Been commuting on my Bleriot for about a week now. No long rides on it until today. 40 miles and change. *Very* hilly. 80's. Clear. Perfect day for riding. Road ride with a friend of mine around western Howard County and Baltimore County, MD. Here's a shot: [IMG]http://i398.photobucket.com/albums/pp66/lungimsam/Rivendell%20Bleriot/8112012ridewithJoe.jpg[/IMG] *The good:* I must say, that the Bleriot is much more comfortable than my race bike. I don't have to crane my neck and look up to see the sky and surroundings anymore , because, with my Technomic a few inches above the saddle height, I am already up to see everything around, which is so great!! Descents were so stable, it was fantastic. 35 mph and not twitchy at all. At one point during the ride I was being a little rough on the bars and the bike was still rock solid. The handling is great. My first bike with bar-ends, and I love them. I do friction all the way. I really like how easy the shifting is, though I am learning my way around the gears being that I am used to brifters. More on that later. Brooks saddle was like sitting on a pillow, except I started getting a twinge of left sit bone pain around the 35 mile mark. Barely noticeable. But that is much better than when my rump starts to hurt at mile 10 on my race bike. Shoulder discomfort? Yes, but after ~25 or so miles, and it was minor, compared to the shoulder and neck pain I used to get on my race bike I was having this year. *The bad:* The hills were brutal. Either that, or I was just having a bad day. Seemed like I was worn out after the first 10 miles. Bike seemed sluggish, but that coulda been me. Or the 650b's with the smaller than 700c diameter size, 1/2 the air pressure I am used to riding on, and 8mm wider tires than I am used to. I don't know. My friend said he felt sluggish, too and he had skinny race tires. I joked that maybe it was something in the Belgian Waffles we ate for breakfast, which were fantastic, by the way. The other, and most likely, thing that could have been affecting me was that this is the first couple weeks for me riding a compact crankset and using bar-ends. I am used to triples and brifters have been trying to find my way around the new shifting/gearing. So I feel like I am pedalling too fast or mashing too hard alot, because I am still trying to figure out which gears to get into. Got better as the ride went on. Back to the hills. After a set of the most lung-busting of hills, my chain hopped off the lower end of the rear cassette on a climb, and when I stopped to put it back on, all the cogs were loose and wiggling around. The chain even fell between the cogs when I tried to ride with the chain in the middle gears. The lock ring had worked loose. No one's fault, except probably mine for not tightening it down enough when I assembled it after shipping. With no Park Tool FR-1 in sight, I had to strip the bark of an elder tree that was nearby and carefully... just kidding! I used two skinny allen wrenches from our tool kits, to get it back on and snug 'er up. It held for the rest of the ride. I am very thankful for that, 'cuz we were 20 miles from his place. Successful roadside repair. It was a tough, but fun ride. Had a great time and look forward to many more long rides. We have done a couple before. 62 miles, and 40-ish miles. The scenery is always beautiful and you see the coolest old stone structures aound these parts. So, all in all, I am really happy with this bike. I see no reason to return to race/aluminum/composite bikes again. I hope to get a new Rivendell one day. I really think they have great designs for comfort!
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