Oh, and Leah: you really must give a good quality, light, and well set up drop-bar road bike a try. Really, for modestly energetic riding there is, IMO, nothing like a well designed drop bar (ie: Maes Parallel). If your new road bike fit you as well as this bike fits me, you'd be twice as fast as I.
On Sun, May 5, 2024 at 3:21 PM Patrick Moore <bertin...@gmail.com> wrote: > A local news station reported yesterday ( > https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/new-mexico-to-host-usa-cycling-collegiate-road-national-championships-this-weekend/) > that, > after the road race this morning there would be criteriums at the > International Balloon Park, a nice ride on good paved trails easily > accessible from my house. So early afternoon I rode out to see what I could > find, which was no sign at all of any competitive cycling; only other > Sunday recreational cyclists like me. > > But it was a nice ride. Warm -- about 80* -- partly cloudy (you > flatlanders don't know how strong the sun feels at mid day at 5K+ feet -- > oven; with the shaded thermometer at the front door showing an air temp of > 40*, I can sit outside on my back patio in the morning winter sun in a > t-shirt if it's not windy), and I rode everyone's acknowledged best bicycle > of all time, the '99 Joe Starck etc. Strong tailwind outbound so I could > spin to warm up, then 9 miles home against the strong Southerly at 21 gusts > to 32; 6+ of those in the hooks pushing the 76" gear (because we hard men > don't bother to stop and move the chain to the 68' granny). > > But seriously, altogether a very nice ride: 18.14 miles averaging 13.21 > mph with clock very much stopped for all the lollygagging and backtracking > at the Balloon Park and elsewhere. Cyclemeter recorded 27.31 mph as my > fastest speed, which with a 76" gear would be 121 r's pee em, but on the > return much slogging in the hooks at 30-40 r's pm. > > But even more seriously: I like riding into winds and up hills on fixed > gears -- as long as the hills aren't too long or the headwind stretches too > extended; 6-7 miles against the wind today was good; when it gusted, my > left knee started to twinge as it has since 1970 when in complete and full > ignorance I geared my very first from-scratch bike at 90". But thank God, > the left (and right) knee remains healthy at 69. As for hills, I am too old > to grunt a 70" (I've done 75") gear up 7 miles of Tramway, but I hope to > get onto that hill again this year with the SA TF hub -- 75% underdrive for > a 57" climbing gear and a direct *with no last* for comfortable spinning > back downhill. > > Pictures show it happened or that I'm very good at Photoshop. Pic 1: I > meandered my way toward some tents hoping that they would contain > criteriums but, nope. Pic 2: the main building and exhibit hall. > > -- > > Patrick Moore > Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing > services > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* > > *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* > > *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* > -- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgv7X31%3DhpvDWr%2B9CNze%3DbjCpZuAmH55ep%3DTN0RZqhxn3w%40mail.gmail.com.
