After the Hybrid ...

[mimitabby]

Hi, Mimitabby.

I could only see a foot or two in front of the bike because I've gotten heavy and stiff, and my neck and shoulders have gotten weak -- it was too tiring to pick my head up for the whole ride, and if I tried to pick it up *and* look to the side, I'd turn my whole body and wouldn't steer straight. My drop bars are about an inch or two below the seat. Plus my butt hurt for 3/4 of the 10 mile ride, so I was constantly thinking about that and how to keep weight on my hands without my wrists getting tired and my hands getting numb.


Rebeccah

P.S. I took my longest ride in 6 years on it Saturday - 14 1/2 miles, with no butt pain on the B.67S saddle. Yay! Tired quads, gluts, and to a lesser degree shoulders, yes. But no sore butt.

Rebeccah,
sounds like you are making great progress. But please don't ride when you
are too tired to hold your head up! that sounds really scary!
glad your seat issues are taken care of. Any way you can raise those handlebars?
I guess that's a really personal thing. I'm 54 and a little stiffer and There's no way I could have the handlebars that low (the tops of them i mean)

m

[mimitabby]

Well that's just me having warring desires. Because I'd love to ride faster in general -- it's just when it's going downhill that it freaks me out!

On the other hand, in our neighborhood every "downhill" is usually leading to a stop sign at the bottom or a T-intersection where you have to turn right or left, so I'm not going downhill and going, "Weeee!" I'm going dowhill thinking, "Oh god can I stop if I'm going this fast?!?"

I did find one hill that doesn't do that and am working on going faster on it.

Pooks, maybe you should be practicing fast stops?
push your backside as far back as you can, and stop that way.
this helps you keep your weight behind the bike which makes a fast stop
safer. If you feel better about stops, maybe you will feel better about going fast. There's no way i can go fast down a hill if there is a stop sign 100 feet away.

[7rider]

RE: bike snobs.
Oooo, they just raise my hackles.
I'm one of those folks with a $4,000 road bike. I recently did a metric century with a girlfriend of mine who rode her $400 flat bar road bike. Yeah, she had trouble keeping up with me on the hills - she was pushing 26 pounds of bike up the hill versus my 18. But, lordy, did we have fun. It was a great event ... I just didn't want to do that long of a ride on my flat bar bike because of pedal/cleat issues (only AFTER the ride, did it occur to me that I could have swapped pedals between my two bikes!). Did I care what she rode, or that - gasp! - we should be seen together with such different bikes??? Heck no!
I also wear a CamelBak when doing long rides on my expensive road bike (shocking to those roadie snobs, I know!)
To Heck with bike snobs.
What's important is not WHAT you ride. What's important is that you enjoy riding what you ride.
If you ride a mountain bike and want to get something different and are looking at a hybrid, don't feel like you are looking in the wrong place. There is nothing wrong with a hybrid. They are great bikes. They will continue to be great bikes. For many they are a start, for others they are a destination.
Just ride and enjoy it!

[Geonz]

Yesterday my friedn and I were the last ones in on a long ride... which ended in a "wonderful" downhill. We'd gotten lost, and he had gotten lost twice - so he'd done a good 15 extra miles.
This route had some downhills that were not just steep, but horribly bumpy... I mean stuff-could-fly-off-your-bike-that-had-been-attached bumpy, and definitely loosen-your-kidneys-while-you're-at-it bumpy. So *everybody* took those slowly... and a couple people including my buddy were feeling a bit beaten about the head and shoulders (or back and backside, as the case may be - his problem was shoulders).
We were so late that two friends got in their car to come after us, and they went by and we said "whew!" and agreed wholeheartedly that that "wonderful" downhill just wasn't that much fun anyway (he might have enjoyed it earlier... I just don't get thrills from hills - they're simply a challenge to my fears, which is noble and I don't mind doing it... but I don't do it for fun... any more than say jumping off the 10 meter diving board).
Alas, though... our extended hitchhiking thumbs were interpreted by the driver as "thumbs up!" - and he assumed that of course we wanted the joy of that hill! (Our other friend tried unsuccessfully to convince him that we were trying to thumb a ride... andt his was one case where my "default grimace grin" looked too much like a smile...)
But for me, at least, the road bike posture kicks in twice as many "CAN WE SLOW DOWN NOW???" reflexes as the hybrid. I like being able to lean in and pedal hard **when I want to** ... and to sit back like a little old lady and push the bike forward when I'm more in my "need time to react to everything, thank you" mode.
ON the other hand... I sometimes muse that like other things, yoga and what have you, it might simply take a little time to learn to be comfortable in the more "always proactive" position.

