Read a thread the other day that mentioned how busy Fromme was (Bobsled) and how many people were pushing up the road. It got me thinking as I was riding up Fromme last Saturday.
First off I am an older rider who needs to be in better shape, but I still manage to ride up Fromme, although sometimes I need to stop and stretch out my back.
As I was riding up I passed this younger guy pushing up a very nice looking and very new Specialized Demo. He looked to be quite fit and seemed more that happy to push. I noticed the rear cassette was the DH racer style 11-26 type range. Not certain but I believe these bikes are single ring as well, so if you are running a 11-26 cassette, you would have to be extremely strong to be riding up. Here is where I finally get to my point about pushing vs riding vs marketing.
I know there are a wack of excellent young riders that can ride shit I wouldn't even consider, but I don't get the pushing vs riding up. That is until you factor in the marketing. The pro racers are running the smaller cassette for gearing and weight savings. This makes sense as these guys are pinning in down DH courses at Mach-5. Not that I would recognize them, but I don't think I have ever see these pro racers riding up/down Fromme.
I run an 11-34 cassette and use all the low gears and even my granny ring on the front (like I said - old and out of shape), why wouldn't these racer guys swap out a cassette or wheel on their bikes when riding the shore over the winter, then change it back when racing down A-Line at mach-5 in the summer. It can't be the money. If you can afford a $3K - $6k bike you can afford a spare cassette or spare wheel to beat on in the winter. To me this makes sense but what do I know.
Pros to doing this - riding ones bike rather than pushing, likely will get into better shape.
Cons to doing this - you no longer are riding the same bike as Sam Hill. Looks cool pushing your DH bike up the hill in jeans
what else am I missing …