Last Sunday, I finally bit the bullet (and, ahem, did my American part to curtail the recession by waiting until pre-season sales had mostly ended and spent my promotion money for the third time, I believe) and bought a new bike. I went to the local independent bike store, Capitol Hill Bikes, got fitted by some laser-measuring machine, and tried out three different frames. Unfortunately, the frame that was on major sale was a bit too big for me, so I bought the second one I tried, a level lower than the massive sale one, but cool nonetheless. A Specialized Ruby something-or-other. It's blue. With lighter blue stripes. And carbon frame. And has two wheels, brakes and shifters, for those looking for technical information.
Anyway, I got new clip-less pedals (Speedplay pedals and new road shoes) for road bikes (very different than my SPD off-road mountain bike pedals/shoes) and - um - oh, yeah, a free water bottle. Cool. I looked for a new helmet, but the store was getting a new shipment in the next week, and the pickings were minimal. Wanted a new computer (that's what they call the simpleton odometer/speedometer/timer clock you attach to the bike), but forgot after sweatingly mentally calculating the amount I was spending already.... Went shopping at Eastern Market (down the street) for dinner ingredients and gifts (a great weekend jaunt for anyone visiting DC) then went back to pick up my bike and ride it home on the new shoes and clip-0ns.....
First thing I noticed on the quick 2-mile ride home was the speed (maybe that's because I wasn't wearing a helmet......) - it was much faster than the mountain bike. I beat my car-ride home, too. Hmmm, a good sign.
After I got home, went to move my bike computer from the mountain bike to the road bike, but got tired of trying to fit the 8-year-old technology on the cool new bike, so gave up. Not to mention the fact that the wire kept getting in the way - as a smaller person, on a smaller bike frame, it gets frustrating wrapping this wire, meant to accommodate the largest bikeframes out there, around the fork of the relatively tiny bike. I decided to bite the bullet again and spend the extra $20 for a wireless computer. Got that and a new helmet Saturday, attached all to the bike and was ready to roll come Sunday. I'll save for a rainy day the two plus hours it took to get through the do-it-your-selfer issues that arose during that time.....
But, as a candidate for Miss Procrastination, wouldn't you know it, it was raining Sunday morning, so I didn't take the bike out, just took the option of sleeping in (after much consternation, of course)............
Well, by the end of the day I couldn't stand it anymore, and took Ruby out for a spin..... just around the block, as dusk was near settling in, but a good ride for the first time out on this new bike/pedal system.... How long you ask? It was a short ride. Not just around the block for those keeping track - more like around the neighborhood - but around the newly-real-estate-agent-adjusted Capitol Hill neighborhood (to raise home prices by simple fact of a name - not the historical boundaries.) A few miles..... Ok, I was out for only 30 minutes and didn't quite make it around the new Washington Nationals Baseball Stadium - next weekend I'll ride around that, maybe.....
Anyway, first thing I noticed was the new helmet I bought - the strap, (there are two to three types of systems out there - the one I bought with some kind of dial system) when I first looked up in the proper bike position, the plastic dial hit me right on this little bump in the back of my skull - causing a sore spot from the start..... It fits fine standing straight up, but with your head cocked forward in a riding position, hits the wrong spot for me..... what a bummer. Not an expensive helmet, but disappointing at any rate. I'll donate this one and get a new one.... It fit like a glove in the store. I have an older helmet I can wear for the time-being, but you should change out helmets every five years or after a crash, and this one was about 7 years old (no major crashes).
The second thing was the new shoes/pedals. I'm used to the mountain bike pedals, and had a hard time getting the cleats clipped on to the pedals on this bike - just a matter of practice, but..... I was stopped, for the first time since I got on the bike and had to put my foot down.... at the top of a hill, with cars next to me and a busy intersection crossing my front..... as I was waiting for the light, I heard one, then two bikes pull up and stop behind me - regular commuter bikers - normal street clothes while I was decked out in cool biking gear (10-years old, but only the most hard-core would know the difference) and this cool road bike and cool shoes/cleating system...... The light turns and I start off on my right foot, (which was still clipped to the pedal) and proceeded to lean right and put my left foot on the pedal - the road shoes are smooth plastic bottoms - very unforgiving of a missed cleating - and the foot slid off and I faltered - the bikes behind me couldn't move due to the traffic in our lane and had to wait for my movement.... I brought the foot back up, barely keeping balance on the bike - wobbling all around - and slipped once again, but had better control of the bike to ride just with the right foot - whew..... and moved off so everyone could go about their merry way...... Ugh, I could feel the scorn of the bikers behind me - "yeah, spend all that money and can't even ride the darn thing - HAH!!! YUPPIES!!!!" - (I know, cause I've been there.....). Once I got the thing moving and foot in the cleat, I took off, anywhere to be away from the scorn..... and went around the block again so I could figure out the darn new system - it is much less forgiving than my other shoes - I pretty much had it under control after the 30-minute ride, though it will take some time to get used to.....
My left hand was also tingling from the new position at the end of the ride - again, a practice / positioning problem. I believe after my Century 8 (0r was it 9? - 1999) years ago, I lost feeling in that hand for a few days, so I just need to take care and pay attention to the way I position it on the new handlebars. Since I'm not used to doing anything correctly, I just need to focus more on the correct location, since road bike handle bars are positioned to prevent such issues.....
The tops of my thighs are a little sore, even from that short ride, and my legs a bit wobbly, but the average speed was quite higher than on my mountain bike and my knee doesn't hurt at this point - we'll see next weekend when I do 20 miles, just to make certain. If I have problems, I'll take it back to the store for re-adjustments.....
So, I'm ready to start preparations for the bike portion of the Tri!!!!!
Note: For anyone interested, there's this weird song I downloaded from I-Tunes a couple of years ago, Ruby Blue by Roisin Murphy. Since my bike's called Ruby, it keeps coming to mind when I think of riding it..... Here's the song, as some fan did to the musings of Jessica Rabbit..... It might become my theme song during training (at least bike training.....).....
1 comment:
How about Ruby Tuesday by the Stones--Yeah, Mom, sure.
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