First ride with gears for months...
debeli
Posts: 583
For various reasons I've been knocking around on singlespeed or fixed-gear road bikes for months and months.
I have three self-assembled bitzas that serve very well in these roles and all are OK for good-ish trips in comfort and not too slowly. All are set up around 66-69 inches and are perfect for most of the roads around the Marches and the Malverns.
My 'nice' road bike has been out on loan for a few months and before that it was set up for another friend who had the saddle slightly higher and used different pedals.
Now... I have it back. I cleaned it up, gave it a quick service, set it up for myself, swapped the pedals back and went out on Sunday. Only about 35 miles and I wasn't going too fast, but it was BEAUTIFUL. BEAUTIFUL. BEAUTIFUL. The weather helped, but the bike was just the best.
The combination of a newly-fettled bike, a nice range of gears and the ability to freewheel at will, combined with what (for me) is just a lovely geometry and a nice low weight was beyond rubies.
I do love riding without a choice of gears (both fixed and s/s) but the joy of getting onto a well-sorted, light road bike is heavenly. The long gap since the last ride just made it better.
It is nothing special by today's standards: Alloy/carbon frame, Mixed Campag gubbins (mostly Veloce) with standard 53/39 and a 12-23 10-cog on the back. But it was a sheer joy to be on.
I felt like Homer Simpson in a Donut factory. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....
I have three self-assembled bitzas that serve very well in these roles and all are OK for good-ish trips in comfort and not too slowly. All are set up around 66-69 inches and are perfect for most of the roads around the Marches and the Malverns.
My 'nice' road bike has been out on loan for a few months and before that it was set up for another friend who had the saddle slightly higher and used different pedals.
Now... I have it back. I cleaned it up, gave it a quick service, set it up for myself, swapped the pedals back and went out on Sunday. Only about 35 miles and I wasn't going too fast, but it was BEAUTIFUL. BEAUTIFUL. BEAUTIFUL. The weather helped, but the bike was just the best.
The combination of a newly-fettled bike, a nice range of gears and the ability to freewheel at will, combined with what (for me) is just a lovely geometry and a nice low weight was beyond rubies.
I do love riding without a choice of gears (both fixed and s/s) but the joy of getting onto a well-sorted, light road bike is heavenly. The long gap since the last ride just made it better.
It is nothing special by today's standards: Alloy/carbon frame, Mixed Campag gubbins (mostly Veloce) with standard 53/39 and a 12-23 10-cog on the back. But it was a sheer joy to be on.
I felt like Homer Simpson in a Donut factory. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....
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Comments
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Similar experience. It is nice to have some gears to stomp on every now and then for the top end!
I find it takes a few weeks to get accustomed to climbing again, perhaps you deploy slightly different leg muscles but I struggled to smash climbs with gears for a while.0