And Regina... was your friend... from *lower* MoCo? P.G.? [ fondly remembering childhood and crossing class & culture lines...]

[7rider]

And Regina... was your friend... from *lower* MoCo? P.G.? [ fondly remembering childhood and crossing class & culture lines...]

Nope. She's a co-worker - also here in "MoCo". She just has priorities other than fancy bicycles (go figure!).

[Thistle]

Last fri i got my beautiful new bike. I got a Giant CRX4.... a flat bar road bike. I was sooooo nervous about the "skinny" tyres after my hybrid spent the whole day saying to DH "maybe i should ring and get them to put wider tyres on". He just patiently told me i'd be fine. eep eep... i was so scared.

Well i got her late fri arvo...after a hectic week with midterm reviews and coming down with the flu. Even though i was sick Sat i insisted on going for a ride with friends DH was kinda resigned... but i said "wouldnt you want to ride her".

and omg... she is beautiful. She rolls beautifully and i was fine on skinny tyres. I am so in love with this bike! Then i got even sicker after the ride and havent been able to ride since. Have been off with the flu and doing a course which also involved nightly homework, so she's been waiting patiently in the garage (i would prefer she was in the living room but you cant have everything).

Cant wait to go riding again tomorrow now that i'm no longer dying with this dreaded bug. Just wanted to share a piccie of her (with me) cos i know all you girls totally understand my obsession Isnt she beauuuuuuuutiful?

[Geonz]

Ain't she beautiful!!! Nice bike, too!

[pooks]

Gorgeous! And I'll be she's fast!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm one of those folks with a $4,000 road bike. I recently did a metric century with a girlfriend of mine who rode her $400 flat bar road bike. Yeah, she had trouble keeping up with me on the hills - she was pushing 26 pounds of bike up the hill versus my 18. But, lordy, did we have fun.

Sometimes the difference in bike FRAME weight is partially negated if the riders and added gear are of different weight. It's really the TOTAL of everything together that should be compared. My steel road bike weighs 27 pounds when weighed "fully loaded" with all my gear- saddle bag and tools and extra tube, water bottles, heavier 700x37c tires for gravel road riding, cable&lock, frame-attached tire pump, etc. Yes, I'd like to lessen that total a bit- and I plan to lose 5-8 more pounds off my body to meet that goal.

[Thistle]

Gorgeous! And I'll be she's fast!

yep, she easier up the hills, that's for sure. and riding with friends who ride the same as my old hybrid, i had to stop pedalling on the flat to avoid getting ahead of them so i think she might take a couple of minutes off my ride to uni .... not that i bought her for that reason...it was just luuuuuvvvvvvvvvvv

[Bikingmomof3]

You look so happy. The bike is gorgeous. Enjoy riding. :-)

[Trekhawk]

Last fri i got my beautiful new bike. I got a Giant CRX4.... a flat bar road bike. I was sooooo nervous about the "skinny" tyres after my hybrid spent the whole day saying to DH "maybe i should ring and get them to put wider tyres on". He just patiently told me i'd be fine. eep eep... i was so scared.

Theav - sweeeeeet bike.

Happy riding.

[Rebeccah]

Rebeccah,
sounds like you are making great progress. But please don't ride when you
are too tired to hold your head up! that sounds really scary!
glad your seat issues are taken care of. Any way you can raise those handlebars?
I guess that's a really personal thing. I'm 54 and a little stiffer and There's no way I could have the handlebars that low (the tops of them i mean)

m

Hi, Mimitabby -
I'm sure I can raise the handlebars some, but I can already feel changes to my preferred riding position on the hybrid just with the small amount of riding I've done so far. So, I'm going to hold off for now. I need to get back on the road bike again with my latest changes to the seat position and see how that feels. I think a big part of the problem was that was my first ride in 6 years and my butt hurt so much after just a couple of miles that that was pretty much all I could think of.

As for scarey, it really wasn't. I *could* pick up my head, I just noticed towards the end of the ride that I *wasn't* doing so. Now, trying to ride in my old neighborhood without really being able to easily look around, *that* was scarey (and is why I hadn't ridden in 6 years). Steep hills, heavy city traffic, and angle parking with lots of trunover.

Rebeccah