The Glade 4.0

After getting a bit more in shape with the Boot Camp and CrossFit stuff that I've been doing for the past couple months, I finally decided to dust off my old road bike and have it get an overhaul tune-up. After some minor fiascos about needing a part special-ordered through a specialized retailer, it finally came back into my clutches.

I took it out riding yesterday for the first time in about 9 or 10 years. I had forgotten what a joy it is to ride this thing compared to (ugh) jogging. I did close to 20 miles in about an hour and 10 minutes, which I feel is pretty respectable for a guy who's lived a sedentary lifestyle up until recently and hadn't ridden in such a long time. I was honestly shocked at how I wasn't very sore or winded as much as I expected to be, and I felt like I could have ridden another hour on top of that without too much pain.

Somewhat near my house they have been constructing a highway to the airport and it's about 20 miles in length so far. It's very brand new, it just opened up to the public a couple months ago. Along side of it is a biking/jogging path. It's nice to have a safe and enjoyable place for biking at decent speeds for long stretches. I expect to use it very frequently.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Awesome Sauce!

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Holy shitsnacks!

Right on, man. Next thing you know you'll be measuring your cadence and figuring out gear ratios (welcome to the club!).

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

This is still less than a year old, right? It's still necropostable!

Just picked up my new bike today, a Trek Fuel EX 7. After much hemming and hawing, I ran into the start-of-season Trek sale and got a deal good enough to justify treating myself to my first full suspension ride while sticking just under my budget after some haggling.

Took it around for a quick spin in a local neighborhood to do some sizing adjustments, so I got back too late to get any pictures. Tomorrow, I'll take a few. It's a looker, and it's shaping up to be a really plush ride. I should get a better feel for that tomorrow and next weekend; I can't wait to take it down to MoMBA next Saturday.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Sweet. What size wheels?

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

29". I made the jump to a 29er when I got my Cobia years ago, and liked it. I don't really get bothered by the difference in nimbleness, though from what I hear, the geometry that Fisher came up with (and Trek bought into when they bought him out) is one of the better ones for mitigating that drawback.

I was always more of a "pop the front wheel and roll over it with the back" rider than one that was looking to bunny hop everything I'm my path, so I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that I like a wheel size that eats everything it rolls over.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Interesting. That's kind of my style, too (like I've actually been on dirt any time in recent memory). I can bunny-hop, but it's a lot of effort sometimes.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

I've never been able to get much air on my back wheel, so I just stopped bothering. I can take a lot of weight off it and then crank hard to roll over something big, which is usually good enough.

Some of that might be my stubborn resistance to clipless pedals -- I'm just now trying that out. I held off in high school and college because my feet are pretty duck-footed (some people call it splay-footed), so my toes point out like 15 degrees and it's uncomfortable to rotate them in much past straight. Riding on Saturday, though, I decided that the bike was nice enough that sticking with my toe clips was really rather scandalous, and I might actually improve my rear wheel's air if I don't have to commit myself to that weird little game of "point your toe up when applying any upward pressure on the pedal to keep it in the clip" which works fine for getting 360 degree power on your pedal stroke, but is just plain awkward when you're trying to jump. So I sat down and had a rather frank (and surprisingly reassuring) talk with the mountain bike guy at the shop, and went home with a pair of shoes and a set of Candy pedals (selected for a high degree of float).

Tonight, I installed the cleats, with adjustment to follow when I regain possession of my bike later this week.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Be careful witih the clipless pedals. Not just from a dismounting standpoint, but if the alignment is off, it can cause knee or ankle issues.

Once you get them where you think they feel right, start off with some short rides, and see how you feel the next day.

Short rides are the order of the day until I get in better shape, anyways. Thanks for the additional heads up, though, I'll pay attention to my knees and ankles.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Oh, interesting about your feet. I have the exact same thing. My feet are not naturally parallel when I stand normally. A ballet teacher (my landlady at the time) said I had a natural dancer's stance or something. Maybe I missed my calling.

That being said, I've been riding with clipless pedals since ... sheesh, easily 19, maybe 20 years now. The key will be getting the angle of the cleats correct. Don't just slap them on straight. It's been so long since I've done it, though (my last pair of shoes has lasted a long time, since I don't ride as much), that I don't remember the specifics of how to do it. Hopefully the bike shop did (or will do) that for you.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Oh, the guy I've found at my bike shop is great. To the point that I've been kicking myself these last two weeks for skipping that particular shop (in favor of one in the larger market of Cincinnati -- I figured they'd have the sharper sales staff and better selection) the last time I was bike shopping. I'm definitely glad I shopped around a bit more this time around.

In any event, I figure he read me as a guy who's not scared of doing some of his own maintenance, because he went over the process of installing the cleats and how I can fiddle and tinker with them to get the adjustment right.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

It's been many years for me, but most shops that sold high end bikes would offer (for a fee) a thing called a "fit kit". They had alignment rods and plates that let your feet float freely, and they would make adjustments as you rode until the rods were aligned. It was a bit gimmicky, and most shops wouldn't offer it unless someone specifically asked, or were having serious issues.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were more high tech ways of doing it now.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Yeah, I always wanted to do a fit kit, but was never high-end enough.

Glad you found a good shop, Kaffis.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

The GF has Candies on her Hybrid. They're awesome.

I'll probably go with those or Mallets on my MtB when I get one.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Pretty, huh?

The Candies are working out great. I went for a ride over the weekend on one of the local bike paths -- it had rained a couple days earlier and I wasn't sure what kind of shape the area's nice mountain trails would be, and I didn't want to jump into something where I might be doing some bailing without getting some time in on the clipless first.

Even so, I fell over clipped to my bike twice -- once before we even started riding in earnest; I had gotten over-anxious and clipped in before doing enough in-and-out to get used to the motion one foot at a time. The other time, I was stopping, had disengaged my right foot, and was leaning right to touch ground when a strong gust of riverfront wind blew me over to the left. That was.. a little humbling.

10 miles over an hour, with a few minutes to stop and admire the river downtown and a brutal headwind on the opening leg. A nice, relaxing ride, cut short by highway construction.



Yep, that's the I-75 overpass that crosses the Great Miami River just south of the Rt. 4 interchange. It's a stretch of I-75 that's been under chronic construction for the past decade or so, and which is currently blocking off the Mad River Bike Path, apparently. Otherwise, I was planning on continuing down another 2-3 miles to the Stuart Street bridge.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Sweet bike. I noticed it in the Flora and Fauna thread. I remember dumping once with clipless pedals when I jumped up a curb in front of a grocery store. Down I went.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

You guys motivated me to get my bike out of the garage and dust it off.

It's the first time I've ridden since I had back surgery in 2010.

It felt really great to get out and zip around the neighborhood again. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy riding (except the soreness from the saddle.. didn't miss that part)...
2010 Specialized TriCross Comp