How was your 5/7 ride?

[Catrin]

Half of TOSRV down and hoping for dry roads tomorrow! 50th anniversary of the ride, so I wasn't going to miss it.

Ooooh, looking forward to reading the ride report! I would love to do this ride but it is so early in the year...

[OakLeaf]

Ooooh, looking forward to reading the ride report! I would love to do this ride but it is so early in the year...

Not much to report - the only really unusual thing was the near-perfect weather which NEVER happens on TOSRV - but I'll post some piccies in a day or two.

The thing about it is, it's early in the year for everyone, southerners and snowbirds like me excepted. I had lunch on Sunday with a kid who claimed his entire training for the year was "I rode 30 miles on Wednesday." Trainer miles? Nope, just that. 160 miles down and he was looking fresh as a daisy. I'm thinking to myself, Kid, I've got chainring holes in my tights older than you.

I'm not sure his strategy would've worked if the wind had been bad, though.

[TrekTheKaty]

I skipped the scheduled ride Sat with hubby--http://stooges.rogerkramercycling.org/ because the radar looked bad. He braved it and got lucky--all the weather moved to the south.

SO I drug him out Sunday morning for my first hilly route of the season. I intended to take it easy and "make it a positive experience." Secondly, I'm hoping to graduate to a new bike this year and the real challenge was: could I ride the bigger hills without using my granny gear at the beginning of the season? (have a triple and hoping to switch to compact double).

There are three "bigger" hills--the first I made in my big chain ring (woo hoo), the second, I got cocky and tried to do it in the big chain ring and had to suddenly shift to the middle (almost a crash) but the THIRD--I got up in my big chain ring (granted there is a large downhill to give me momentum, but I've not made it up this one before). As I was yelling "woo hoo", my husband reminded me I could go down one more in the back and still be in my middle chain ring. I KNOW

There is a Denny's at the top of the hill and it was Mother's Day with a line out the door. They were curious what all the hollering was about and I had an audience and a big smile on my face!

I caught my husband looking at the WSD Trek and Specialized websites later that day

[redrhodie]

Secondly, I'm hoping to graduate to a new bike this year and the real challenge was: could I ride the bigger hills without using my granny gear at the beginning of the season? (have a triple and hoping to switch to compact double).

There are three "bigger" hills--the first I made in my big chain ring (woo hoo), the second, I got cocky and tried to do it in the big chain ring and had to suddenly shift to the middle (almost a crash) but the THIRD--I got up in my big chain ring (granted there is a large downhill to give me momentum, but I've not made it up this one before). As I was yelling "woo hoo", my husband reminded me I could go down one more in the back and still be in my middle chain ring. I KNOW

A compact double will give you plenty of low gears, so it's not really like riding in the middle ring on a triple. You can even get a MTB cassette, and gear it really low. Keep using your granny for now! Spin, spin, spin!