New bicycle
Apr. 28th, 2010 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayfurrI'm not God's gift to cycling. That being said, I'd like to be in better cardiovascular shape and more fit and strong in general, so I've tried to do a lot more cycling this year, 100 or so miles a week.
However, I started the 2010 cycling season riding a mountain bike on the road, a mountain bike with big wide fat tires for offroading, and eventually people started asking me "why are you doing that?" The day I cycled 25 miles home from work (taking the long scenic route) and got passed by dozens of people on their skinny-tire road bikes convinced me it was time to get a real bike.
So: on Thursday I went to Earl's Cyclery and Fitness in South Burlington and bought a Trek 7.6 fx hybrid bike with skinny tires, a lighter frame, etcetera, etcetera. Didn't get to pick it up until Friday, but I rode it around for a few miles after work and then loaded it into the car and took it on home.
On Saturday Carole and I bicycled 55 miles, starting at Rice High School in Burlington all the way south through South Burlington, Shelburne, Charlotte, and into Ferrisburgh, and back again, following the route that the Lund Family Center's Mother's Day ride will have the 55-mile riders follow. It was a very hilly route but I did absolutely fine on when the time came to climb hills; I powered right up them without difficulty. In that regard, I found myself liking the new bike a great deal. The problem was in the downhills: I don't trust myself on those skinny tires yet and I'm terrified every time I have to go down a steep slope. I honestly don't know how well the brakes will work; will I squeeze 'em too hard, arrest the bike instantly, and be flung over my handlebars at 30 miles an hour? Will I skid and wipe out?
I imagine most people don't worry about things like that, but I had a really bad wreck while bicycling during my senior year in high school, wiping out at the bottom of a steep hill when I'd gotten going far faster than the ability of my bicycle's brakes to smoothly stop me. Emphasis on the word 'smoothly'. I stopped all right, when I exited the bike at high speed and skidded sideways across a patch of gravel and asphalt that took half the skin off my right arm. Ever since then I've spent far too much time fretting "How do I stop this thing" and thinking too much.
Carole, on the other hand, rides a Townie, an old-fashioned-looking but actually pretty modern commuter bike that keeps its rider in an upright forward-facing stance. Not exactly a bike to ride bicycle races on; in fact, it turned out to be as inappropriate for long-distance rides as my old mountain bike had been. Her fatter commuter tires worked fine for her; she's comfortable with them and with her brakes, so when we got to a steep hill she'd zoom down and up the hill on the other side, while I'd be cautiously coasting down riding my brakes the whole damn way out of sheer PTSD-influenced flashback-laden don't-want-to-wreck terror. Then I'd zoom past her on the uphill and wait for her at the top, and so on, and so on. Took us 7 hours to do 55 miles, and that's too long; the Lund ride expects people who do the 55-mile distance to complete the route in at most 5.5 hours. I guess I should call them up and have us switched to the 30-mile distance.
But that being said, I'm sure I'll get more comfortable with my skinny tires and come to learn how much I can trust my brakes. I don't doubt that the brakes will work absolutely fine -- it's a brand new $1,250 bike, after all. The problem is with my head: I don't viscerally, instinctively know that if I'm on a hill of a certain steepness and I'm going a certain speed ... how far from the bottom I should consider applying the brakes and how tightly I should squeeze.
Some of you reading this might say "Why brake at all? Enjoy the speed!"
Well, sure, but I don't trust my balance on those skinny tires well enough to avoid absolutely getting myself killed if I get the bike up to 40 miles an hour, hit a little rock or a bump, and go flying. Even a little destabilizing wobble at high speed could be pretty darn fatal if I'm not accustomed enough to the bike to know how to recover from the wobble in time.
I think too much. That's what caused me to have such trouble getting SCUBA certified the first time. But it is what it is -- all I can do is spend enough time on the bike that the ease and familiarity eventually do come with time.
However, I started the 2010 cycling season riding a mountain bike on the road, a mountain bike with big wide fat tires for offroading, and eventually people started asking me "why are you doing that?" The day I cycled 25 miles home from work (taking the long scenic route) and got passed by dozens of people on their skinny-tire road bikes convinced me it was time to get a real bike.
So: on Thursday I went to Earl's Cyclery and Fitness in South Burlington and bought a Trek 7.6 fx hybrid bike with skinny tires, a lighter frame, etcetera, etcetera. Didn't get to pick it up until Friday, but I rode it around for a few miles after work and then loaded it into the car and took it on home.
On Saturday Carole and I bicycled 55 miles, starting at Rice High School in Burlington all the way south through South Burlington, Shelburne, Charlotte, and into Ferrisburgh, and back again, following the route that the Lund Family Center's Mother's Day ride will have the 55-mile riders follow. It was a very hilly route but I did absolutely fine on when the time came to climb hills; I powered right up them without difficulty. In that regard, I found myself liking the new bike a great deal. The problem was in the downhills: I don't trust myself on those skinny tires yet and I'm terrified every time I have to go down a steep slope. I honestly don't know how well the brakes will work; will I squeeze 'em too hard, arrest the bike instantly, and be flung over my handlebars at 30 miles an hour? Will I skid and wipe out?
I imagine most people don't worry about things like that, but I had a really bad wreck while bicycling during my senior year in high school, wiping out at the bottom of a steep hill when I'd gotten going far faster than the ability of my bicycle's brakes to smoothly stop me. Emphasis on the word 'smoothly'. I stopped all right, when I exited the bike at high speed and skidded sideways across a patch of gravel and asphalt that took half the skin off my right arm. Ever since then I've spent far too much time fretting "How do I stop this thing" and thinking too much.
Carole, on the other hand, rides a Townie, an old-fashioned-looking but actually pretty modern commuter bike that keeps its rider in an upright forward-facing stance. Not exactly a bike to ride bicycle races on; in fact, it turned out to be as inappropriate for long-distance rides as my old mountain bike had been. Her fatter commuter tires worked fine for her; she's comfortable with them and with her brakes, so when we got to a steep hill she'd zoom down and up the hill on the other side, while I'd be cautiously coasting down riding my brakes the whole damn way out of sheer PTSD-influenced flashback-laden don't-want-to-wreck terror. Then I'd zoom past her on the uphill and wait for her at the top, and so on, and so on. Took us 7 hours to do 55 miles, and that's too long; the Lund ride expects people who do the 55-mile distance to complete the route in at most 5.5 hours. I guess I should call them up and have us switched to the 30-mile distance.
But that being said, I'm sure I'll get more comfortable with my skinny tires and come to learn how much I can trust my brakes. I don't doubt that the brakes will work absolutely fine -- it's a brand new $1,250 bike, after all. The problem is with my head: I don't viscerally, instinctively know that if I'm on a hill of a certain steepness and I'm going a certain speed ... how far from the bottom I should consider applying the brakes and how tightly I should squeeze.
Some of you reading this might say "Why brake at all? Enjoy the speed!"
Well, sure, but I don't trust my balance on those skinny tires well enough to avoid absolutely getting myself killed if I get the bike up to 40 miles an hour, hit a little rock or a bump, and go flying. Even a little destabilizing wobble at high speed could be pretty darn fatal if I'm not accustomed enough to the bike to know how to recover from the wobble in time.
I think too much. That's what caused me to have such trouble getting SCUBA certified the first time. But it is what it is -- all I can do is spend enough time on the bike that the ease and familiarity eventually do come with time.
