New bike - journey time down 20%!

pinkteapot

Warning: just a post to share my excitement and happiness with my new bike. No real questions or anything. Feel free to ignore me.

I asked for advice on here last week before buying my first decent bike. I'd been doing my road commute on an old cheapy MTB. Now I have a hybrid (Whyte Malvern) that I'm totally in love with. Got it at the weekend and today was the first day I got to ride it properly to work. I cycled in on Monday but the snow on the ground meant I had to take it slow.

Previous PB on the MTB for the 4.2 miles to work = 21:30.

Time today on the hybrid = 17:40.

And I was less sweaty and panting when I arrived so I'm sure I can get that time down further. Limited slightly by a few traffic lights that kill my momentum, but I'll work on it.

It's almost made the ride pointlessly short from a cardio exercise perspective - I'll have to start taking long scenic detours on the way to and from work.

Can't WAIT for the weekend to get out on a decent length ride (when is Spring going to arrive??). I hadn't ridden a bike for about 3 years until recently and so far I've done 94 miles since mid-Feb. Isn't it addictive?!

CyclingObsession

I love that feeling of getting a new bike, I was like you used an old 30lb mountain bike for an 8mile commute started off with 50min commute from door to door, bought a carbon bike and managed to cut my time down to 27mins, faster than driving home on a weekend. Enjoy the change of bike just be careful of beating your time or u will be to tired for work

lee337

Be careful you may be suffering from "new bike syndrome", it's a disease of the subconscious which makes you ride faster to justify your outlay.
The effects soon wear off leaving you in need of another fix.

pinkteapot

Sounds like a very dangerous condition. I assume that early symptoms include reading reviews of bikes online. I'll be on the lookout for that.

slowbike

oxoman wrote:

symptom's include having more bikes than members of the household

Arse - currently got 7 bikes between us ... Wife has 1 more than me though ... but 3 sold and on their way soon ... so down to 4 .... and that's still more than the number of heads in the house ...

For the OP - don't ever log your ride on Strava ... that'll drive you insane ....

Initialised

Strava logs or it didn't happen!

pinkteapot

Too late for not logging, but I use the Cyclemeter app. I love watching the ghost riders on the screen marking my best and worst times for the route. I race the best time marker.

As of this morning, I have cycled over 100 miles in total! (since mid-Feb)

59 so far in March. I was aiming for 100 in March but will hopefully do more. Miffed at the weekend weather forecast.

Another PB smashing this morning - 17:40 down to 16:44. If it was a straight run with no traffic lights or roads to cross I'm sure I could do 15 mins. Maybe I should stop slowing down so much before blind corners on footpaths.

jimmypippa

oxoman wrote:

Congrat's on the new bike and improving times, hopefully you won't catch new bike syndrome, just be wary of a new and far more dangerous disease its called upgrade to being a roady. It causes problems in family life and can also be passed onto other family members. The only person in my house not to catch it is the wife, symptom's include having more bikes than members of the household. Currently this ailment can also have the side effect of not having enough room to store the bikes. Remain vigilant at all times. Good luck on the new bike.

Concern troll


Of course you want as many other people to suffer from that syndrome.