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In praise of Brooks saddles



 
 
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  #31  
Old December 12th 19, 05:18 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Frank Krygowski[_4_]
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Default In praise of Brooks saddles

On 12/12/2019 12:14 AM, Ralph Barone wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:


Anyway, at one of them a long time ago I talked to a guy selling jewelry he
made. As I recall, he said he worked a few months in the winter making his
goods, then attended the craft fairs for a few more months. The rest of the
year was his vacation time.

Of course, I don't know what happened to the guy in later years. Do you get a
decent retirement from a career like that?

- Frank Krygowski


Probably not, but if you’re lucky you can “work” until you die and still
enjoy it. What would he need to retire from?


Good point. I've thought a lot about people who love their work so much
that they would never want to do anything else. I consider them lucky.

And I did love teaching, although I didn't love the administrative
duties I had. But I have too many interests to devote myself to only one
endeavor. I find retirement to be a very nice thing indeed.


--
- Frank Krygowski
Ads
  #32  
Old December 12th 19, 05:25 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Frank Krygowski[_4_]
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Default In praise of Brooks saddles

On 12/12/2019 9:47 AM, AMuzi wrote:


Humans defy simple analysis. There are many people who, for some large
or small part of their lives, prefer relatively unstructured activity.
Living in a truck and screening shirts is not overly remunerative but
there's no time clock either. Nothing wrong with any or either.

For example, check out the economist Leavitt's analysis of Chicago
street gangs, members of which earned well below minimum wage with
significant risks and yet preferred 'street life' to a better paying
regular job with shorter hours. Or poets for that matter.


I happen to know a very skilled poet. (At least, I'm told she's skilled.
I seem to be poem deaf.) She has two published books and countless
published poems, has been asked to teach many classes and seminars on
poetry, has had poems have been featured on nationally syndicated
broadcasts, etc.

But she also has a full time job, plus a husband who's an engineer.

I suspect if the poet-to-engineer ratio ever got too large, society
would crumble. We can afford only so many poets.


--
- Frank Krygowski
  #33  
Old December 12th 19, 05:28 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Frank Krygowski[_4_]
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Default In praise of Brooks saddles

On 12/12/2019 1:30 AM, Tosspot wrote:

Fwiw, I *hated* San Marco Rolls, go figure;

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/l...-saddle-187625


Yep. We're all different down there.


--
- Frank Krygowski
  #34  
Old December 12th 19, 07:29 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Andre Jute[_2_]
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Default In praise of Brooks saddles

On Thursday, December 12, 2019 at 2:47:53 PM UTC, AMuzi wrote:

For example, check out the economist Leavitt's analysis of
Chicago street gangs, members of which earned well below
minimum wage with significant risks and yet preferred
'street life' to a better paying regular job with shorter
hours. Or poets for that matter.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971


A poet has opportunities that are not easy to express in financial terms, but which can change the poet's life. When I was 13 I published two volumes of poetry on three continents. I'm absolutely certain it was a consideration in an American prep school offering me an exchange scholarship. Alumni of that school later gave me scholarships to American universities, where I lived like a prince (at one stage I held 43 full scholarships), and financed my ad agency, and introduced me on polo fields and in yacht harbours across the world to the men who would be its clients. Of course I was plugged in back home too, and the pickings weren't peanuts (my first salary was more than that of the chief justice of the supreme court, the highest paid civil servant in the country). At this distance in time, it is easy to follow the links back to those two volumes of no doubt callow poetry, but I'm not saying that I knew at the time how the links would work out. Though I've published over 70 books since which featured on one or another bestseller list, those two volumes of poetry in six editions together probably sold about 6K copies, and after that I wrote only jingles and the odd pop song, never again serious poetry.

Of course the majority of poets would rather posture than cash in (assuming, probably wrongly, that they have the know-how to cash in), but I'm not an arty-farty, I'm a businessman and my business happens to be licensing my own creativity. One fellow, complete with ponytails, who doesn't have the faintest idea of either poetry or how a professional writer conducts himself, told me he wanted "the author lifestyle". Apparently he thinks I go on an endless round of writers' conferences where I have sex with adoring nubiles.. He was shocked when I said, "Nope, that's what one-book failures do. I've been to a writers' conference, one, singular, because they paid me so well to chair it and gave my family holidays in Bali on the way there and on the way home to Europe in Singapore. But there were no nubiles, only bitchy writers in late middle age and neurotic housewives."

Andre Jute
What a writer does is write
  #35  
Old December 12th 19, 08:35 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Andre Jute[_2_]
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Default In praise of Brooks saddles

On Thursday, December 12, 2019 at 6:30:18 AM UTC, Tosspot wrote:

All the contact points are special. Over the years I have settled on
Brooks B17 variants, Ergon Pro for flat bars, decent cork for the drops,
and Shimano M324 pedals. Which means, if I use another bike, or build
*another* one, the contact points always feel the same.

