Being a MAMIL Doesn't Have to be Expensive

Carbon fiber or steel?

Somewhat sadly, I did not quite make my goal of riding my bike to work every day this semester...I made it all the way until today, but there's something about 12 inches of snow and unplowed (for the most part) streets that just didn't seem to match my plan of riding every day this semester...and this, the last day of classes before finals! But then, I'm not a total gonzo like Dr. Jeremy Groves, an anesthetist in England at Chesterfield Royal Hospital who rides 27 miles to work daily. I have to admit, though, that he had an interesting bit of research.
Groves makes the commute in 1 hour and 47 minutes each way, by his calculations, riding an older steel-framed bike that cost him roughly 50 British pounds...not expensive by any means. He wondered if a more expensive and thus lighter bicycle would shave precious time off his commute...so he bought a carbon-fiber job costing 200 times what his old bike set him back, and began a six-month experiment. The government was offering a tax break to those who cycled to work, and bike shops would discount them accordingly, so it seemed like a good time to try the experiment.
Every workday for six months, Groves would flip a coin to see which bike he took to work. After six months, he was surprised to find that his average time on the expensive bike was a full minute SLOWER than his time on the old, cheap bike! He described the results of his experiment in the British Medical Journal and came to the conclusion that the"...reduction in the weight of the cyclist may deliver greater benefit at a reduced cost."
Thus, here's the groundbreaking news part, a cyclist would get where he or she is going more quickly by losing weight rather than buying a lightweight, very expensive bike.
This would hold true especially, one would imagine for all of the Middle Aged Men In Lycra out there. Me? I never wear lycra to work...I have to ride across a campus full of students walking to class.
It's hard to look good riding on a bike with fenders trying to suck in a flabby gut...while wearing a helmet.
I prefer to be somewhat incognito.