Riding Impressions of my New Two-Wheeled Conveyance

Picking up from last time, I've actually used my new bicycle.  One week after purchase, the new bike has about 50 miles on the odometer (it doesn't actually have an odometer, but that would be pretty cool).  I gone on 3 rides on the Metro Parkway bike path (boring, but convenient), and today I took it up to Stony Creek and did some riding there.  This is what I've done so far:

• Sunday, August 14: 12.5 miles in a spotty rain to Metro Beach and back.
• Monday, August 15: 8 miles to freedom hill and back.
• Thursday, August 18: 12.5 miles to Metro Beach and back.
• Today: 15.5 miles around Stony Creek.

I'm getting some use out of the bike, and, for the most part, I like it.  Here are my observations after 50 miles.

• Road Bikes are Weird.  I expected this to be the case after riding a mountain bike for 15 years, but I'm a bit surprised as to how unnatural the riding position feels.  I'm leaning so far forward that I can't look behind myself without swerving wildly, and sometimes it feels like I'll knee myself in the stomach.  It's also a lot tougher on my hands because the pressure is concentrated between my thumb and index finger instead of over the whole hand.  I could move my hands to other places, but that puts the shifters and brakes out of reach.
• This Bike is Light.  A very, very nice characteristic.  I like being able to put the bike in my car on my own, and gravity is less of a problem when going uphill.
• I Feel Like the Bike is Fragile.  This may be a mental thing, but since the bike is so light and the tires so thin, I feel like the bike will shatter every time I hit a bump.  Should I really be worrying this much about the bike?
• Shifters are Still Dumb.  This is the one thing I hate about the bike.  It's impossible to ride without either pausing to think of what flappy paddle to hit, or hitting the wrong one and muttering an unkind word under your breath.
• My Feet Hurt.  On the first ride, I developed a terrible cramp in the bottom of my right foot.  Bad enough that I had to stop for a minute and make awkward facial expressions.  I blame it on the pedal cages since they kept my foot in one place and prevented me from moving my foot around to distribute the pressure at will.  I had the bike shop take the cages off on Thursday, and there were no foot problems today, so I'll consider this a problem solved.
• But, the pedals have developed another problem.  After taking the cages off, I realized that the pedals are one-sided!  So even though I've got more freedom of movement, I have to make sure the pedal is flipped to the correct side.  This may be one of the first things I replace, and get some good, 2-sided pedals (maybe I could swap the pedals with Roy's?).
• Other Cyclists Make Me Ashamed to Be Riding a Bicycle.  I really don't like cyclists.  I'm fine with your average cyclist, but the "serious" ones with the expensive bikes are jerks.  They never return a "hello" or a wave, and they'll fly right by you with very little clearance at high speeds and never, ever announce that they are passing.  It's almost like there's some unwritten code that they have to try and run every other person off the road.  Count me out of that club.

As I put more miles on the bike, I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on it, but I'll reiterate that I like the bike, but it's pretty awkward right now.

A New Family Member

I've ranted about bicycles.  I've ranted about shifters.  I've professed my attachment to my beloved bicycle, Roy.  But I'm not completely detached from reality, either.  Last week I got Roy back from the bicycle shop with a brand new wheel and we went for a ride.  I was glad they called me when they did because if Roy had been ready a day later, I would have had to bring him home in Luigi:

Katie and I popping our heads out of Luigi.

Luigi is a Fiat 500C.  The 'C' stands for "Cabrio", which is Italian for "Bike no fit here".

An aside: In a previous post, I mentioned that I was a fan of Fraser Bicycle.  After going back for service, I'm less than thrilled with them.  I asked a mechanic and a saleswoman some questions and was treated like I was an idiot.  Admittedly, my questions were very noob-ish, but you would think that they would treat the guy with a 15 year old mountain bike like a king because he's most likely to buy a new bicycle.  Anyway, Fraser Bicycle is a good shop if you're a bicycle expert, but if you're an average person, steer clear.


The first ride with Roy was bittersweet.  The good was that it felt wonderful to ride my trusty bicycle after a few months' hiatus.  The bad was that his new wheel exacerbated all of his other problems (including a nasty clunking noise in the bottom bracket).  When I got home, I summed up the costs of all the parts and labor to get Roy into a trustworthy condition, and that total was north of $400.  For a bike worth about $40.

I needed to get out of the house on Sunday, so I searched for the nearest open bike store and found in Shelby Township.  Upon entering, the place was a madhouse, and after discovering why, I reminded myself of one of the fundamental laws of the universe:

There's no resisting a good deal.


