We all had that first bike. One that was simple and when we rode it was all about the ride. We did not know about cadence, what speed is actually fast, heart rate, or even watts. Till a couple years ago watts were only in a light bulb for me. Since we have become enlightened as to how little we know about bikes, training, getting a coach, racing harder, train more, every ride is then spent watching cadence, hr, wattage. Speed means nothing and distance is not important, you finish the ride and it was not natural, just a workout. Don't get me wrong, I love working out, I race and a coach is the way to go if you want to progress and have great races. But sometimes we need to remember why we started riding and find that original joy of riding our bike...that love affair for the road and the wind with just you and your legs turning over the pedals...
I love my
Geneo, its an amazing machine and at times I think it has a motor on it. But its work...its my tool for training and racing. Which is fun for me, but sometimes you just need to be simple again.
So what do you do when you need a bit of an escape from something that you started doing to be your escape??? You go back to the simple part of riding a bike...like the first rides on your first bike. Of course I at this point I don't really want to ride what my first bike was so I had to select a new rig. I needed something that I can ride anywhere, anytime, over anything on any road with just airing up the tires. I chose the
Praemio. A road bike made of 3.2 double butted titanium. I built it up this past week using
Shimano DuraAce 7800 group,
SABB ceramic
bb, Tune
seat post,
Deda bars and stem, Clark braided cables, and absolutely NO COMPUTER of any kind. Now the fun part, riding it...
My new rig did not
disappoint. I met up with some teammates at 6am Saturday morning and by 8am I was out with the West Oaks ride. First impression, it was ultra smooth, better power transfer than I thought it would have, and of course fun! Maybe a couple things to tweak position wise but what a ride! So here I am assessing the situation, looking at the mix of guys who showed up for the ride and feeling the wind. This is going to be a
suffer fest. Maybe I should have stayed on the
Geneo with has a dialed in position and weighs less and is a rocket. But I am on the fun bike and might as well have fun. After
getting tons of looks and compliments it was on. To ensure the pain is going to be inflicted I found probably the strongest guy out there and
immediately began talking trash to him about how bad I was gonna drop him. He laughed and shortly after he was at the front
stringing it out. This was one of the 4 guys in the 123 race the weekend before in the front break...a power house. The bike was amazing and when I finally got
separated from the front group (a couple groups behind) a couple miles from the turn around. I don't really thing it was the bike that made me get dropped, just being out gunned and caught out in a crosswind. So of course when I got the
Fulsher gas station I found my friend who was killing everyone and gave him some lame excuse why I rolled in a little after his group did and how he was lucky I fell back to ride in with some teammates of mine.
haha We rode back and again, it was a hammer fest, tailwind doesn't mean its easy. Tailwind with this group means you spin out your 53x11 trying to hang on and you wish you had a 54 or a 55. Or maybe you think
Shimano needs to make a 10 cog for the rear. Either way you hope it stops soon. Finally we hit
Briar Forest to head into Memorial Park which begins the slightly slower portion of the ride where we all talk about how little we all have been riding and who had been sick this week or who is rolling with a brake rubbing and all that. Kinda like when women go out and they talk about how fat they are so
their friends can tell them they are crazy and they look great. Except guys don't dish compliments that easily and mostly we just mention how some one looked bad out there today or ask if their tire was low or were they stuck in
their small ring. You know, nice encouraging things like that.
I rolled into the park with Trent and Andrew, the two guys who I started with at 6am. It was now 11:40 and we clocked 100.6 miles. (I asked Trent who had a computer) I had to rush over to the shop for a 12pm appointment. While I ate my
McDonalds and chocolate shake as I rushed over to the shop, I thought of the ride and while I suffered most of the time, I had a great ride and I felt great! The ti bike was amazing, not having a computer was relaxing, and knowing I burned enough calories to suck down that shake was worth all the pain my lungs and legs were in. I love to ride and I love riding this bike.
Sunday I was out on it again. With a couple other friends for an easy 40miles. I loved it as much the second time as the first, maybe more. Easy miles in the horrible wind still took over 2hours but still it was fun, social,and with a great group of friends. Again, there is something great about being on a simple machine...
Ok, my Geneo gave me the stink eye when I walked in this morning so I might have to ride that out today to keep it happy.
Above
With the help of my friend Chris Lockwood putting out emails and a great map. Shama Cycles had its first real organized ride from the shop. Open to all...even triathletes and their tri bikes. We did the Lake Houston route and rolled out about 40 strong at 7am. More joined us along the way creeping our number to 50. The group stayed together pretty well and the pace was rather quick for our normal group ride. In all a great ride...that was followed up by Le Tour playing on the TV and food and drinks out for some post ride recovery. A very fun day and I can't wait to do it again. Look for weekly postings on rides to come soon.
