It's here. I rode home. 15 miles into God's own headwind straight off
the sea. I hardly noticed the wind. Magnificent bike. Pics in the usual
place http://notonmywatch.blogs.com/photos/cycling/bike_compressed.html.
I'll admit that the appeal of collecting a new bike from the LBS was
diluted somewhat by the sight and sound of a gale bending trees and
hammering rain against the office windows. My wife advised bringing it
back in a taxi. But I decided to ignore this and come 1300, snuck out
from work with a rucsac full of Altura's best waterproofs.
John at Syvier Cycles in Waterlooville had the bike ready and his
estimate of bar and saddle positions were spot on.
I settled for boring, double-sided flat pedals without even straps. I
think John regarded this as retrograde as asking him for an Ordinary.
I'm sure I'll go back to clipless once my confidence grows. Just can't
risk a horizontal track stand onto this duff arm right now.
Not having ridden a drop barred bike for years and years, I had to ask
how these new fangled gears worked. Good job I did ask, I'd have never
worked it out in a month of Sundays. "The small chainring is for
emergencies", I was told and "take the mudguards off and it'll be fine
when you race it". "Ho, ho", I thought to both those comments.
I then changed, coughed up the cash[1], was given a brief lecture on the
importance of cleaning and /waxing/ [2] bikes and then it was off into
the rain.
What fun! What speed! Where are the fcuking brakes! (OK, there's a few
things for me to get used to). I know that buying a new bike won't make
up for lack of fitness and general [censored] cycling but upgrading from a
utility bike to a road bike *is* an astonishing upgrade.
Looking forward to some road bike fun. You never know, I may one day get
to use the 20 gears that I have yet to trouble with. I may also get used
to v. hard, v. narrow tyres and no suspension. I kept thinking I had a
puncture.
[1] When your wife says "so, how much was it then?", never start your
answer with "well the frame was only...". Even if you /had/ intended to
go on and detail the total cost of all the components, she'll assume you
were planning to categorise all but the frame as "bike accessories" and
not worth discussion.
[2] Waxing a bike? Did I actually hear that right?