Fwiw, I *hated* San Marco Rolls, go figure;

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/l...-saddle-187625


Until about ten years ago, I used buy another bike every year or two. In the two decades before that what I carried forward (not literally: I'd buy new ones of the same) from bike to bike were the Cheeko 90 seat (literally a little bucket seat like on old Fordson tractors, but padded and covered in faux MBtex) and above all the silky smooth sealed ball-bearing Victor Pedals VP-191, a genuine bargain and a sleeper under its own name (it's available under many boutique brands for several times the actual maker's brand price).

But then my shortlist started shrinking, what with bikes going out of production or the guys making some chosen variant retiring or dying, until the only thing on my shortlist was the most versatile and satisfactory of my bikes, the Utopia Kranich. And I already had one of those, so I was down to buying one in another colour, a ridiculous position for a cyclist who doesn't actually have to consider the cost of his bicycles to be in. I already had a British Racing Green Kranich, like my last Bentley Turbo, and I wouldn't have minded one in Sunflower Yellow, like my Porsche back in Weissach's pastel years mostly were. But my Calvinist upbringing revolted again buy two bikes the same for no earthly good reason.

But if I did buy a new bike, I would carry forward (buy new ones of), in no particular order, these proven components, given that if the bike cannot, of instance, take 60mm Big Apples complete with P65 mudguards, it wouldn't even be on my shortlist:

n'lock stem (unlocks the steering tube to make the bike unrideable)
VP-191 pedals
Schwalbe 60mm Big Apple tyres, lightweight folding version
SchwalbeT19A "lightweight" tubes
Standard steel fork, no suspension beyond Big Apples, relaxed understeering geometry
Steel frame of scaled, graduated, internally butted, externally lugged steel, brazed (not welded), relaxed geometry, long wheelbase
Rohloff Speedhub 14 gearbox with EXT click box gear change
KMC X8-99 chain
Chainglider chaincase
SON hub dynamo
B+M lamps front and rear, permanently on
B+M 47LH stable nylon-filled lamp stand (necessary to shine Cyo over Big Apple)
Brooks Saddle B73
Brooks leather ring grips
Magura rim hydraulic brakes
Tubus Cosmo pannier rack (stainless steel)
Basil open-top pannier baskets (I live in a low crime area)
Uno-alloy North Road handlebars
Bafang/8FUN BBS centre motor
Exal XL25 rims
Sapim Strong spokes with "Rohloff elbow" and Polyax nipples
SKS P65 mudguards, long, with front and rear extensions
1-1/8in Cane Creek S8 headset

Important points: all these components are proven to work together, and all are zero or ultra-low maintenance products, so fit and forget, for instance, I run the KMC chain inside the Chainglideer for its entire life of 4500km on the factory lube, no additional lube, cleaning or even inspection. Also notice how few components there are that aren't of at least thirty years standing in the cycling community.

Andre Jute
Christmas is coming!
  #36  
Old December 12th 19, 11:53 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
jOHN b.
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On Thu, 12 Dec 2019 08:47:52 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

On 12/11/2019 9:03 PM, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 11 Dec 2019 20:25:45 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

On 12/11/2019 8:13 PM, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 11 Dec 2019 11:57:51 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 12/10/2019 11:54 PM, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 10 Dec 2019 18:53:09 -0800 (PST), Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On Tuesday, December 10, 2019 at 7:47:47 PM UTC-5, news18 wrote:

Our preferred brand of saddles is Bell, an Australian company from old
and there are two antique/classical models (spring ride and quad rails),
and four similar to the Brooks B17.

When is comes to Brooks, we are almost exclusively B17(?) and we have/had
four of them. Unfortunately, over the years, we have had three twin rail
versions of the Brooks B17(?) break down and the leather of the others,
despite regular treatment tend to stretch. Never had that in the Bells.

The number is rounded off by a couple of plastic fantastics one being
junk and the other SWMBOD's choice which serves as platforms for a gel
seat cover for her.

Long ago, we had a friend of ours who expressed interest in bicycling, but said
she could not find any saddle that was comfortable. We tried giving her a gel
seat cover. She claimed it made the pain much worse.

It's probably an indication that we're all different down there. But it might
have (also?) been an indication that she really wasn't that interested in riding.

- Frank Krygowski

Perhaps a combination of the two. Most cyclists that I know have a
number of seats that they don't use as they "don't fit".

Yes, and I got one of my most comfortable seats from a friend. It came
with his high end tandem, but he couldn't stand it.

