born again commuter returns to the fold!

kyoukoku

Hey everyone,

I've been lurking around these parts for a month or so now soaking up all the handy info and getting to know who's who. I used to ride to work at my previous job in Old Street about five years ago but stopped after we moved offices to Holborn and I had got it into my head that the ride would be too far. :oops:

Admittedly with hindsight my choice of steed at the time wasn't very good, a Saracen Raw Pro, seeing as it's about 17kg and was more suited to lightt downhilling! This probably put me off knowing I'd need to push it an extra 8 or so miles every day.

Any back to the present day now, I work slap bang on Brick Lane, well just over a year now anyway, and finally got fed up with getting on the train from Tottenham to Liverpool Street and all the trouble that comes with it. That and having put on over 2 stone in four months for no apparent reason other than edging closer to the big Three-Zero!

So after much deliberation and first looking at the Focus range (First Expert, then Raven Pro, then Wasgo Street) I saw the 2009 Ridgeback Flight 05 in the Spitalfields CycleSurgery and I finally got around to getting myself a nice shiny new lightweight steed to do the 13 odd mile round trip to work everyday. Except they didn't have a frame in my size, 58cm, so I had to go over to CycleSurgery Holborn and try out the one over there. Bought it straight away it was such a good fit.

Having not ridden at all in 5 years I rode all the way home from Holborn, and it only took me an extra 10/15 mins over the 35/40 mins it used to take me to ride home from Old Street on the beast I had before and I was nowhere near as knackered as I thought I'd be! Now I'm really kicking myself for not having done this sooner! :x

Haven't taken any pics of the bike yet but will stick one up in the bike pics sticky this week.

I've also got myself a Garmin Edge 705 so I can keep an eye on how I'm doing and my old account with Wiggle has been dusted off, so looks like I'll be around here a bit more now and looking forward to collecting some scalps too! :twisted:

Saying that I've already hit a top speed of 43 mph going down Stamford Hill towards Seven Sisters and overtook one of those big bendy 149 buses on the left and a big silver BMW 5 series I think it was on the right at the same time so that left a big smile on me face!! :twisted:

Christophe3967

That's not too shabby a start then

biondino

Normally a Garmin 705 is a treat cyclists build up to, an almost unattainable goal which they can one day hope of buying if they are devoted enough!

The big three-zero? Happiest time of your life.

kyoukoku

biondino wrote:

Normally a Garmin 705 is a treat cyclists build up to, an almost unattainable goal which they can one day hope of buying if they are devoted enough!

Yeah, I already had an VDO 12.6 HRM jobbie from the last bike and was going to reuse it on the Flight, but it seems to have given up the ghost completely. It was looking a bit battered anyway and I got the Edge cheap off of eBay with the HRM & cadence sensor. It's got everything I'll ever need out of a cycle comp.

biondino wrote:

The big three-zero? Happiest time of your life.

Yeah, should be, maybe now I'm back on the bike I'll feel happy once I drop back down a couple trouser sizes :oops: Most folks are shocked when they find out how old I am, they think I'm a lot younger cos of my looks

DiggingDeeper

kyoukoku,

Hopefully you will be wasted by the time you reach 7 Sisters and I can slouch past you before I turn off through the hospital past Tescos. I come into 7 Sisters from Woodbury Down/St Annes direction.

43mph is pretty fierce for that section. Traffic going into the lights by the church is usually bad. I did 30 mph into St Annes tonight but the road is a shocker so I usually keep it down a bit.

I'll keep me eyes open for you.