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From: mo@well.UUCP (Maurice Weitman)
Newsgroups: net.cycle
Subject: Re: riding position
Message-ID: <1950@well.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 18-Oct-86 12:48:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: well.1950
Posted: Sat Oct 18 12:48:09 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Oct-86 20:56:00 EDT
References: <239@tekirl.UUCP> <438@fai.UUCP>
Reply-To: mo@well.UUCP (Maurice Weitman)
Organization: Whole Earth Lectronic Link, Sausalito CA
Lines: 42

In article <438@fai.UUCP> ronc@fai.UUCP (Ronald O. Christian) writes:
>In article <239@tekirl.UUCP> donch@tekirl.UUCP (Don Chitwood) writes:
>>
>>I was following a person to work this morning and noted his distinct
>>left-weighted position. [...] Not only that, but his butt was sitting
>>slightly to the left of center.  [...]They ALL have a left-oriented
>>non-symmetry to their riding position as viewed from the back. [...]
>>
>I almost hate to say this, but the left bias you see is due to
>the fact that most people put their wallets in their right back
>pocket.  After long rides, I found that my back around my right
>kidney would hurt and one leg would twitch.  I started putting
>my wallet in my jacket breast pocket, and the symptoms went away.
>
I am revolted by your conclusion, Ron.... yet another instance of male
projection of their wallet habits on the rest of the world.  The *REAL*
explanation is more subtle and has more far-reaching implications.  I 
began noticing the appearance of three to four times as many tushy zits
on my right cheek as on my left.  ( And stuff your wallet theory; I don't
even _HAVE_ a wallet. )  This led to an exhaustive study of my eating and
sitting habits, the details of which I won't bore you with.  Suffice it
to say the root cause of said zittoids was my tendency to sit askew on 
my Beemer.  My first theory of the cause of that was the torque reaction
to driving an opposed-twin-engined bike.  This was disproven when I 
reversed the rotation of the engine.  Which led to another quest for the
Truth, which is:  The reason why 74% (N.I.M.H. paper 1985) to 81% (People
magazine V.4 No.6) of m-cycle riders favor the left side of their saddles
is to offset the shift to right-wing thinking.  A natural balance must be
acheived.  Let's hope the pendulum swings back soon before we all have to
drive our bikes from a side-car.  

-- 

Quote:  "The police aren't here to create disorder, they're here
          to preserve disorder." Mayor Richard J. Daly, Chicago, 1968 

Disclaimer:  Any errors in spelling, tact or fact are transmission errors.

Maurice Weitman     9600   ..!{dual,hplabs,lll-crg,ptsfa,glacier}!well!mo
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