Presidential bicycles
Apparently, the sort of bike you ride may have something to do with the electoral politics you practice:
ONE of the many differences separating John Kerry and George W. Bush
is their choice of bicycle – not an especially presidential mode of
transport, one might think, except that these are not ordinary bikes.Mr. Kerry reportedly pedals an $8,000 Serotta Ottrott, as
high-tech and skittish as a sports car. It is made of space-age carbon
tubing and comes equipped with the patented ST rear triangle, whatever
that is.Mr. Bush pumps away (often emitting low “hrrr, hrrr, hrrr” grunts,
according to an Associated Press article last week) on a $3,000 Trek
Fuel 98. It, too, is made of carbon tubing, but unlike the Kerry
machine, it has shock absorbers fore and aft. That’s because it’s meant
to go off-road. If Mr. Kerry’s bike is a Ferrari, Mr. Bush’s is a Land
Rover. Mr. Kerry rides on the flat, more or less, and usually on paved
surfaces.Mr. Bush likes to ride up into the hills of his Texas ranch and then
come flying down. To put it another way, Mr. Kerry is more nearly like
Greg LeMond, Mr. Bush more like Evel Knievel.
The original article even contains pictures of each candidate on their really expensive bikes.
UPDATE: 8 August 2004, 12.08 PM — The Times ran a couple of follow-up letters to the story yesterday. Read ’em here.
The real cyclists have some corrections to make to the Times, like
whether or not road racing is as exciting as mountain biking (yes), or
whether GWB is wearing appropriate clothing to really be cycling, or
whether what he’s doing is mountain biking.
And, for full disclosure, here’s what I ride.
Ecto blogging software