What has become known as the Mooseknuckler Cycling Alliance Community Outreach Program occurred this past Tuesday. For those of you unaware of the program, it consists of me getting paid to ride my bike while college students follow me around on the “beginner” trails in SG. This Tuesday’s trail was Stucki Springs via the Navajo Drive trailhead. We saw the little guy to the left on our first pitstop heading up the Microloop wash. He is the smallest tortoise I have personally seen having a shell that was about 2″ across.
This is where you now go, “Ah, so cute!” If this were that type of blog and the people reading it weren’t a bunch of cynical bastards. Most of you are probably now questioning why I would post the picture and state where it was taken. I have my reasons. But as usual, I am completely off subject.
One of the students in my class happens to work at a local bike shop that isn’t the same one where I labor. He obviously isn’t taking the class in hopes of learning how to mountain bike. Rather, he stated that he had the day off and was hoping to force himself to ride. I noticed a few rides ago that his new bike was completely outfitted with ScRAM. Yup, everything except the fork and shock are branded under that umbrella. You all know my thoughts on that company…
As is normal in the cycling industry, I took to some all-in-good-fun ribbing about his chosen parts. His comeback was, “They’re lighter. You know that SRAM stuff is lighter.” Me, “OK.” We had our back and forth and then continued to smile as we came back down Stucki and hit the Poppy trail.
This got me to thinkin’ bout lots of stuff, like who cares? and the reasons I have chosen to throw my flag behind the Japanese Cycling Gods. Well, to answer the first question no one should. It should make absolutely no difference what brand or bike you ride, as long as you ride it. I may give you a bit of a ribbing but I’m happy if you are riding your bike. Second, I support Shimano because of my personal experience.
The shop where I labor is a Shimano Service Center meaning we can do in house warranties. As such, you would think that I would have their number memorized and not the other guy’s. But no, 312.664.8800 is scorched into my brain after having had to call so many times in the past few years. Does SRAM make some good stuff? Absolutely. My Reba is still going strong despite my best efforts to neglect it for the past couple of years. Most of their derailleurs work and as long as you don’t get a first production run shifter, they work as well. It’s all the other stuff and the in-betweens that have forced me to only ride Shimano. I don’t want to be worried about my shifter breaking mid ride simply because it did.
After only God knows how many derailleur adjustments, brake bleeds and full frame-up builds I love Shimano. It’s easy, straight forward, well thought out and it works. That’s it. My reason.
You can have yours for riding ScRAM and I will stick with mine.
Skipping gears, I happened upon a website this morning that made my head twitch in dismay. The site was Slam that Stem. I came upon this site via Drunk Cyclist who had pretty much the same thoughts as I with a big variation in that I don’t like the way a slammed stem looks. To me, it looks like someone screwed up (namely the douche mechanic who didn’t measure twice) and cut the steerer too short. It also makes me cringe because I also perform bicycle fits on a regular basis.
Luckily for me, there haven’t been too many Slam that Stem aficionados come through the fit studio, but the ones I have dealt with were difficult. I took one rider who could not find a saddle that fit well, even after years of searching. Raised his handlebars about 7″. At this point his saddle suddenly became comfortable. Unfortunately, he couldn’t handle the raised look of the stem and after a few weeks of feeling comfy on his seat he took the stem off and slammed her back down. Only then to begin to have the same discomfort he was experiencing before.
In my opinion, it is much more important to have a bike that you can ride because it is comfortable than to look like someone cut your steerer too short. Trust me, your bike will be more fun if you are riding on your ischial tuberosities instead of the soft tissue also known as your taint. If you can’t put both hands on the ground when bending over, you probably need at least a few spacers under your stem and chances are you will be faster by flipping that stem up so your body can properly support itself on your saddle.
Just my thoughts. And on this one I’ve got to say that if you slam your stem I’m probably not going to ride with you. You probably think your fast and I think I’m slow, so it just wouldn’t be fun for either of us.
My road bike also has a short stubby stem about the length of that tortoise’s shell. It is supported by about 40mm of spacers and points to the sky. Does it look super awesome? It does to me because it makes it so I can ride my bike without losing all feeling in the places where I happen to like to feel. But you Slam that Stem guys would be embarrassed to be seen in public with it.
So here’s to Shimano and riding with your stem to the sky, as long as you ride… Now time to go play with my new pet tortoise.
P. L. and R.