Yup, there was a sale, and I caved.

Meet my new bicycle.  Its given name is Trek 1.5C.  I'm not sure how to make a nickname from that; Rek? 0.5?  Cee apostrophe D?  But I'll work on that one later.

The super sale meant 20% off bicycles and accessories, so the final total for the bicycle, a new pump, a water bottle cage (why don't bikes come with water bottle cages anymore????), and the state of Michigan's share came in at less than the original list price for the bicycle.  Furthermore, I got all of it for much less than the Specialized I was considering at Fraser Bicycle (which was a lower level bicycle than the Trek).  So, I got a great deal on a seemingly good bicycle.  Here are the details of what I got:

• Trek 1.5C: The 'C' means 'Cabrio' like in the Fiat.
• It has the "better" gearing system.  I didn't quite understand this until the salesman started talking about material properties.  Shimano Whatever makes no sense to me, but bending moments and tensile strength do.
• It has the awful shifters.  Yes, they suck.
• It has clipless pedals.  I can't figure out how to remove the plastic cages, so when I take the bike in on Thursday I'll have them take them off.
• It's made of aluminum with a carbon fiber fork and seat post.  This means that this bicycle weighs about a tenth of what portly Roy weighs.
• It has thick handlebars, which prevents me from attaching my headlight.
• It has indicators on the gear shifters.  From what I can gather, the orange pointers move in the opposite direction that the chain moves, further complicating the shifting.
• It has a fancy new type of inflation valve.  It's so fancy that it requires 15 minutes, Google, and Wikihow to inflate the tires.

Those are the important specs.  I'll post some riding impressions in another post, but until then I'm getting used to riding a very, very different bike.  I'm hoping to take it up to Stony Creek on Saturday and ride someplace more interesting than Clinton Township.

A Cycling Problem

Yes, it's been a while.  New job.  New state.  New everything.  I'll be easing back into blogging.

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A few days before I left Minnesota, a dear member of my family was severely injured.  You may remember Roy from a previous race report.  He was the undisputed star of the race.  But sadly, my trusty bicycle quickly became unrideable.

Diagnosis: broken rear axle and broken spoke.  Remedy: new wheel.

Roy has served me well over the years, but the cost of fixing him is likely greater than his value.  So he has sat in my folks' garage since I moved to Michigan while I've tried to figure out what to do.

Since Roy can't read, I'll admit this here: I'd like a new bicycle.  Even though I rode Roy every day to my first job.  Even though he loved his first car ride when I took him to Valpo.  And even though the best times of his life were spent riding up and down the Mississippi River in St. Paul, it's time for me to move on.  But I can't.

I'm hesitating not because of some unreasonable emotional attachment to a 14 year old bicycle, but rather because there's nothing out there I'd actually like to buy.  Consider my needs and wants for a new bicycle.

• It should be meant for on-road use.  The only time I go off-road is when I have an uncontrollable veer.
• It should be light.  (Roy's a bit overweight.)
• It should have low rolling resistance tires.  (Roy has those, but that's only because his tires are worn down to the flat.)
• It's gearing should be capable of handling rolling hills.

So I went shopping.  I looked at a few bikes in Minnesota before I left, and recently I went to a great local bike shop in Michigan (Fraser Bicycle if you're curious).  I looked at some road bikes and discovered that while they are meant for on-road use, light, have smooth tires, and can handle moderate hills, they're also practically unrideable because it seems as though the gear shifters were designed by some engineering school dropout who had the sway to infect every single road bike.  Let me explain by comparing 3 systems.

Roy's Grip Shift System

• On the left handlebar is a rotating collar for the front gears.  Twist it to the gear you want.
• On the right handlebar is a rotating collar for the back gears.  Twist it to the gear you want.

Whack-job Shifting System #1 (Sram)

• Behind the left brake lever (?!) is a flappy paddle for the front gears.  To shift to an easier gear, push the paddle halfway, being careful not to push it more than halfway since you'll go to a harder gear.  To shift to a harder gear, push the paddle all the way, and nothing will happen.  Push it all the way again, then it will shift.
• Behind the right brake lever is a flappy paddle for the rear gears.  To shift to an easier gear push the paddle all the way, being careful not to push it halfway since you'll go to a harder gear.  To shift to a harder gear, push the paddle halfway, but not all the way, then it will shift.
• The ways you push the paddles may be different because there's no intuitive way to remember how to shift.  So you may need to reverse my directions all the way, being careful not to reverse them halfway or you'll end up in Paducah.

