July riding

[ny biker]

Nice pictures, NWG. As someone who's about to put a heavy leather saddle on a carbon road bike, I support your choice of bike for road riding. Sometimes the typical set up is just not the best for our individual purposes.

This reminds me -- last weekend I rode with someone who is an old-school steel bike rider through and through. The guy who shows up to a big club road road in khaki cargo shorts and a wool jersey. He was riding an Austro-Daimler bike. With a leather saddle of course. It's always fun to see bikes like that in the wild. And he's a very nice man and enjoyable ride companion, too.

As for the heat, I would have ridden outside last night if I wasn't dealing with this saddle pain which takes a week to subside. Riding on very hots days is manageable in the evenings, especially once I get away from the highway and closer to the tree-lined neighorhoods near the river. But, that's not an option this week. I got to the gym late (as usual) but managed to get in a good 30-minute interval workout. Afterwards I sat outside for a while in an attempt to get some acclimation to the hot weather.

[north woods gal]

Based on my September visit to Florida, last year, going from our northern climate to that Florida climate, cold turkey, almost did me in. Oh, I rented a bike, first thing when we arrived, but it took a bit of riding every day, carrying a lot of water, and stopping in the shade or where the was breeze to rest. After one week, I was only beginning to adapt, but felt like I could do it, given enough time. Bottom line is that I have a ton of respect for that kind of humid heat and folks that have adapted to it. Will never underestimate the danger of that kind of heat, again.

Yeah, sometimes we get wrapped up in the latest, greatest bike technology trend, forgetting that people did some amazing things on that old school stuff. Steel bikes and leather saddles have been getting it done since the very first bikes. You probably won/t set any records for time in this all carbon world, but you will get home and do it with some a degree of comfort that is sometimes missing from the carbon bike scene. I'm no retro junkie by any means. Ride carbon and aluminum, too, but still something very special about the feel of a good steel bike, whether on the road or on the trail.