The Dilnad can!

I've got nothing!

I haven't had a blog update in a bit. Why? Because I've got nothing. I usually write(or do something resembling writing. I mean, bad writing is still writing, isn't it?) about actual occurrences in my life that are comical(based on my own unqualified assessment), with some of my own personal fitness(where 'fitness' = running) accomplishments, with the goal of getting cheesy "go get em champ" recognition from those who outclass me in my own sport(you know, pretty much everyone). Fortunately my goals are based on beating my own previous achievements and I don't outclass myself(so my ego is safe). None of that stuff has happened in the last couple of weeks so not much to write about. Racing season is done. Nothing on the schedule until the Louisville Triple Crown series in February. Just an easy relaxing couple of months until I start training in January. That means life is boring and again, I got nothing.

With all that being said(Where 'that' = pretty much nothing), I guess I should waste a few keystrokes on my most recent WTF experience(there's always stuff I can be pissed about)

So back in the day I had a 3-speed bicycle. It had a lever you'd flip with your thumb. Gear goes up, bike goes faster, peddling gets harder. A pretty simple technology. Then the 10-speed bike came on the scene. A bit more tricky. You had 2 levers, not to difficult. You knew how to shift gears and you had 10 usable gears that increased sequentially. Surely the future will hold new technologies that will provide us with more gears and be easier to use. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Enter the mountain bike. We now have 21 speeds for you to use......well, not exactly. You do indeed have 21 speeds(term used extremely loosely) but you can't actually use 21 speeds and we no longer refer to them as 13th gear or 10th, because well, I don't really get it myself.  There are 3 positions on the left shifter that shift to the 3 chain rings(big gears in front). 7 positions on the right. You refer to them as 4th on the small chain ring, 3rd on the middle, etc. Now get this. You can't really use the first or 7th position on the right shifter because the chain rubs and makes noise. Those are not entirely good things. Now with 3 chain rings and 2 unusable gears, that brings us to 6 thus lowering our usable gears to 15(Holy crap! He can do math?) but wait, there's more(Here comes the cheesy free steak knife offer). Some of the gears on certain chain rings are actually the same gear ratio as others thus losing more gears but how many? <shrug> All I can tell you is I have somewhere between six and eleventeen gears on my 21 speed bike.

Advances in technology. Good stuff!!