Just 99 miles to go

Monday, March 05, 2007

More roadie content.

The LBS got in the wider bars for my bike and changed them out for me. I dropped the bike off at 1:30 and picked it up after work.

Although not an epic, I got out for 30 minutes on Saturday for more riding. Things felt alot better. I'm still cautious when I go to glance behind me but the bike didn't feel as foreign as it did.

I actually started enjoying it. The way you can pick up speed on the road is cool. I hit one hill, it really wasn't evan that big and I hit 40mph. I was freak'n. I kept staring at those skinny ass road tires think'n " don't blow out, don't blow out."

The guys at the LBS were showing me some "hard cased" tires. They're tougher than the regular tire and more puncture resistant. I think I'll pick some up. I used the excuse to the owner that I needed to save some more funds for them , but the truth was I wanted to make sure I could get used to the bike. I didn't wanna waste $60 more dollars if I didn't like the roadie thing and ended up not using the bike.

The trails around here are in shitty shape anyways so I didn't feel bad about not getting out.

You can tell everybody is getting antsy about riding but evan the rockier trails in the northern part of the state are supposed to be bad.

Its been one crappy winter.

seeyall

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Good to see you coming to the "Dark Side"! As you know, I'm a confirmed roadie! Once you get used to the "twitchiness", you'll come to realize that it's actually because you are now riding a high performance jet instead of a C-130! Once you get into a Crit or a road race and ride with a pack of roadies with the Fighter Jock mentality, you'll still be a mountainbiker, but the roadie will sharpen your trail skills and vice versa! There is nothing on the planet like riding in a pack in a race on an open course, or riding a paceline. Welcome the the world of skinny tires!

Unknown said...

Another thrill ride......

wait til you top 60 mph on a long downhill!

Tom said...

Sorry Tom,
I can't see anyway that road riding is going to "sharpen" my MTB skills. As matter of fact I'm worried about it being harmful to my skills. ie, getting lazy in picking lines.
I'm just hoping it help with endurance and leg strength.

seeya

Unknown said...

Learning how to "Ride Light" builds core strength and improves bike handling skills, especially if you get in a soft surface suddenly with the skinny tires or some gravel or sandy scree at high speed.

Even Tinker Juarez has commented on how his road work has improved his mountainbiking over the years, from both a handling skills as well as cardio and endurance standpoint.

From the other direction, mountainbiking also equally improves the road skills from the standpoint of hopping over cr....stuff in the road, etc.