Dear Ken:
-=> Quoting Steven Mcfarlane to Richard Glazer <=-
 RG> Do you enjoy the hybrid? 
 SM> [long answer deleted - I enjoy it]
 KP> Check out a touring bike.  Or a sports touring like the Trek 1420. 
 KP> Essentially a road bike frame and drop handle bars with a triple.  
 KP> Incidently, Trek is putting triples on several of its road bikes 
 KP> now.  The difference between a touring bike and a sports touring or 
 KP> road bike (with a triple) is that the touring bike will have 
 KP> cantilever brakes (because of the load) and a somewhat more relaxed 
 KP> geometry including a little bit wider tire. 
I've looked at them in catalogues and you are right.  They just about fit 
my needs.  There are one or two hills around here that are *steep* for my 
legs and the really low gears of the hybrids are the only ones low enough 
to get up them.  
I'm hemmed in by hills on 2 sides, the ocean on one and bad traffic on the 
other.  I also have killer winds so I like to start by riding west (into 
the wind) and getting a tailwind home.  To do this, I have to go over a 
steep ridge that sends me down to the bottom gears and I make a speed of 
about 7km/h going up...and 50km/h going down.
I keep looking and dreaming about a new bike.  The thing is that there is 
nothing really wrong with the one I have for the kind of riding I like to 
do.  Maybe next year.
My biggest problem with dropped handlebars is that I wear glasses 
(prescription type) when I ride.  I owned dropped bar bikes in my youth 
and always found it difficult to be on the drops because the top of the 
frames bisected my field of view and it was dangerous.  With Japan's 
narrow roads, concrete walls and high traffic, that could be a deadly 
combination.  When I get some time, I will head downtown and talk to my 
Bike Shop Guy and see if I can quickly test-ride something with dropped 
bars to find out how it looks now or if I am remembering it incorrectly.  
He's really nice - he'll probably let me.
Tailwinds to you,
Steve
... Teaching ought to have more *circus* in it - John W. Campbell
___
 * Freddie 1.2.5 * The first full-featured QWK reader for the Mac.
--- GEcho 1.00
6:730/40)
---------------