Greetings, I suspect I am the most unpleasant person for a salesman to deal with.

I am completely inconsolable when it comes to crappy products, and am completely willing to abuse them into a pile of useless trash. But there have been products that survive my ridiculous treatment, and they are usually made by the best companies with the best customer service records.

It is my objective to bring these companies great praise, and to ignore those who ignore their customer's demands.

I will start with a preface, I am firstly a commuter. to commute I ride on the road.

Then I venture to the open country, bike touring. Which is why I love my Surly LHT so damn much.

The touring bike is the most useful bike that exists, it functionally balances comfort and durability without compromising toughness. A touring bike can do everything, but is a master of none. They are the most useful style of bike, and I suspect the Surly Long Haul Trucker is the most valuable touring bike based on it's popularity.

I am not exclusively a road cyclist though, I suspect I would enjoy cyclo-cross, and mountain biking. If it were more places to go biking. To be a cyclist, most of us are road riders, not off-road riders. There are not enough trails to support mountain biking everywhere. And I don't know why.

If we want trails we should demand them from our community, help build them, and maintain them.

We cannot make rational demands unless we can prove that we ourselves are rational.

Expect more posts, inconsistently, in the future.