bryan chaisone wrote:

This reminds me of my younger years, maybe sixth or seventh grade.
There were five or six of us friends in or click. We had BMX bikes
that we would ride after school and tinker with them as often as we
could. One of the boys was a "rich kid". He had all the after market
parts on his bike to get it as light as possible. I worked three
paper routes to pay for mine. He would always make fun of my cheap
Huffy while he had a Mongoose (very expensive at the time) with all
the add-ons and lighter after market replacement parts. I could
always outride hime though. I had the benefit of NOT having access to
all the Ho Hos and Twinkies one could eat. To cut it short, the
combined (gross) weight of my light body and my heavy bike was much
lighter than his heavier body and his lighter bike. I also peddled
that bike every morning delivering two paper routes before school
(Washington Post) and one paper route after school (Washington Star),
which kept me fit. Wish I was fit now. I'm about forty five lbs over
right now.

Well, Bryan, might want to try the bike approach again. I just bought
two new bikes for me and my wife ... and I can now afford GOOD bikes,
which I couldn't when I was young just as you couldn't. I bought two
top of the line Fuji comfort bikes. Riding is actually just as much fun
now as it was then. I get saddle sore much faster, but I rode a 30 mile
ride last Saturday in the hills of northern PA and it didn't kill me.
Although, I thought a couple of times that my heart was going to pop out
of my chest and run away... :-)


Matt