{"id":325,"date":"2011-10-22T22:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-22T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgc.co\/2011\/10\/when-bikes-are-inbred\/"},"modified":"2011-10-22T22:21:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-22T22:21:00","slug":"when-bikes-are-inbred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/singlespeedgoldcoast.com\/2011\/10\/22\/when-bikes-are-inbred\/","title":{"rendered":"When bike’s are inbred"},"content":{"rendered":"
Update: Looking for a review of the Papillionaire<\/a>? (Click on the linky bit already.)<\/p>\n

What happens when a road bike marries his mountain bike cousin and they have a child? You get some kind of deformed hybrid, a device designed to fill a niche that never existed.<\/p>\n

This week I had the great pleasure of taking a friend bike shopping. Any chance to look at, shop for and test ride bikes without parting with my own money is a welcome opportunity. Problem is you have to deal with some really annoying bike store shitheads. More on that later.<\/p>\n

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The friend in question is a not of the fixie persuasion. That is, in all due deference to thefixfixfix.com<\/a>, where all hot chicks own fixies, usually fixies and single speeds are a guy thing. She’s of the neglected bicycle genus known as the woman is just coming back to cycling. She’s not in the fixie market. So I was after a ladies bike, something along the lines of the Bianchi my wife rides:<\/div>\n
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My wife with her Bianchi.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Not my wife<\/a>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Our first salesman insisted that ladies bikes were out of the question; too slow, too girly, and only suitable for little old ladies. He then proceeded to show us a half dozen bikes with about 2,000 gears between them, front (and often rear) suspension, and each with that ungainly deformed look you get in the progeny of two cousins. <\/div>\n
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Now when I buy a bike for a lady I know the most important elements are:<\/p>\n