Scott took up biking in May. He’s a runner. He’s working toward the Miami half IronMan in November. After riding a solid but basic Specialized road bike for a few months, he was ready to upgrade. Below is his account of last weekend’s ride on his loaner tri-bike. —Matt
My ride actually started yesterday at about 1pm. That is when I was at the local bike shop to pick up and borrow the owner’s son’s time trial bike (aka Tri-Bike) that he is going to sell me. While there, he took the wheels off, because apparently they cost more than my Jeep. No, not more than my Jeep’s wheels — the entire Jeep.
Always Pack Your Own Parachute
Anyway, while he was putting on the other wheels the conversation went down like this:
Owner: Hey Wrench, I grabbed some tubes from under the bench. Are they the good ones or the bad ones?
Wrench: I think the good ones are in the front and the bad ones are in the back. Where did you grab them from?
Owner: I think I grabbed them from the front but I’m not sure…
At that moment, I thought, ‘Danger, Danger’. Do I ask him to double check the tubes? I mean, he’s letting me borrow a $3,000 bike for free. Who am I to complain?
Water? Too Heavy. Who Needs It?
Fast forward to today at 12:30. I leave my house with no water bottle (no cages on the time trial bike) and no computer to provide a metric to compare the road bike to the tri bike. About 6 miles into the ride, the front tire is dead. I spend 15 minutes changing the tire out. At least now I know I can do it if I’m in a race… Get back on the bike and about one mile later the back tire is flat. I’m out of tubes and CO2. I tried using the hand pump but the tire was not holding the air…
So, about four miles from the local bike shop, I started walking. In my Shimano ‘duck shoes’. A fellow biker stops to help. Turns out it’s my friend Chris from the Palm Beach Road Runners. He offers his tube and CO2 but I’ve decided at this point to go back to the local bike shop so I thank him and keep walking. He also gave me some good advice about foam rollers (he’s a doctor) and didn’t charge me a co pay. What a great guy!
Thank You Jupiter Police Department
About 200 yards from when Chris leaves I flag down a Jupiter Police officer. He can’t help because his trunk is full of guns or something so he calls a fellow officer who has a bike rack on his Police SUV and this officer saves the day. He drove me to the local bike shop (the air conditioned air was awesome) and we shared some bike stories.
In and out with two fully-inflated, non-leaking tubes. Yeah!
Fast to Faster: It Is About the Bike
So about the time trial bike… I freakin love it! I guess it’s the geometry. It kind of feels like you are in a very aggressive position. Almost as if you are going to fall over the handlebars. It uses a completely different set of leg muscles. I felt as though I was really pushing and driving down on the pedals compared to the road bike.
At any rate, my legs felt awesome and I felt (although I can’t compare since I had no computer) as though I was going much faster. And much smoother. No parts of my body went numb, either… The shifters are right at the thumbs and they move up and down, so the shifting is really easy and smooth. The shifter, that changes the ring you are on, is a resistance shifter and is WAY better than what I’ve got on the road bike. For me, that is. It only has two chain rings but I never needed the highest or the lowest. It was a very nice ride considering the circumstances. I have a new love for this type of ride. Completely different experience and one that I prefer over the road bike.
I’ll have to check with some Tri peeps to see if it is a good idea to change this close to the MiamiMan. Since it is different muscles and I’ve spent the last six months building the ones that I won’t be using anymore, I wonder if it is a good idea… If it won’t completely screw up my training, I will own a Tri bike within the next couple weeks… :-)
All in all, I went from my house to Coral Cove Park and back in 3.5 hours. With two flats and a ride in a police car, that’s not too bad…
As sweet as the Felt sounds, I’m a big fan of Scott’s second choice. It even has his name already written on the frame…
Are you selling your triathlon bike and want to pitch it to Scott? Know anything about the Felt? Like another brand or style better? Got any ideas how to go faster? Let us know in the comments below. —Matt
Scott,
Any outing that contains the phrase “and a ride in a police car” must have been REALLY good.
With two flats and a ride in a police car, that’s not too bad…
And what is a bad day
If you had seen his road rash last month, you’d know bad.
I keep telling Scott that he doesn’t need to ride right on the white line along the edge of the road. I keep showing him that the road is smoother 12 to 18 inches into the road. I tell him he is more likely to be seen and treated as traffic if he is in the road. I have explained that if you’re already at the edge of the road, there is nowhere to go if a car gets too close other than the ditch. Still, he rides the white line. Even when there isn’t a car around for miles.
Last month, he got his wheel caught in a groove where the white line meets the shoulder. He got stuck and had to bail into the grass. He was picking tiny stones out of his legs and shoulder for days afterward. So sad!
For Scott, two flats and a ride with the po-po is a great day. Of, if not a great day, a better day.
—Matt
Wait until he find out how slick those painted white lines get when it first starts raining.
I’m afraid he’s living proof of Will Rogers’ quote, “There are three kinds of people: the rare one who can learn by reading, the few who can learn by observation and the vast majority who just have to piss on the electric fence for themselves.
Yep, the road is for riding, the right of the line is for hiding.