Re: cycle clothes

Catrike Ryder <Soloman@old.bikers.org> wrote:

On 8 Jun 2025 11:58:51 GMT, Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com> wrote:
 

Catrike Ryder <Soloman@old.bikers.org> wrote:

On 8 Jun 2025 09:03:49 GMT, Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com> wrote:
 

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 6/7/2025 9:26 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

 
Sure, as I've explained. Remember, I used to commute to work by bike.
Getting ready meant strapping my briefcase on the bike's rear rack,
clipping on an eyeglass mirror (optional but handy in traffic), putting
on an appropriate jacket, and using a safety pin to tighten my right
pants cuff so it stayed away from the chain.
 
Tom, you probably do more to prepare for your recreational rides. I'll
bet you change into a riding costume. I commuted in ordinary business
casual clothes.
 

 
Depends on the distance I found for 3 ish miles then as long as one?s
trousers where?s flappy just jump on and go.

 
My commute was about 15 miles round trip. The only time I bothered with
a change of clothing was when teaching evening classes in summer, which
meant riding in during the heat of the day.
 
After retirement, I took classes myself for quite a few years. I then
extended my ride home, through the big metropark system. As I recall,
that was about 20 miles per day, but still in normal street clothes.
 
Different choices for different folks.
 

 
Possibly your an outlier though my memory was the heat, didn?t you say it
dropped in elevation from Youngstown to the college? Made a quick and dirty
Strava route from Poland to the college?s which suggests a gentle roll into
town so perhaps not surprising you?d not get sweaty on the way in!
 
Do I take it that Sheridan road which Strava seemed keen to plot the route
down, was an old streetcar route?
 
Roger Merriman

 
 
7 piddly miles at 13/14/15 mph is not enough to draw sweat on me even
at 90+ degrees, unless, perhaps a following wind cancels out what the
forward motion creates.
 

Might want to look at the elevation around Youngstown! It’s not
exceptionally high though it’s significantly higher than your riding nor
that steep but you’d absolutely work harder center to home on that commute
which while not huge your gaining a few hundred foot as you go from 800ish
to 1100 ish
 
Let alone that commuting set ups tend though not always tend to be heavier
slower aka more utility focused.

 
The Catrike weighs 35 lbs and I had more the 10 lbs of stuff, although
I don't think weight is a significant factor.
 
I have ridden in far more hilly terrain (Wisconsin)
 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/j_soloman/54039010402/

No idea if Wisconsin is more hilly or not though if so that photo doesn’t
particularly do it justice.

Would appear to reach heady heights of just under 2k foot so a touch more
than Ohio that tops out at 1500ft ish, one of the mild surprises as I’ve
learned more about US and places like Australia is how generally flat they
are, while there are big hills mountains even, that’s not the norm.

 
and back then I never wore anything but street clothes.  To this day,
I wouldn't caught dead in any of those garish, circus parade biking
outfits. Making a spectacle of myself is not my thing.

There is no obligation to wear roadie kit from the 80’s which was rather as
you describe, lot of the more modern stuff is quite muted and indeed number
of “urban” clothing for on/off the bike which I use for the commute, and
generally the trend is for small labels and so on.

 

Back in wales ride home from the cafe is just shy of 6 miles and climb to
800 ish foot from the town at the valley base at 150ft, though being old
railway mostly it’s grade isn’t significant though at some point one needs
to hit the lanes where it will get steeper I tend to just go straight up so
20+ % as my bikes have the gearing.
 
But if one takes the lanes closer it will only just touch double digits
which for Wales is positively flat!
 
The industrial old heartlands of wales are built on the sides of steep
valleys hence the “Welsh Valleys” which makes transportation more difficult
as roads/trains need to go around than over or under said hills.

--
C'est bon
Soloman
 

Roger Merriman
 

 
--
C'est bon
Soloman
 

Roger Merriman