Great Subliminal Advertising

[Pavel]

Well the Thorn brochures say that many a customer have more than one Thorn.  I think that kind of challenge works very subtly, very well.  And I only have one thorn! Am I a failure??

So then, not to disappoint the Thorn marketing department, I now want a second bike.  Sure I have three bikes right now, and only one set of legs, but what does that have to do with it, I say?

I keep looking at the Club Tour brochure.  Hmmm, perhaps I can do the Alaska to wherever it was that guy went to in less time.  Yeah.  So do I need the Club Tour, do you think?  I have all the parts that would go on the frame save a rear wheel, which I think needs to be better than the one from my Fuji Touring bike, and I will have to get a crank with larger rings than my 22,32,44 Deore's.  I was thinking about going retro and getting a two ring setup with a 30,46 Velo-Oranger crank anyways so all I would have to do is transfer all of my parts.  It is so logical, right?!

But I also keep looking at the Audax.  I'd like to go 60 miles per hour with very little effort and don't know if the Audax would help me do that better than the Club Tour.  I wonder if the trade off in the Audax frame would make me go faster but with a twitchier ride.  I guess going only 50 mph may be ok, with the Club Tour that is, if there is a lot more comfort an even more stable geometry.  So what should I do?  How much weight difference is there between similar size frames do you think and which of these might make a better stable companion for the Nomad?  Please help with my dilemma.

Whatever the answers be, one thing is for certain - the Thorn brochures are very effective!!!!

[Danneaux]

...not to disappoint the Thorn marketing department, I now want a second bike...

'Tis a slippery slope, Pavel. Slippery, indeed!

The Nomad was the thin end of the wedge... 

Best,

Dan.

[Pavel]

Slippery slope?  No, no ... I only NEED one more bike ... then perfect self control!

I looked into some of the Audax/Randoneur clubs and unfortunately where people only seem to drive trucks, not ride bikes.   All the places where there seems to be a lot of passion for the sport are driving distance away, which seems to be kind of in the wrongs spirit.  I've told myself that I will ride the Fuji Touring bike for the shorter faster rides so I can get in shape and then in a few months if goes as I hope it does, then I will likely buy the Thorn Club Tour frame.  At this point I may go for the Audax instead but I really like the idea of a bike that tends to want to go straight and has to be persuaded into turns.

I've been riding the Nomad every second day when I go for long distances and either the Fuji or Moulton when I go for faster shorter outings. 

Didn't someone famous once say "two thorns are better than one"?  yeah ... I think so!

[Andre Jute]

It's a familiar condition, Pavel. Note that I don't say problem. Wanting a new bike is not a problem, it is a solution to a condition, prevention of a problem in the making.

Being superior, after years of spending every winter looking over bikes and then buying a new bike in preparation for the spring, I have the condition cured. I now spend every winter looking over bikes and deciding on the one I want, and just before I buy it I notice that it is a just a different colour of a bike I already own. Even my exceedingly agreeable family would baulk at another 5K bike in a different colour so, reluctantly, I don't buy it.

Though I do think a real cyclist should have a bike of a different colour for each day of the week, plus a few to match his outfits. (Well, maybe not the shocking-pink shirts I ordered for visibility in summer cycling. No manufacturer would ever live down a bike that shocking.)

And maybe I gave up too easily on the semi-recumbents when I sold on my Giant Revive, maybe now that I have a connection at Utopia, I should have a Phoenix for around town (we don't have any flat roads beside the ones in town). And a Thorn to park beside my three touring bikes, because a bicyclist's experience isn't complete until he has tried a Thorn, and it is of course essential to confidence, which keeps him alive in traffic, that he should speak with authority.

Yes, that's its, inarguable, a case made from Safety First. Now where's that Thorn brochure again?

[Pavel]

Wel;l it is certain.  

If Andy retires from his Tester/MouthWaterer position at Thorn, (and should there not be term limits there?) the company will have no shortage of suitable candidates to follow in his footsteps!

 I thought I had myself convinced, though the bank manager still disagrees, but now I realise I did not have the matter even half though out!   It is good to have good solid logic behind one's purchasing decisions.  I can see more clearly now.  Thank you!

[triaesthete]

This can be reduced to a simple equation:

x=n+1

where x is the number of bikes you need and n is the number of bikes you have. 

Ian

[sdg_77]

x=n+1 is a good start

there is also n=s-1 where s is the number of bike's which will cause one's partner to become severly irritated.

I have s_b+1 where s_b is the number of bike she has.  

She (Gill) is very astute, in that on aquiring her Thorn she sold the bike it replaced.  Come to think of it - she persuaded me to sell it for her.

sdg.

[Pavel]

Where does one find reasonable women like that!?