...the determined rider will get about with almost anything on tour...
Boy, Pete! Truer words were never spoken. I was zipping along one day on my rando bike and spied a rider in the distance. "No problem", I though, "I'll reel them in soon enough". Five miles later, I managed to haul up alongside a rider who was old as dirt...atop an old Raleigh Sports 3-speed. Sitting upright into a headwind. Not sweating like I was. Serene. Calm. I had ridden about 175 miles at that point, but what struck me was I had no idea how far
he'd already come. There hadn't been houses for miles....
Man! Humbling. I learned long ago to never write off another rider based on appearance or equipment. As the old saying goes, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog".
All the best,
Dan. (...who frequently reminds himself that in some places right now, there's people riding single-speed, truss-fork bikes hauling
enormous loads and thinking nothing of it -- and they do so everyday for Work and Life)