April Rides

The charity ride that I did yesterday was great. We had a sunny day, a little cool at the start but warming into the mid 70s. I rode 48 miles. I felt kinda tired at the end; I haven't gotten much sleep over the past couple of weeks and that is definitely affecting me. But I rode with some nice people -- some old friends and a couple of new ones -- and enjoyed the post-ride picnic with other friends who had ridden the metric century.

I didn't stop to take pictures but the ride organizers had photographers on route. If they post any photos or videos, I'll share them here.

Looking ahead, I think my Wednesday post-work ride will be rained out this week. But the weather looks good (so far) for next weekend, when our club holds its annual May metric. It's a big multi-class ride with three distances to choose from. I volunteered to help out leading one of the ride classes on the longest route.

Jolt, it sounds like you need some short reach shifters or shims, as well as considering a short and shallow bar. Switching to a short and shallow bar made a world of difference for me. Several companies make them; I have the Specialized one on both of my bikes now. It's reasonably priced for the aluminum one.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

Jolt, it sounds like you need some short reach shifters or shims, as well as considering a short and shallow bar. Switching to a short and shallow bar made a world of difference for me. Several companies make them; I have the Specialized one on both of my bikes now. It's reasonably priced for the aluminum one.

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I will probably stop by the LBS in the next few days to find out if there are shims for these particular levers or if they will need to be swapped out altogether (they are just plain brake levers, the bike has bar-end shifters). How would the short/shallow bars help with the issue of having trouble getting one's hands around the brake levers? It seems like it's more the levers themselves.

So...I just went on my first bike ride since Thanksgiving. (Combination of time, headspace and BF being a stick-in-the-mud.) My right hip and upper thigh are distinctly unhappy, and I've lost the cardiovascular fitness* and calf muscles that I had when I moved out here. :( (And the less said about my core, the better.) Still, I did pretty well for having a headwind on the way out and not much of a tailwind on the way back (WHY?!) and not having done much in the way of exercise for 5 months. 25 miles, give or take a bit, followed by a nice bubble bath and a smoothie.

*Cannot tell if it's an issue of cardiovascular fitness or just very dry, dusty air. Probably both.

Jolt, the short and shallow bars help with reach (shorter) to the levers and shallow relates to the shape of the curve. If the shape is shallower, it's much easier to get your hands around the levers in the drops. Picture the letter C with less space in the middle. One thing to be aware of is that different brands of bars that are called short and shallow have different specs. I researched like crazy until I found the ones with the shortest reach and drop. Here is a link to the ones I have:
http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftb...bend-handlebar
And here's another one:
http://www.qbike.com/product/s/Salsa...andlebar.shtml
Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by Jolt

I had a little more time after work today so rode for a little over 45 minutes...10 minutes in it started to rain (despite the sun being out when I left the house), but it never got that heavy and then it stopped (or I rode out of the shower). After determining on the previous ride that the stock saddle was awful (azfiddle, mine was not white so the one on your bike was likely not the original), I put on the Selle An-Atomica that I had tried on the too-big bike to see if it would be any better on the LHT. It was, but still not as comfortable as it should be. I think I need to play around with adjusting it b/c the edges of the cutout were causing some soft-tissue discomfort (sit bones felt great). Anyone have any tips on how to adjust that saddle to solve that problem? I also am thinking I need to make some adjustments to the brake levers...they are a little big for small hands to grab (really difficult from the drops, and from the hoods I have a feeling it would be hard to make a fast stop if needed). I will have to see if it is possible to put shims in these levers to bring them in a bit or if they will need to be swapped out altogether. Other than these fine-tuning issues, the bike seems to be a good fit and is really nice to ride--I like how stable the handling is (for the first time, I felt safe going fast down this one big hill on the way home) and the fact that it takes wider tires. I am also hoping to load it up for a camping trip or two this summer...I think that would be a lot of fun :cool:.

