Newbie weekly achievement thread

[Roadtrip]

Was a busy week at work, so little riding for me...

Attempted to get out on the bike Wednedsay, but had a flat right in the driveway and didn't have a spare tube, plus light was seriously fading-- Winter SUCKS. Drove to the LBS to pick up extra tubes and got the flat fixed so we could ride later in the week.

Friday we went out on the new bike and I only made it a half mile before I had to stop as the pain in my wrists was unbearable and the seat was too high. I lowered the seat and continued on, but pain was still an 8/10, so cut the ride short. I took my gloves off and heal of my palms were red and had the cross-hatch pattern from my grips embedded into them. OUCH.

Still had time to drive by LBS and a they suggested a tweak to the angle of the grips and break levers. It was a SLIGHT tweak and was eager to try it out (OK-OK, I was dubious such a little change would help) so with a little light from the parking lot I set off... Wow. This feels pretty good.. zoom.. zoom.. zoom.. Ziiipppp by DH standing by the car. I finally pull up next to the with a silly grin on my face and he's asks.. enjoying yourself??

Saturday we go off to the park to give the new bike a better test run. We unload and I notice it's a tad windy. We set off and I'm feeling pretty good.. I don't have a computer on the bike yet so I didn't know how fast I was going, but it felt good and I knew I had a LOT of gears left and I slowed down and asked DH how fast we were going. 12mph. I said OK and hit the gas, right up until I hit the wind, all 18mph of it RIGHT into my face which was like climbing a hill. I pulled over with DH next to me and he said I've never had to go in that high a gear to keep up and said we were doing 17-18mph and he was almost out of gears on his 21 speed trying to keep up. I informed him I still hadn't gone into my big gear (with an evil laugh.)

We set off again and finally turned so the wind was at our side instead of head on. I yelled back at DH Threeeee.. changed gear and hit the gas again. He later said he was in his highest gear and doing 20mph and I was still pulling away. If the wind hadn't been so bad we would have stayed out longer, but I had a blast, I like my new bike!!

(I have to mention he was on a heavy bike and I was on the Trek FX 7.3 hybrid with 700c tires... he gets his FX 7.5 with carbon fork on Friday so I think my days of being able to smoke him on a bike are limited!!)

BTW: Trail was pretty much void of people or I would have NEVER gone that fast on a trail. I immediately slowed when I saw someone else on the trail.

Shannon