I will say that the best descending bikes I’ve had have consistently had the lowest bars, and I descend like a bat out of hell (although don’t have the body weight to compete with Heath per se).
No, the question was riding the road, with no closures a good idea? Most seem to say it was not. Even in flat Ontario there are descents I won’t take large groups down for the same reason.
swoops point about the spacers…was a race bike setup wrong will handle like shit…or atleast far from designed and will have some bad characteristics
it’s likely if the person isn’t in good enough shape to be able ride a “pro fit” (yes i hate to use the term but it works here) on a bike designed to fit lile that, then they probably don’t have enough time on the bike to have excellent bike handling skills
like i said before, people are fixating on the part about the spacers when IMO the main point of his blog post was to point out that it’s not a good idea to take 50-80 fuckers on bikes down a hairy ass descent when nobody really knows what kind of bike handling skills the dudes have
a small group of old cyclist that have been riding for decades…yeah fuck it…take 'em to whatever hairy ass descent you want
but a HUGE group that almost certainly will have more than a few guys that have no idea what they are getting into…that’s what swooop’s concern is
i wouldn’t be surprised if swoop is fucked in the head just a little because he’s seen some fuckers die, or almost die or get extremely fucked because they got in over their heads on a bike…anyone with money can go buy a pro bike and go out and get epic like the dudes in the rapha ads but unless you know the dudes are you gonna lead them out on some crazy shit assuming they can hang?
yeah we all gotta die sometime but do wanna be the one to lead someone to their death?
if someone goes out there on their own that’s different than a ride out of a shop
and the part about the small group of dudes that pushed off 5 minutes early because there were too many new bikes…probably all dudes like swoop that have been riding all those canyons for 30 years…
so swoop said something kinda dickish…so what
if he was all polite and kind would this shit be such a big deal? sometimes you just have to put that shit out there, if not then nothings goin to change
lets face it, there are some routes that aren’t meant for huge groups and newb fucking riders
shit i keep almost every fucker i see atleast three bike lengths away from me unless i know them and that’s not even when i’m actually out for a fast ride
Thank you cookie
There is a shit ton of masturbation in this thread.
I lost my Strava descent KOM for Camino Alto and every time I go for it I end up catching a car in the last quarter mile. I realized recently that I’m okay with having the 3rd best time on it, shit aint worth dyin for.
[quote=Mr. Bear]There is a shit ton of masturbation in this thread.
[/quote]
of course there is. we’re talking about descending on a forum of bike nerds.
(I’m not a nerd)
ha, i noticed you didn’t size your descending peen up against everyone else either
Don’t have to when you know…
…you know?
stealth braggin 
[quote=DDYTDY]Don’t have to when you know…
…you know?[/quote]
Niiice.
I held a mtb DH KOM until Mark Weir came along and decimated it.
Josh Robot knows how I descend… and how slow I climb…
Descending with a group of skilled riders is pretty awesome. Some of my best cycling memories.
[quote=Mr. Bear][quote=DDYTDY]Don’t have to when you know…
…you know?[/quote]
Niiice.
I held a mtb DH KOM until Mark Weir came along and decimated it.[/quote]
Second to Mark Weir is pretty fucking good, atmo. Motherfucker can do Downieville in 45 minutes top to bottom and used to do the whole thing, up and down, on a 1x9 with a 40t chainring.
and, to date, rapha has come out with nothing about this. not even a memorial/condolences blog entry.
Lawyers probably told them not to.
would nike say anything about some jogger getting run over on his morning jaunt?
We talking about a Nike gentlemens jaunt?
Rapha has really stepped in it lately, huh?
were there some rapha riders taht needed to get some sweet tatty’s for winning sscxwc or something…and they didn’t coz pussies?
TC after reading how you gotta get a sscxwc related tatty for winning the sscxwc…i have even more respect
for cyclocross. not rapha.
so awzm that they got a sscxwc tattoo control board
lulz