February rides

[Crankin]

Buying cycling gear is a good substitute for riding, at this time of year.
I don't think I will get to ride Sunday, as now they predict rain/snow showers.

[azfiddle]

Good weather here in southern AZ- five commutes this week, starting temps in the low 40's and riding home in the 60's or close to 70!
Getting ride to ride a short way up Mt. Lemmon this morning.

[north woods gal]

Good idea on the bicycling gear, Crankin. Also a good time of year to do some rebuilding or even start thinking about changing or adding bikes.

My Salsa Fargo is a good example. It's a drop bar mountain bike with 29er wheels/tires, kind of a cult bike for those of us who have them. Love the bike in every respect with one huge exception. It has SRAM Apex shifters with I HATE. The problem is the single paddle that is used for both upshifting and down shifting on SRAM. In order to down shift, I have to move the paddle twice the distance in, compared to moving it a short distance for a higher gear. With my hands, I struggle to reach in far enough when I need to downshift and if I don't reach in far enough, I actually shift to a bigger gear, not a lower gear and that completely kills things when I'm in a climb. Even when I do it right, it's still slow and awkward to downshift. MUCH, MUCH prefer Shimano 105, Ultegra and so on because downshifting and upshifting is on different levers and I have enough reach with both. Much more manageable for me.

At this point, it's either convert everything over to Shimano - and that won't be cheap - or trade it in on another bike. Decisions, decisions.

[ny biker]

Good idea on the bicycling gear, Crankin. Also a good time of year to do some rebuilding or even start thinking about changing or adding bikes.

My Salsa Fargo is a good example. It's a drop bar mountain bike with 29er wheels/tires, kind of a cult bike for those of us who have them. Love the bike in every respect with one huge exception. It has SRAM Apex shifters with I HATE. The problem is the single paddle that is used for both upshifting and down shifting on SRAM. In order to down shift, I have to move the paddle twice the distance in, compared to moving it a short distance for a higher gear. With my hands, I struggle to reach in far enough when I need to downshift and if I don't reach in far enough, I actually shift to a bigger gear, not a lower gear and that completely kills things when I'm in a climb. Even when I do it right, it's still slow and awkward to downshift. MUCH, MUCH prefer Shimano 105, Ultegra and so on because downshifting and upshifting is on different levers and I have enough reach with both. Much more manageable for me.

At this point, it's either convert everything over to Shimano - and that won't be cheap - or trade it in on another bike. Decisions, decisions.

Are your handlebars too big? Having compact drop bars has made a huge difference for me, and I have no trouble with Sram shifters.

[north woods gal]

Thanks, NY. Might try that. The problem with the SRAM is mostly back when trying to ride trails and single track. For that, Salsa recommends staying down in the drops for better braking and control and I agree. It is safer for technical riding. When in the drops, though, almost impossible for me to get enough reach to downshift, so I have to go back up on the hoods to do it, right. All and all, I think drop bars are fine for milder and easy trails, but they really are a mismatch on the techno stuff. Not a big deal, because I have other bikes for trail work.

[azfiddle]

We rode from our house to milepost 4.5 on Mt. Lemmon today (me and the DH). It was cool to start but warmed up to short sleeve jersey temps. About 29 miles total- and almost 2000 feet of climbing or so. And then I rode to get a hair cut and color, and groceries on my touring bike, for about 4 more miles.

[emily_in_nc]

We rode from our house to milepost 4.5 on Mt. Lemmon today (me and the DH). It was cool to start but warmed up to short sleeve jersey temps. About 29 miles total- and almost 2000 feet of climbing or so. And then I rode to get a hair cut and color, and groceries on my touring bike, for about 4 more miles.

Good job!