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Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
May. 22nd, 2010 10:19 pmI went to visit ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
armchairanalyst on Thursday evening, partly to fix his PC but also to give him one of my bicycles in exchange for borrowing his & his brother's.
The bike I've given David was my latest Freecycle score - a tall hybrid from an Italian manufacturer I've not heard of. There was nothing much wrong with it - new brake blocks, fix a punctured rear innertube, swap front and rear tyres to redistribute the wear a bit, lube the chain and gears, bodge a cracked front mudguard back together & it was good to go.
I've had a covetous eye on David's for a while. His brother bought it to do triathlons on, but it's been gathering dust in David's flat for a while now. He hasn't ridden a bike since school, so it was clipped into a turbotrainer and used as an exercise bike. He wants to start riding to work and mentioned taking the triathlon bike and putting flat handlebars and plain pedals on it. I though this sounded like heretical butchery, so I've given him my hybrid. It's a bit too sit-up-and-beg sprung-for-comfort stately-progress-rather-than-speed for me, but it's ideal for what he wants.
So he had a pootle round Burgess Park on it, doing just fine, and I rode the tri bike home, perilously, with trainers on clipless pedals and a heavy pannier slung over my shoulder. And I got lost. It wasn't fun.
But today, after excavations in the garage, I've found my bike toolkit, removed its SPD-SR pedals, taken the SPD pedals off my recumbent - which is up for sale, by the way - and fitted them to the new one. I also managed to squeeze another 20psi or so into its skinny slick tyres, raised the saddle to its full perilous height and took it for a quick spin of a few miles down to Croydon and back.
Oh my word, it's quick!
It's a Bianchi Gold Race 600, probably about 6 years old, but immaculate. (There are some blurry pics of an identical bike here.) It's red, which is good, as red ones go faster, as ani fule kno.
This is the first proper no-holds-barred racer I've ridden as an adult. Skinny wheels and tyres, fat aluminium tubes, no guard or rack, and drops with integrated "ergo shifters" on them. I've never tried to use these before.
It's terrifying but exhilarating. It weighs ridiculously little - I am sure I own heavier novels. The saddle is almost brutally hard, the brakes amazingly grippy, the ride as harsh as I've ever felt - but it accelerates like nothing I've ever ridden before. Given that I weight 106kg, I didn't think that saving a few kilos on the bike would make much difference.
I was wrong. It really does.
The sensation of speed is doubtless enhanced by the face that I'm face-down toward the road when down on the drops, and as it has no accessible brakes if you grasp the flat part of the lever, you have to be down on the drops most of the time. I can hardly crane my head far enough back to see. It really makes me feel very fat and old, but also, very fast when I'm pedalling flat out in top, which is a hell of a sensation.
I don't plan to ever use this for transport - it's too nice a machine and I'd be mortified if it were stolen. Not to mention it's ruinously uncomfortable and deeply impractical. I've bought it a pair of SPD road pedals of its very own off eBay, and I hope to do regular training runs around Richmond Park over the next few weeks. Perhaps if I can work off some of my gut, it'll be easier to breathe when in a racing crouch.
I am filled with more respect for ever for the Tour de France riders and other pro road racers who do hundreds of miles on such machines. It's bloody uncomfortable to ride and one can hardly breathe or see where one's going, but I must admit, it does feel mighty quick. I think I'm going to enjoy riding it, but if anything, I think the experience will make me even more fond of recumbents.
armchairanalyst on Thursday evening, partly to fix his PC but also to give him one of my bicycles in exchange for borrowing his & his brother's.The bike I've given David was my latest Freecycle score - a tall hybrid from an Italian manufacturer I've not heard of. There was nothing much wrong with it - new brake blocks, fix a punctured rear innertube, swap front and rear tyres to redistribute the wear a bit, lube the chain and gears, bodge a cracked front mudguard back together & it was good to go.
I've had a covetous eye on David's for a while. His brother bought it to do triathlons on, but it's been gathering dust in David's flat for a while now. He hasn't ridden a bike since school, so it was clipped into a turbotrainer and used as an exercise bike. He wants to start riding to work and mentioned taking the triathlon bike and putting flat handlebars and plain pedals on it. I though this sounded like heretical butchery, so I've given him my hybrid. It's a bit too sit-up-and-beg sprung-for-comfort stately-progress-rather-than-speed for me, but it's ideal for what he wants.
So he had a pootle round Burgess Park on it, doing just fine, and I rode the tri bike home, perilously, with trainers on clipless pedals and a heavy pannier slung over my shoulder. And I got lost. It wasn't fun.
But today, after excavations in the garage, I've found my bike toolkit, removed its SPD-SR pedals, taken the SPD pedals off my recumbent - which is up for sale, by the way - and fitted them to the new one. I also managed to squeeze another 20psi or so into its skinny slick tyres, raised the saddle to its full perilous height and took it for a quick spin of a few miles down to Croydon and back.
Oh my word, it's quick!
It's a Bianchi Gold Race 600, probably about 6 years old, but immaculate. (There are some blurry pics of an identical bike here.) It's red, which is good, as red ones go faster, as ani fule kno.
This is the first proper no-holds-barred racer I've ridden as an adult. Skinny wheels and tyres, fat aluminium tubes, no guard or rack, and drops with integrated "ergo shifters" on them. I've never tried to use these before.
It's terrifying but exhilarating. It weighs ridiculously little - I am sure I own heavier novels. The saddle is almost brutally hard, the brakes amazingly grippy, the ride as harsh as I've ever felt - but it accelerates like nothing I've ever ridden before. Given that I weight 106kg, I didn't think that saving a few kilos on the bike would make much difference.
I was wrong. It really does.
The sensation of speed is doubtless enhanced by the face that I'm face-down toward the road when down on the drops, and as it has no accessible brakes if you grasp the flat part of the lever, you have to be down on the drops most of the time. I can hardly crane my head far enough back to see. It really makes me feel very fat and old, but also, very fast when I'm pedalling flat out in top, which is a hell of a sensation.
I don't plan to ever use this for transport - it's too nice a machine and I'd be mortified if it were stolen. Not to mention it's ruinously uncomfortable and deeply impractical. I've bought it a pair of SPD road pedals of its very own off eBay, and I hope to do regular training runs around Richmond Park over the next few weeks. Perhaps if I can work off some of my gut, it'll be easier to breathe when in a racing crouch.
I am filled with more respect for ever for the Tour de France riders and other pro road racers who do hundreds of miles on such machines. It's bloody uncomfortable to ride and one can hardly breathe or see where one's going, but I must admit, it does feel mighty quick. I think I'm going to enjoy riding it, but if anything, I think the experience will make me even more fond of recumbents.
