Any Old Iron?

"Any old iron, any old iron, any any any old iron?!", I once sung on stage at junior school whilst clanking two pans together and donned in flat cap, one of my grandad's old shirts and braces. What the audience of parents, teachers, etc made of it I don't like to ponder, but I enjoyed myself!

But what the Dickens is this talk of "iron" about, I hear you ask? Well, push irons of course, and in particular, just how good they need to be. Can you get by and have fun with just "any old iron"? The simple answer is "yes!". Bikes, hey? Where do you start.....or finish?! Mountain, road, hybrid, track, single-speed, fixed gear, carbon fibre, steel, titanium, alloy, £500, £1,000, £2,000, £5,000, etc, etc. But, it's the latter I'm concerned with here - cold, hard cash. You earn it, the bike shop wants it. Some guy once said, "It's not about the bike". I can't remember his name but he was a rider of some note. He was right though. It's about enjoying yourself on the bike and when it comes to going faster, training wisely and increasing your fitness/eating well can more than make up for the fact that you're on a significantly cheaper machine than other cyclists. My first mountain bike was a fully rigid Marin. Second hand. £100. Bargain. A steel machine, with pretty basic components, it was certainly no light weight. But, it was reliable, comfy and a great bike to learn the basics of off road riding on. One of my most memorable rides aboard my Marin was when myself and a friend blew away a group of fellow mountain bikers riding much more expensive machines - an excellent case in point that money can't buy fitness. More than a few years ago........

Me and said friend were riding one of our favourite routes in very hilly country. We'd paused at the bottom of a tough climb to fuel up on butties and flapjack - lunch al fresco. Into view, approaching the bottom of the climb come a group of four riders. As they get nearer we see that they're all riding very nice bikes indeed - a couple were Dekerfs, with top notch componentry - we're tallking £2k plus. We exchange "hellos" and as they pass I say, "See you later" (not meaning it literally). But one of the guys seems to think so and replies, "Yeah?..." with a chuckle and backwards, disparaging glance at my "bottom notch" Marin, as though to say, "I doubt it!". Well, I'm not one to rise to the bait......but we quickly finished our lunch stop and set off in pursuit! Half way up the climb, the "Dekerf boys" are spitting blood and as we sail by with a cheery "Awright?", they don't look too happy. We top out well ahead of the four musketeers and begin the long, fast descent. By the time they catch us up in the village at the bottom we're already eating more buns and drinking coffee. They look even less impressed.

The moral of the story is clear - it's not the push iron your on, but how you ride it.

Fast, slow, in between, expensive or cheap - just enjoy the ride.

Yours

TPR