bicycle –

First training ride on new bike

mev — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:34:10 +0000

The new Trek bike and wheels is a smooth ride. I did a ride back from Salem to try everything out.

I started the ride Saturday night with a train trip from Portland to Salem. From here a mile to the Howard Johnsons and overnight. Time for sunrise was 6:45am but I was on the road before then. Not that I actually saw much of the sun on this ride. Initially it was cloudy and misty, just enough to collect on my glasses to make it hard to see – but not enough to really worry about getting cold or wet.

I followed 99E from Salem and the first 30 miles or so is pretty flat. The bike rode well. I experimented with putting on/off the suspension lock. On the flat stretches didn’t make much difference since my weight keeps the suspension mostly in one spot anyways. The hand positions are comfortable. I’m still a bit cautious on downhills and disc brakes seem to be better stopping power than cantilever.

At 18 miles I made a short stop for breakfast. After this another 9 miles to Canby and there I found the back roads to the ferry. I was the only vehicle on the ferry and the ride was free. Can’t make much money with that business model. There was another cyclist on the other side to take back. After this more hills to climb: mountain road and then via Lake Oswego.

Overall a good ride. Specifics can be seen on Garmin web site: http://connect.garmin.com/player/154938240

[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

My bicycle

mev — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:43:30 +0000

I now almost have a bicycle set up for TDA 2013. Photo below is my new bike atop Mount Tabor in Portland. It is a Trek 4500 which comes with a locking front suspension fork and a large 24 inch frame. I replaced the saddle with a Brooks and added bar end extenders to give me additional hand positions. Not yet on the bike, but on order are a new stronger set of wheels with 40 spokes in back and 36 spokes in front. I also put on a basic rack on back.

The bike rides well and I’m getting some training runs on it around Portland. General idea is to get some miles on it this year and make sure all will be ok. I expect that to be the situation, but just in case, I’ve also got two backup candidates

This post is also an experiment to see how I can add photos both to the photo gallery and reference them in posts such as this one.

[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

Picking a bicycle

mev — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:50:58 +0000

I’ve been thinking more about what bicycle to take for TDA 2013. The requirements are a cycle that is durable enough for 7500 miles and that will do well for extended off-road riding on gravel and rough roads. The bike also needs to ride well enough that 160km days as necessary can be ridden.

My default choice has been to use my Trek 520 cycle. A basic durable ride that I’ve traveled across Ukraine and Russia with. The touring model also is reasonable balance against friction and I’ve done a number of 100 mile rides with. My hesitancy lately is thinking if the roads might be more rough in Africa and also if the rims will last the full distance.

Hence, my backup alternative is to think of a mountain bike. I am back in India this week riding my Trek 4500 mountain bike. The mountain bike is reasonable choice for rougher roads I find here – though takes some more effort to push than my touring bike. So I think it would win on durability but make my cycling harder.

I might see about bringing back my Trek 4500 from India some time this year or purchasing another as possibility to at least do additional training on. A little slower for training is ok, though might help build up some muscles and other things. Will need to see if I can ride fast enough on it or whether to consider Trek 520 instead.

I also made a Bike Forums/Cyclocross posting asking for feedback on Cyclocross bikes. Some useful perspectives there, though makes me think more of using my existing bikes.