 Spot) but have never felt the need on anything pavement or gravel oriented. But hey, there are lots of options if you want some squish these days!

Don't think rigid is going die out, I'm afraid!

In other news, I thought I would post this idiocy video here. With all that's going on in my life, I haven't had time to break down how non ergonomic and non orthotic these stupid grips are. Some call them touring grips. No, unless you have a significant hand injury or your arthritis is so bad you can't hold on to a bar grip, these things aren't ergonomic at all. The good ones were designed to force your wrist into proper alignment with your forearm. The problem is, your body has a righting response, if you're using grips to correct bad wrist and hand placement on handle bars that aren't correct for you, you're just going to create worse problems for your elbows, shoulders and back with these "ergo grips". To those with jacked hands and wrists, or if you just love touring or "ergo" grips, no hate, keep on keeping on, but for those of us without hand and wrist problems, these grips are anything but ergonomic. If your bars don't fit right, there are a billion stems, necks and bars to properly fit your bike or ebike.

Grips are like saddles, everyone has their preference and you'll find people who love and hate literally everything on the market. ODI Rogues for life, personally, but I do know lots of people who like various flavors of ergon grips.

 

[February]

To each their own, It is better to cycle than not. For those with perfectly functioning bodies, let your cycle freak flag fly! For those of us in worse shape, suspension isn't just an option, it's a necessity. The problem is for commuters, good suspension is expensive. It's actually quite reliable. The mushiness you speak of, some might love; I'm with you, I don't. My ebike has the cheapest shocks money can buy. The forks will be replaced by spring with adjustable shocks or old timey bent springer forks. For me and everyone else relegated to front and saddle suspension, the real trick is getting the saddle to move in tandem with front suspension. Will it be expensive, yes. Am I upgrading my $300 e bike with $150 french handle bars yes. Will I be spending hundreds on new forks and front and saddle suspension, yes. As a survivor of chronic pain, you can't put a price on making your bike more comfortable and less destructive to your body.

You are correct, either because of style or by necessity, "no suspension" bikes aren't going anywhere. And you know what, I don't have a problem with that. In fact I thoroughly enjoy the aesthetics. I just wish people would understand that even though it's a major investment, it's worth it for most of us, even mountain bikers. For mountain biking, if you don't already have good rear suspension, you can always do what I'm doing, install saddle suspension, again the trick is making sure that what ever front suspension you have moves in tandem with the saddle suspension. On mountain bikes these suspension systems can be adjusted to be virtually non existent, so even though down hill riders might not see or feel the value, it's still there. There are very dependable front and saddle suspension systems available. Everyone feels immortal and impervious to harm, until they don't. Much like bad cholesterol which takes a lifetime of eating crap, there are people out there destroying their bodies through years of badly fitting bikes with no suspension. Again too each their own.