Whack-job Shifting System #2 (Shimano)

• Push the left brake lever inward to go to an easier gear (or harder, I can't quite remember).  Push a flimsy switch on top of the brake lever to go to a harder gear.
• The right side behaves exactly the same.
• Just kidding.
• It's exactly the opposite, which is why it's so stupid.
• Here's how you shift on the right side: push the brake lever to go to a harder gear.  Push the flimsy switch to go to an easier gear.
• Remember, nothing will happen on the first press of either the brake lever or the flimsy switch.  You must push them at least twice to make anything happen.

One would think that bike would have advanced since 1998.  But they've regressed.  It's like the 1885 Benz Patent Motorwagen which required the operator to have 3 arms and 1 leg.  We've advanced past that age with cars, but not bicycles.

Imagine this situation...  You are riding on a nice parkway.  You reach top gear and the light in front of you turns red.  With a grip shift, you twist the shifter to gear 1, then apply the brakes for a calm and controlled stop.  With the flappy paddles, you first have to hit the right paddle 14 times (assuming you have 7 gears in the back), then apply the brakes hard because you've spend the past 3 minutes hitting a stupid paddle shifter.

After this adventure, I've made my decision.  I'm going to drop Roy off at the bike shop tomorrow and have them put on a new wheel that is likely twice the value of the entire bike.  Then I'll probably have to put all new shifting and brake cables on him.  When done, I'll have put 3 times the value of the bike into the bike just so he's functional again.  All this because bicycle companies can't design a functional shifter.

Last Saturday's Course Preview At Cleary Lake

With the triathlon now just over a month away, it's getting to be that time where things get serious.  Katie and I had planned on going down to the course last Saturday to check out the park and the lake.  Our excursion almost didn't happen because of Katie's bike crash encounter with a 12 foot grizzly bear.  But, by Saturday, she was feeling well enough to get back on the bike, but decided she would avoid the water.  Mike, a friend of Katie's who is also doing the triathlon, and his wife Katie (yes, this will be confusing), also came.

The Course

The bike course started in Cleary Lake Park.  We all saddled up and headed out on the 13.5 mile journey.  This was a pretty easy trek for the other 3, but it was more of a challenge to me because (a) I just don't have the cycling fitness that they do, and (b) I've got a mountain bike whereas they all had nice road bikes.

The course itself traveled through rural farmland, and had some gentle rolling hills to start.  And, by gentle rolling hills, I mean Mount Everest.  Not really, but they seemed that way to pokey old me.  The difficulty I ran into was that I needed to conserve as much momentum as possible (engineers: I know momentum is always conserved—just go with it).  I wanted to keep my speed up on the downhills so I didn't die on the next uphill.  However, the others could take it nice and casual on the downhills.  Therefore, I looked like the jerk who passes people just to get passed a few seconds later.

I didn't die, but there were some treacherous rumble strips to look out for.  They're actually quite jarring on the bike, but I guess I have an advantage with the suspension on my trusty old mountain bike.  Sorry roadies…

We got back, and Katie did pretty well.  Her shoulder was sore, but it's feeling better now.  The three of us that weren't in a bike crash attacked by Sasquatch decided to swim.  Up to this point, my recent open water swimming experience has been limited to Square Lake—a very, very clear and clean lake.  Cleary Lake is not clear at all.  Pretend you're looking through the glass that beer bottle are made of—yeah, the water was like that.  And, even though the lake is small and shallow, the lake was pretty cold.

We were discussing the ethics of ignoring the beach rules

I think Katie's goal in life is to take awkward pictures of me

You can see the blue "beach curtain" in this photo

We ended up doing very little swimming.  The weeds and the beach curtain made it pretty much impossible for us to get beyond the swim area, so we stayed within the small swim area.  They'll be opening the curtain for the triathlon, but it would have been nice to swim out into the lake to work on sighting.  I also realized that I looked kinda dorky wearing my wetsuit in the swim area.  The goal was to go beyond the swim area, but by the time we realized we couldn't, I already had it most of the way on.  So, I looked a little silly, but I was warm and buoyant.  (You don't hear people calling themselves "warm and buoyant" everyday, do you?)

After about 100 meters of swimming, we called it a day.  Katie then got distracted by a puppy.  It was morning, evening, 4 days later… Katie left the puppy alone.  We're hoping to come back and ride the course one more time, and maybe swim again so Katie can get used to the water.  We'll probably need to enter at the boat ramp, though, to avoid the curtain.

Katie is still on the mend, but she's pretty sure she'll be doing the Croixathlon this weekend.  Look for more coverage on that later.