Newbie weekly achievement thread

[hebe]

Excellent!

I took the saddle (still on the seatpost) from my Marin to the lbs yesterday and asked for something like the Sonoma that's on my Spesh. I came out with another Sonoma that was fitted on the seatpost while I waited. I put it on the bike today and finally worked out how to adjust the tilt of the saddle It was pouring with rain so I didn't get out to test it, and there is snow forecast again for tomorrow, but hopefully I'll get out on one of the bikes on Saturday or Sunday. I need to work out if I can live with the original plastic pedals from the Spesh, that are now on the Marin. I didn't think I liked them, but I had normal shoes on today and they didn't seem too bad for a bike that will only be gently off-roading.

I'm also hoping to go on this: a novice ride that's coming up at the beginning of February. I need to get my mileage up a bit through January. but that should be do-able. I'm hoping to go on one of their ladies days later in the year too, sadly I can't make the one this weekend.

[hebe]

I've bought a metal basket for the front of the Marin, so I can use it for shopping and start getting my mileage up that way. I was catching my feet on the panniers

[Roadtrip]

Had a friend over for dinner so, Christmas Tree came down and after dinner I drug out the trainer, which is now in it's place. I got on for a quick look-see to make sure things were right and before I knew it I had done 4 miles in about 15 minutes. Put new Brooks saddle on the bike, so tonight I'll give it a go and give it a real test run, this time without three glasses of wine in me!! Defiantly out of the norm for me, but hey, live once in a while right?

Shannon

[hebe]

Brooks saddle, very nice! And your verdict?

I didn't get out this weekend I was all kitted up and ready to go this morning, pulled up the garage door and somehow caught the other side on a set of glass shelves which should have been safely out of range. You can guess what happened. 20 minutes of sweeping later I set off with the bike, slid across the black ice coating the road, and decided that we didn't actually need a bottle of gin and a pack of frozen peas that badly. I'm a little bit gutted, it was going to be my first ever proper errand run on the bike, with the new basket. Oh well.

[Roadtrip]

Brooks saddle, very nice! And your verdict?

I'll withhold verdict for the moment. First time I got on the bike with the new saddle, my back-side barked and wasn't happy, this was just sitting on the bike and doing some light spinning. Felt a lot of pressure on my sit-bones. My old saddle is about the same width, but is a gel padded saddle, so while the Brooks wasn't NEEDED Santa brought me some Christmas money.

I found that my leg was flexing/bent too much with this new saddle, so when I raised the saddle about a half inch the discomfort was much less, or non existent. May not have been connected, but my position was much better, which I think did help.

I did seven miles on the trainer with my padded shorts and felt pretty good (my arse wasn't yelling, but my calf that kept cramping up on my and getting tight WAS), even tho I could tell there was some soft tissue bruising or something going on because even off the bike I could feel a little discomfort, depending on how I was sitting.

I climbed on the trainer with just my jeans yesterday to feel how it felt and could barely sit on the bike due to the achy back-side. I kept shifting my position and trying to find a comfortable with no luck. I'll try and get some more trainer time in tonight or tomorrow and see if I can work through these issues!!

Shannon

[Bike Writer]

Not much of an accomplishment yet but it's a start. Got my bike hooked up on my trainer and began to ride again yesterday. Yeah, it's not like outside riding at all and it's kind of sucky but it is far better than no activity and I feel confident that continued use will give me a leg up when the biking season is back in the spring. Yay! It sure feels good to have the wheels going round again.

[hebe]

I hope you can bend that saddle to your will/butt soon, Shannon.

Good luck with your trainer Bike Writer.

There is rain forecast for the next five days here I don't mind a bit of mud but I do mind rain, so it looks like no riding until the weekend. Who knows what shape the trails will be in after 5 days of rain, so I might plan for a road-based ride rather than off-road.

[Catrin]

...I climbed on the trainer with just my jeans yesterday to feel how it felt and could barely sit on the bike due to the achy back-side. I kept shifting my position and trying to find a comfortable with no luck. I'll try and get some more trainer time in tonight or tomorrow and see if I can work through these issues!!

Shannon

Perhaps it would be a good idea to wait until your discomfort has left first? You were probably planning on this, but I wanted to make that suggestion.

[Roadtrip]

Brooks saddle is feeling better. MUCH better.

Shannon