Cheers!
The most important part of your post, to me personally, is the last sentence. When I'm writing (and I'm excited to say this is the 401st piece for NSMB.com with my name in the byline - so I've written a little bit), I'm not trying to tell anyone the way things are - I write from a perspective of what works (and doesn't work) for me. And, hopefully, it comes across that I'm genuinely interested in the whats (and whys) of what works (and doesn't work) for other riders too.
Things that bring me joy (rigid single speeds for example) are often just a curiosity to other folks, I get it - but I really appreciate how curious many readers have been. Writing about my experiences with push-on grips, bars with more backsweep, and saddles - amongst many other things - has proven very rewarding for me in the number of riders who have experimented with them and then given me credit for their _interest_ in trying different options. Goosebumps. Certainly more than a few of those riders are back on lock-on grips and 7-9° bars but the fact they tried something different at least in part because of something I wrote is amazing to me.
And the conversations - the comments - are regularly the highlight of anything I write anyways. This means I got to be the catalyst for exchanges of ideas between riders all over the world united by a love of riding children's toys in the forest. AMAZING.
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I like shoes that let me move my feet around a bit (with awesome pedals that keep them in place when I want them to stay put), many folks like to have maximum grip on tap - cool. I'm 5'9" tall and generally wish most large bikes had longer wheelbases and some 6'5" ex-BMXer ripping smooth single track all day prefers to ride a medium - cool.
I'm so far from being the best rider at NSMB that there are a few folks here who could smoke me down double black trails using those '94 Velociraptors I derisively mentioned in this piece. Sometimes, I don't know how much I have to offer truly advanced riders anywhere in the world reading this site - apart from hopefully some entertaining content. But at the same time, one of my favourite quotes is: _"just because you're fast, doesn't mean you're right" - anonymous._ So, maybe even riders who shred way harder than I do could do to try some alt-bars or gluing on some rubber grips, or a 1x8 drivetrain, or a rigid single speed?! Who knows.
Dec. 27, 2021, 7:14 p.m. - Andrew Major
Cheers! The most important part of your post, to me personally, is the last sentence. When I'm writing (and I'm excited to say this is the 401st piece for NSMB.com with my name in the byline - so I've written a little bit), I'm not trying to tell anyone the way things are - I write from a perspective of what works (and doesn't work) for me. And, hopefully, it comes across that I'm genuinely interested in the whats (and whys) of what works (and doesn't work) for other riders too. Things that bring me joy (rigid single speeds for example) are often just a curiosity to other folks, I get it - but I really appreciate how curious many readers have been. Writing about my experiences with push-on grips, bars with more backsweep, and saddles - amongst many other things - has proven very rewarding for me in the number of riders who have experimented with them and then given me credit for their _interest_ in trying different options. Goosebumps. Certainly more than a few of those riders are back on lock-on grips and 7-9° bars but the fact they tried something different at least in part because of something I wrote is amazing to me. And the conversations - the comments - are regularly the highlight of anything I write anyways. This means I got to be the catalyst for exchanges of ideas between riders all over the world united by a love of riding children's toys in the forest. AMAZING. \-\-\- I like shoes that let me move my feet around a bit (with awesome pedals that keep them in place when I want them to stay put), many folks like to have maximum grip on tap - cool. I'm 5'9" tall and generally wish most large bikes had longer wheelbases and some 6'5" ex-BMXer ripping smooth single track all day prefers to ride a medium - cool. I'm so far from being the best rider at NSMB that there are a few folks here who could smoke me down double black trails using those '94 Velociraptors I derisively mentioned in this piece. Sometimes, I don't know how much I have to offer truly advanced riders anywhere in the world reading this site - apart from hopefully some entertaining content. But at the same time, one of my favourite quotes is: _"just because you're fast, doesn't mean you're right" - anonymous._ So, maybe even riders who shred way harder than I do could do to try some alt-bars or gluing on some rubber grips, or a 1x8 drivetrain, or a rigid single speed?! Who knows.