This is why I bought an FF

Impressive!

 

One of my main reasons as well. Although I have a GL63 Merc and H1 Hummer i still find myself using the FF as my SUV

 

Only car to replace my FF would be ... another FF

 

How do you keep the beige leather looking so clean?

 

That's pretty good

 

(This is my bike snob in me speaking)

if you do any sort of semi-serious riding at all, you need to upgrade those bikes.
For the price of an oil change in the FF, you can get a major upgrade from those bikes. You will enjoy riding a whole lot more. Sort of like upgrading from a Celica to a Ferrari - but costs 0.5% as much.

 

My neighbor has a two car garage which is full of bikes...his cars and trucks park outside. Yes he has bikes that cost thousands and has patents on parts for bikes. Although Lance lives in town, he is not Armstrong. He also has a home in Dallas. Am sure he has bikes there as well.

Unless you compete (he does not) i dont get the obsession with speed. You get the same amount of exercise if you push yourself in a super light bike and one thats a pound or two heavier. Its kind of like buying a 488 because its faster when ive never even tried to drive the 458 at the limit.

His 15 year old son was pulled over for doing 70 mph in a 55. But cops couldn't do anything cuz he doesnt have a drivers license...at least thats what his Dad told me.

I dont want skis or a bike that is so valuable that i have to worry about someone stealing them. Cars are enough to worry about.

 

A nice bike should run about $6K and up. A really nice one pushes $12-15K.
A nice bike is like a Ferrari, a thing of passion, beauty and top workmanship. Except you get to use all of its capability without going to jail.
A nice bike feels really good when you ride it, even though you are going about 0.3 MPH faster. Everything about feels good. The shifting, the lightness, the responsiveness, the geometry, everything is just right.
You don't want a heavy slow bike when you are a serious rider. I won't be able to keep up (at my age) with the younger guys who also have more time to train. I need all the aero and weight advantage I can get (since I don't use any pharmaceutical advantage)

I drive the Ferrari 2000 miles a year. That works out to be about 50 hours.
I ride about 4000-5000 miles a year. That works out to be 250-300 hours.
Therefore spending $10,000 for something I use 300 hours makes more sense than spending $150,000 for something I use 50 hours. Also the bike maintenance and upkeep costs $200/year. You know how much it takes to keep the Ferrari running and registered.

Lastly, I find it hard to believe you friend's son hits 70mph. The top pros in the world hits about 60mph on down hills. a 15-year-old kid hitting 70mph is hard to believe. Unless he's on a modified by on a ski slope, he's not hitting 70.

 

Nice. There is something about fine machinery and the human that resonates when it is just right. A Ferrari, a fine bike, a well heeled sailing vessel, a Ducati ... they all deliver the best that humans can do and arouse some of the best emotions in us. e

 

Agree on the kid - complete nonsense - to get to those speeds you need lots of power and if downhill a bit of weight. Agree with you about bikes too - actually I get more satisfaction overall from my bikes than I do my cars!!

 

Is the first bike the first generation Dogma? It looks like first generation Campag EPS also which, I always liked.

 

Good for you mate

 

I spoke too soon. My apologies.

Bikes good enough for Froome and Wiggins. Might even be good enough for Graeme Obree - even though he might fiddle with them eh?

 

I guess your mistaken impressions are understandable coming from someone unfamiliar with the cycling scheme. IMO, high end bikes are even more rewarding to use than exotic sports cars. It's because cycling requires your own propulsion rather than a motor. It's very frustrating if you know you are fit ad strong but your bike feels like a water-logged noodle. Unlike our cars, you can also change wheels and tires at a moment's notice and the possible combinations of drivetrain (front/rear gearing), wheels, wheel bearings, hubs and tires can be mind-boggling, if you so wish. We can't do that with our road cars unless we have a million$ garage facility and space.

As for your neighbour's son, there is no way he was pedaling at 70 mph. There is a tiny, tiny possibility he may have been drafting behind a car at 70 mph but he would have been coasting and drafting, not pedaling.

Here is a partial screenshot of a spreadsheet I created to select drivetrain components (front/rear gearing) to achieve desired training and/or racing setups. Ignore the green, blue and orange coloured boxes which highlight gearing I was looking at for my bikes.

The biggest front chainwheel I know of is 56 teeth, which is unusable except for "land/track speed records" by the strongest and fittest athletes. Most racers including pros use 53 teeth front chainrings. The smallest usable rear sprocket is 11 teeth. Together, these components how fast your bike goes (assuming no wind resistance) when you pedal at certain crank speeds (CADENCE). Pro-level race cadence is around 100 rpm. In a sprint they can go 120 or maybe slightly faster depending on the racer.

The chart shows, at 120 rpm cadence, the highest possible speed of 78.96 kph or 49.06 mph (top row of in bold numbers shows front chainring size in # of teeth, bolded numbers in the left vertical column shows # of teeth of the sprockets in rear cluster or cassette). If you cannot spin any faster, your bike won't go any faster on level ground without some sort of external assistance. And then there's the rather huge problem of overcoming wind resistance.

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So either they got their math seriously wrong or he was drafting, riding a huge tailwind or holding/tethered to a vehicle going at 70 mph, both of which would be stupid suicidal stunts guaranteed to go seriously bad at some point. Most tires, bearings are not designed to tolerate the heat and stresses at those speeds. They can fail. Forget about braking at those speeds.

Here's a picture of the bike I'm riding today. The experts say bikes are not fast, their riders are; true, but this bike *is* fast. I don't own an FF though but my '13 RAM Sport has good bike racks and does a decent job mimicking a big sports car on the odd occasion. FWIW, I use an iBike Newton power meter - I can swap it between my bikes like a regular Garmin.

Biking can be quite safe if you start out by joining a good bike club. It's quite a technical sport so it really helps to learn from experienced riders and a coach if the club has one. The health benefits, social atmosphere and technical fun makes it a great hobby for someone with free time to spend. The FF (and my truck) are perfect companions when your rides start and finish at more exotic locales.
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Well said.....and i think he must have meant that the kid have been driving his dad's FF when he hit 70mph, i hit 70KMH on a road with up to 14% grade only a week ago....
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damn Bob, how tall are you? Is it an optical illusion or is your seat like 5 feet off the ground??

 

The kid was in a car methinks.

 

Very nice bike and wheels ...your training route also looks like "fun".

 

HIGHLY recommend them; as much as an FF!!!!!

 

11% for 1 km? that's gonna require 34 front ring and still gonna be near anaerobic the whole time!