posted by pika on november 12, 1997 at 14:27:15:
This is actually a friend's story, not mine:
Christina was riding her Merlin uphill (so what's new? you would, too, if you were such a good climber) on a steep, technical trail. As usual, she passed some bigger guy (well, almost everyone's bigger - she's all of 5 feet tall). Bigger Guy, rather than chalking it up to good riding on her part or a bad day on his, became choked by, um, hormonal inadequacy complex. He spat out this friendly greeting to her: "Isn't that an OLD Merlin?"
"Yup. Does the job, doesn't it?"
I believe she didn't hear any response from him because, well, because she was already too far ahead.
And so on. I've gotten similar greetings, though generally in a friendlier tone. Something along the lines of "Wow, you're not even using a shock fork!"
Of course, there are the usual "Nice bike" comments accompanied by either envious looks or puzzlement that I don't rack the bike on a $40K yuppiemobile. Hey, guess what - I don't have one - I spend my time RIDING, not accumulating status toys.
This is the cool thing about Merlins, and bikes in general. They don't do squat without a good rider aboard. Amen.