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September 28, 2005
New bike
Nathalie gave in and let me buy what I think of as a boy's bike, compared to my man's (road) bike. She said it's her anniversary gift to me. I took delivery today, left my car at work, and rode this and the train home.
They guy who sold it to me said I need to wear the disc brakes in by breaking hard the first hundred or two hundred stops, rather than breaking slowly, a good excuse to get the rear wheel in the air, and skid like somebody Tim's age.
The mud on the front tire in the bottom right photo comes from trying to ride up the trail on the hill in front of the house. The gearing's right for that, but you'd have to be more expert than I am to keep the bike upright on the trail I took. It got so steep and bumpy I couldn't keep the front tire on the ground. And I couldn't keep my feet on the pedals. Had to walk the bike up part of the way.
Decathlon sold me the bike with platform pedals that your feet do not adhere to. I suggested to the sales guy that didn't make sense, but he only wanted to sell me additional pedals or a more expensive bike with SPD pedals. So I took the SPD pedals off the road bike and put them on this one, putting the Look pedals back on the road bike. That makes the road bike even more serious, and (I hope) let's me keep my feet on the pedals of this one.
Actually riding on this thing is hard work on the road, but great fun when you get off the road onto trails. Decathlon hardly inflated the tires for me, leaving them at about 2 bars, so coming home it felt like I had two flats. I pumped them up higher after changing the pedals. Hope everything still sticks when I try that trail again.
Posted by Mark at September 28, 2005 08:58 PM
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Comments
Lucky you, she's a gem (your wife, not the bike :-). The bike is nice, too, looks like lots of fun. I used to commute on my MTB, but then I was a poor student who couldn't afford 2 bikes. Even if you don't commute on it, getting tires with rolling strips down the middle and pumping them up hard will make getting to the dirt roads more comfortable.
There are tons of forest roads in the hills around Grenoble, and you can usually make some loops by connecting to other paved roads. And I commend you for going uphill on a MTB, most riders in the US use 'em for downhill only.
Then you can build this in your backyard, Tim will thank you.
Posted by: Andy at September 29, 2005 12:00 AM
The guys in that video were doing what I did last night halfway up the hill: getting off and pushing. You're right about going uphill, though. As Matt says, it should significantly improve my technique, because you literally fall off the bike if you're not smooth.
Do you have an MTB out where you are? I'd imagine it would be hugely entertaining on Kauai.
I'm not even going to show Tim that video. He'll be jumping off the wall between the back yard and the house.
Posted by: Mark at September 29, 2005 11:35 AM