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And you think you're a gear-freak!
I hung out this past weekend with a buncha guys who make my XC buddies
look like tame gear-freaks in comparison. One guy has maybe 30-50 pairs of outdoor-tech footwear, kicking my butt there. 65 fishing poles. Knife obsessions on all sides to no end. I have plenty of weakness in all this regard, but I was soundly trumped. We all went mtbiking and afterward ran into a techsupport guy for SRAM and RockShox in the parking lot. Gear-freak heaven, for sure. Bees and honey everywhere. Those guys all stood there gabbing hightech bike parts for 2 hours! My fellow skiers, we have been soundly defeated! I knew what they were saying and was occasionally provoked to chime in or give a test-ride to illustrate a point. And I definitely appreciated needing a loaner bike and being able to borrow a $4000 bike to go on this ride with! I'd never ridden a full-sus before, much less a fancy bike. I can see how it would help in some conditions. BUT! One of our guys rode a 20-yr-old Bridge MB1 (just like mine back home) and he did just fine of course. I made sure to stand up for the perfectness of the Bridge during all the post-ride gab. I got much hassles that day for my own crappy stuff. (It was remarked that my crappy pocketknife was damaging the molecular structure of the German tools being stored nearby.) But I stood up for it as long as it worked. And I defended it to the end when I thought it was better-made and better-looking too (as in the Bridge). AND! I got to chime in my two bits about the whole tech thing when I said: "This cool gear stuff is well and good but I have to admit my main appreciation of it is in beating the tar out of a fellow racer who's using it." -- Jeff Potter **** *Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com publisher of outdoor/indoor do-it-yourself culture... ...offering "small world" views on bikes, bows, books, movies... ...rare books on ski, bike, boat culture, plus a Gulf Coast thriller about smalltown smuggling ... more radical novels coming up! ...original downloadable music ... and articles galore! plus national "Off the Beaten Path" travel forums! HOLY SMOKES! |
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