Understanding Your Cyclist: Tools Of The Trade

There’s something that is complicated that I am going to try to explain to you. You see, it’s my opinion that cyclists kind of get a bum deal. So often our friends and spouses just don’t get our addiction, er, hobby. Let me put it in layman’s terms: you wouldn’t expect that a golfer would tee off with a putter, or chip out of a sand trap with a wood, would you? See this parallels a vital part of understanding the cyclist.
There are many different bikes, for all kinds of riding. Most children start with a BMX, great for street, freestyle, dirt, and ramp riding. Some adults keep up with the BMX while others move on. Those who move on have to decide what they are going to do. If you choose to ride for fun or just light riding for errands or exercise you might choose something simple like a comfort bike. (Please note: Under NO circumstances do I condone a recumbent bike… EVER) For those who chose to get more serious there are road bikes, for fast intense road riding. If you’re not into the whole road scene or if you want more of a challenge there’s always mountain bikes. Mountain bikes are great for trail riding and such, but not always the optimal choice for riding on the road. A pretty close hybrid of road and mountain is the cross bike. Now the cross bike is not as intense as the mountain bike, thinner tires, a similar frame to a standard road bike, no shocks, etc. Therefore a cross bike is not made for quite the same amount of abuse. There’s downhill, think of this as a mountain bike that did steroids, HGH, blood doping, protein shakes, and maybe a wee bit of crack. This has more suspension than the average car and tires so wide they’d almost fit on a car. There’s track bikes, fixies, single speeds, tandems, the list goes on and on. So I ask you: For the serious cyclist, how could they be expected to only have ONE bike? Especially when you ride in dry weather, rainy weather, snow, hot, cold, and on and on and on… You wouldn’t expect a golfer to hit the links with only one club, so why would you expect your cyclist to only have one machine?