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We put the Cane Creek SCR-5 Compact brake levers on most of the bikes for those of us with smaller hands. I hear you about the Selle An-Atomica, I never did get comfortable on that cut out thus the switch to Rivet - Deb left Selle An-Atomica and started Rivet Cycleworks after Tom (the founder of Selle An-Atomica passed away) the cut out is so much friendlier on both my Rivet Pearl and my Rivet Independence.

Today was cool, overcast, and windy. It felt more like winter than spring as I had to wear tights, wool socks, a jacket, and even an ear band. But we got out and did a ton of errands on our twin Jamises. DH first took bottles to recycle while I was getting ready to head out. Then he came back, and we headed out together and hit the library, bank, and grocery store. Filled up our Tailriders and backpacks, came home, put groceries away, grabbed a snack, then headed out again. This time we hit Costco, filled up our packs once again. Finished that ride up with over 32 miles total, and I was done.

DH actually headed back out on his roadie to meet a mileage goal for the month, since the next two days look colder and possibly wetter, so we may not want to ride again until Thursday.

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Originally Posted by Sky King

We put the Cane Creek SCR-5 Compact brake levers on most of the bikes for those of us with smaller hands. I hear you about the Selle An-Atomica, I never did get comfortable on that cut out thus the switch to Rivet - Deb left Selle An-Atomica and started Rivet Cycleworks after Tom (the founder of Selle An-Atomica passed away) the cut out is so much friendlier on both my Rivet Pearl and my Rivet Independence.

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I feel very silly...turns out the levers were in "release" mode and that's why the reach was so big. They may actually be OK. I feel especially silly given that I volunteer at a bike co-op where we refurbish old bikes, but none of the brake levers I've encountered there have even had the quick release feature (I guess it just goes to show how old the stuff we work with there tends to be). Still kind of embarrassing to have the LBS guy point something like that out (fortunately he's a nice guy and wasn't snotty about it at all, and he did tell me I did a good job wrapping the bar tape with the bar-end shifter cables). As for the saddle, I will play around with it and give it a chance to break in. The other bit of fine-tuning the guy at the shop suggested was that I might benefit from switching to a little shorter stem (the one on the bike now is 100 mm so there is room to go shorter). I'll probably ride for a while the way it is and then decide if I need to do that.

I will not be doing my evening bike ride tonight, because I will be busy building an ark instead, what with all the rain that has been falling since last night.

I refuse to wear a winter coat right now, but it's cold outside, so I'm wearing my incredibly-thin-yet-warm Pearl Izumi jacket under my new trench coat. The trench coat doesn't have a hood and I haven't yet found a rain hat that I like to wear with it, so I'm wearing the Showers Pass detachable hood that I bought from TE a few years back. So I am getting good use out of my cycling clothing, even though the bike is staying warm and dry in my dining room.

Yes, the weather is frightful, but the end of this is in sight. Yesterday, both DH and I got dressed in bike clothes to commute. He went out to leave and it was misting, raw, and windy. Back in he came. It seemed to clear up before I had to leave and I went outside and checked a few times and looked at the radar. Then I went to do my final prep and I noticed rain on the windows in my bedroom. It seems as if the rain was coming in from the east, off the ocean (which it was), which is so unusual this far west of the coast (25 miles). If it was 75 and misting, I'd ride, but not when it's 40. It's the same today, with heavy deluges scheduled to begin a couple of hours. Should be all done by noon tomorrow.

They got 20 inches of rain in Pensacola.

TWENTY.

Almost two feet.

Mind=blown.

The weather is not too conducive down south, either, so I am staying in.

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Originally Posted by ny biker

They got 20 inches of rain in Pensacola.

TWENTY.

Almost two feet.

Mind=blown.

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20 inches!?!?!!? Mind blowing indeed!

It's been cloudy, chilly, and windy for the past three days, so I didn't get to make my final April goal ride (32.5 miles, which would have taken me to 2000 miles on the year). Oh well, we finally have sunshine today and a high in the 60s, tomorrow 70s, then 80s for several days after that, so I see a lot of bike rides in the next week. Looking forward to it!