Inadvertent fitness
Apr. 22nd, 2010 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkemeralds posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
bicyclesThis comm has been pretty quiet the last few days so I thought I'd post something about my experience riding the Workcycle Omafiets as my primary commuting bike.
Butt muscles. That's the first thing. You don't ride a 45-lb (20 kg) bike, which Eleanor O the Omafiets is, up the riverbank every day without exercising the glutes a little more than on a bike of half that weight, which Clyde the Cruiser is.
Speed. You also don't ride a 45-lb/20-kg bike anywhere very fast. You just tootle along. My 30 minute commute home (the up-incline direction) on Clyde is now consistently about a 37-minute commute on Eleanor O.
Starting from stop. Eleanor O's sheer gravitas makes her not terribly maneuverable. I find that I need a little room and a bit of a kick-off to get started from a stop, or else I wobble. This may improve as I get used to the weight, but I've had a lot of false starts on this bike at stoplights and drawbridges.
On the other hand, I can shift all the way down to 1 while stopped on Eleanor because of the hub gearing.
Attire. I never, ever have to think about what I'm wearing on the Omafiets. Skirts, wide-leg trousers, nice coat, my best shoes--nothing gets dirty or greasy or spattered or caught. Even a slim skirt, as long as there's a back vent, works just fine. On Clyde, with his exposed chain and insufficient rear fender, it's narrow-leg trousers and washable outwear pretty much exclusively.
Image. I get compliments on this bike. People who pay no attention to bikes say, "Hey, I like your bike." It's a conversation piece. Clyde is a fun bike, but not nearly as charming as Eleanor.
Comfort. Clyde (a Globe Specialized "Carmel") is advertised and sold as a comfort bike. It has shock absorption in the front fork and on the seat post, in addition to a padded and spring-mounted saddle. The Oma has some seat springs and that's all. The trade-off is that the Carmel is cheaply made and ratchety, while the Oma shifts like a dream and rolls on much more substantial tires and wheels.
I would definitely not ride Eleanor more than a small handful of miles at a time, while with the extra comfort and lighter weight, I can do a 15 or 20 mile round trip errand on Clyde.
Load bearing. I bought Eleanor for grocery shopping and moderate goods-toting. My body-weight alone tests the limits of Clyde's spokes, and the addition of two large bags of groceries and a good bump or two has broken a couple of them. I don't have that concern with Eleanor.
Storage. I can carry Clyde up five steps to my porch and lock him safely out of the rain--which he needs because a life under the sky will quickly ruin him. He's pretty easy to get into the vertical wall-rack in the garage at work.
Eleanor, on the other hand, lives in my back yard, where I can wheel her, chained to a fixed part of my house, and requires a horizontal parking space at work. She will survive many winters outdoors, though, with only moderate maintenance (and a plastic bag over that nice Brooks leather saddle), because of her all enameled-steel construction and enclosed chain and gears.
While build quality alone makes Eleanor the "better bike," Clyde has some very distinct advantages, and I'm realizing that if I go car-free, I'll be well advised to keep them both.
Butt muscles. That's the first thing. You don't ride a 45-lb (20 kg) bike, which Eleanor O the Omafiets is, up the riverbank every day without exercising the glutes a little more than on a bike of half that weight, which Clyde the Cruiser is.
Speed. You also don't ride a 45-lb/20-kg bike anywhere very fast. You just tootle along. My 30 minute commute home (the up-incline direction) on Clyde is now consistently about a 37-minute commute on Eleanor O.
Starting from stop. Eleanor O's sheer gravitas makes her not terribly maneuverable. I find that I need a little room and a bit of a kick-off to get started from a stop, or else I wobble. This may improve as I get used to the weight, but I've had a lot of false starts on this bike at stoplights and drawbridges.
On the other hand, I can shift all the way down to 1 while stopped on Eleanor because of the hub gearing.
Attire. I never, ever have to think about what I'm wearing on the Omafiets. Skirts, wide-leg trousers, nice coat, my best shoes--nothing gets dirty or greasy or spattered or caught. Even a slim skirt, as long as there's a back vent, works just fine. On Clyde, with his exposed chain and insufficient rear fender, it's narrow-leg trousers and washable outwear pretty much exclusively.
Image. I get compliments on this bike. People who pay no attention to bikes say, "Hey, I like your bike." It's a conversation piece. Clyde is a fun bike, but not nearly as charming as Eleanor.
Comfort. Clyde (a Globe Specialized "Carmel") is advertised and sold as a comfort bike. It has shock absorption in the front fork and on the seat post, in addition to a padded and spring-mounted saddle. The Oma has some seat springs and that's all. The trade-off is that the Carmel is cheaply made and ratchety, while the Oma shifts like a dream and rolls on much more substantial tires and wheels.
I would definitely not ride Eleanor more than a small handful of miles at a time, while with the extra comfort and lighter weight, I can do a 15 or 20 mile round trip errand on Clyde.
Load bearing. I bought Eleanor for grocery shopping and moderate goods-toting. My body-weight alone tests the limits of Clyde's spokes, and the addition of two large bags of groceries and a good bump or two has broken a couple of them. I don't have that concern with Eleanor.
Storage. I can carry Clyde up five steps to my porch and lock him safely out of the rain--which he needs because a life under the sky will quickly ruin him. He's pretty easy to get into the vertical wall-rack in the garage at work.
Eleanor, on the other hand, lives in my back yard, where I can wheel her, chained to a fixed part of my house, and requires a horizontal parking space at work. She will survive many winters outdoors, though, with only moderate maintenance (and a plastic bag over that nice Brooks leather saddle), because of her all enameled-steel construction and enclosed chain and gears.
While build quality alone makes Eleanor the "better bike," Clyde has some very distinct advantages, and I'm realizing that if I go car-free, I'll be well advised to keep them both.
