One of the things I'm discovering with each passing day is how my previously held ideas about what made a bicycle comfortable are being smashed to bits by the Betty Foy. I had a heavy Dutch bike until March of this year. I loved it, but it was slow. That bike convinced me that slow and stately, completely upright riding was the only kind of riding I was suited for. When I had to get a cheap mixte to ride after my Dutch bike was damaged in an accident, I convinced myself that I couldn't ride in a more aggressive, forward leaning position. I had the bike shop install lots of spacers so I could ride stock upright, and even though the mixte was a lot lighter than the Dutch bike, it never felt swift or stable. I still felt slow and lethargic.
When I picked up the Betty Foy on Saturday, one of the first things I noticed was how far forward I was leaning. The Soma Oxford handlebars are on a Soma Sutro stem - shorter than the Technomic by quite a lot - and I am not used to riding in that position. Some might not think that's aggressive at all, but for someone who has only ridden upright, it was quite a shift. The first thing I did was try riding up a hill right next to the bike shop. I was surprised at how quickly and easily I was able to ride up it. It's something I never would have considered on the Dutch bike. I would have hesitated doing it on the cheap aluminum mixte, too. On Sunday's ride, my mental tape recorder started running early. "You're never going to be able to do 25km riding in this position." "You're probably going to give up after 10K." "You're too fat to ride like this." But as more road disappeared under my wheels, I found that all of the things I had thought were untrue. Of course, fitness plays a huge role in the limits we place on ourselves, but having the right tool at hand is hugely important. I never knew how important before I got the Betty Foy. This morning I whizzed into work in record time. Sure, going slow is great, but swift riding feels so good when you get to slay your mental and physical dragons at the same time. On Saturday, August 17, 2013 9:43:46 PM UTC-7, Cecily Walker wrote: > > I had very high expectations of this bike, and I'm happy to say that it > has met every one. It rides smoother -- and faster! -- than any other bike > I've ever owned. I smiled the whole way from the bike shop. Tomorrow I'm > setting off on a 25km slow bike tour around some farms out in the country. > I'll probably have more to say then, but as of right now, I'm in love with > this bike, and I'm glad I finally decided to make this purchase. > > The guys at Dream Cycle actually thanked me for bringing the bike to their > shop to work on. They said the bike made them smile whenever they looked at > it, and as they were building it, they found new things to love about her. > > Most of the components are different than those sold in Riv's stock build > kit. I ultimately didn't save any on the cost of the parts, but I did keep > from getting hit with a $350 tax bill by buying the parts locally. A > screenshot of the build can be found in this flickr set: > http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecily/sets/72157635020456860/ > > > More photos are to come, but I had to share this one a friend posted of > me. If you look closely, you'll see just how big the smile on my face is. > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecily/9533259489/ > > Happy riding, > Cecily > -- 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 post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