I talked to our bike club's program chairman and suggested a Seat Swap
Day might be a valuable program at a meeting. Sadly, he showed no interest.

There is a really large "swap meet" in Bangkok on the first weekend of
each month and "saddles" new and used are a very popular item there.
See: https://bicyclethailand.com/bangkoks...icycle-market/

Interestingly it is held in the parking lot of the Telephone
Organization of Thailand's Main office building. Apparently some of
their employees are Bike Nuts. Anyone Can bring their "stuff" pay a
small fee - I think something like $10 or $15) and you get a section
to display your "stuff".

They used to have "swap meets" like this in the U.S. when I lived
there. Usually at Drive-in Theaters. Bring your "stuff" rent a space
and do business in cash. I remember there was a young couple, had a
Volkswagen bus, that made and sold silk screened tee shirts. I got to
talking with them and this was their "business" making tee shirts and
selling them for cash at swap meets. I wanted to ask them what they
listed as their income on their tax statement, but being the polite
gentleman that I am, refrained from doing so :-)
--
cheers,

John B.


Which kept those $5 shirts from becoming $10 shirts.


Probably :-)

I always wonder what happens to people like that. I would guess that
it is really a lot of work to be continually silk screening tee
shirts, driving around the state to go to swap meets, sleeping in the
car to save money, eating at McDonalds. Do they "grow up" and get a
regular job? Or are they now stubbing around with a cane selling tee
shirts door to door?
--
cheers,

John B.


Humans defy simple analysis. There are many people who, for
some large or small part of their lives, prefer relatively
unstructured activity. Living in a truck and screening
shirts is not overly remunerative but there's no time clock
either. Nothing wrong with any or either.

For example, check out the economist Leavitt's analysis of
Chicago street gangs, members of which earned well below
minimum wage with significant risks and yet preferred
'street life' to a better paying regular job with shorter
hours. Or poets for that matter.



Years and years ago some organization tried to make work for the
unemployed in Detroit, some of which were 3rd generation unemployed.
They got the car companies to hire people in non skilled positions and
while it initially appeared to be successful the majority of those
hired simply stopped going to work after a short period. Further study
showed that many, perhaps most, had no concept of money in return for
work.
--
cheers,

John B.

  #37  
Old December 13th 19, 01:19 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Chalo
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Default In praise of Brooks saddles

John B. wrote:

[...] unemployed in Detroit, some of which were 3rd generation
unemployed.


Sounds like you've been licking up pro-capitalist propaganda.

Why is it that those who are most vehement about everybody needing to have a job are those who don't do any productive work at all (the rich parasite class)?
  #38  
Old December 13th 19, 02:26 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
jOHN b.
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Posts: 2,421
Default In praise of Brooks saddles

On Thu, 12 Dec 2019 16:19:34 -0800 (PST), Chalo
wrote:

John B. wrote:

[...] unemployed in Detroit, some of which were 3rd generation
unemployed.


Sounds like you've been licking up pro-capitalist propaganda.

Well, maybe so. But I might comment that it was a report that I read
probably 50 or more years ago. I seem to recall that it was printed in
Reader's Digest.

But, being, apparently,, not a pro-capitalist person, I assume that
you adhere to the "socialist" scheme of "From each according to his
ability, to each according to his need". But note the use of the word
"each" and not the word "some".

Why is it that those who are most vehement about everybody needing to have a job are those who don't do any productive work at all (the rich parasite class)?


If you believe that than you are a fool. But I can assure you that
those who do no productive work are often those who need to have a job
as they got canned from their previous job for being non-productive.

--
cheers,

John B.

  #39  
Old December 13th 19, 03:09 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
news18
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Default In praise of Brooks saddles

On Fri, 13 Dec 2019 08:26:29 +0700, John B. wrote:

On Thu, 12 Dec 2019 16:19:34 -0800 (PST), Chalo
wrote:

John B. wrote:

[...] unemployed in Detroit, some of which were 3rd generation
unemployed.


Sounds like you've been licking up pro-capitalist propaganda.

Well, maybe so. But I might comment that it was a report that I read
probably 50 or more years ago. I seem to recall that it was printed in
Reader's Digest.


Aaah, that CIA front. Nuff said.
  #40  
Old December 13th 19, 03:52 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_5_]
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Default In praise of Brooks saddles

On Thursday, December 12, 2019 at 4:19:36 PM UTC-8, Chalo wrote:
John B. wrote:

[...] unemployed in Detroit, some of which were 3rd generation
unemployed.


Sounds like you've been licking up pro-capitalist propaganda.

Why is it that those who are most vehement about everybody needing to have a job are those who don't do any productive work at all (the rich parasite class)?


"pro-capitalist"? You don't believe that you should have to make your own way in this life? That the F-ing world owes you a living?
 




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