I decided to take a break from the Bridgestone on Thursday and ride ol’ comfortable. I had a very nice ride down to the river and back. I completed the route in a little less than an hour which is a good time. I tried to pay attention to how my legs felt and where my knees were at different parts of the pedal cycle. I noticed that the my knee was a lot less flexed at the bottom of the stroke on the Sterling. That got me to thinking that maybe the seat was too high on the RB-1 and the bar stem was less of an issue than I thought. I went back ready to try some adjustments.

The next morning I dropped the seat down, and moved it forward just a bit. This got me a lot closer to the bars and felt better already. Upon inspection of the bar stem I noticed we actually had it pulled out a quarter of an inch too far, so I put it to max height. I fidgeted through the morning just waiting for lunch. I changed clothes and headed outside. The weather was perfect for a long ride – high 60′s with a slight breeze, sun out. As soon as I sat down I knew I was onto something. The sharp, immediate pain I had been feeling was not there. The improved angle I was sitting at was doing its job. With a smile on my face I headed west to the hills for some climbing. My next challenge is to learn the gearing setup on this bike. The RB-1 has a demanding climbing gear ratio to say the least. I fiddled with a strategy on the first hill and then headed to the big climb. I felt more comfortable in rapid descent as well. I can ride on the brake hoods with more confidence in the new setup. I drank some water and started up. About halfway up there was a road crew clearing the last vestiges of the storm from a few weeks ago. They had the road partially blocked, as I slowed and rolled up he waved me on through. He said in a deep country drawl “Come on now, I don’t want you losing any momentum” – good point sir. It was very unexpected and put a smile on my face in between the panting. I made it to the top with no stopping and it felt great. At this point I was feeling very good and so pleased to get this bike into riding shape. I wish I had the 80 bucks for a real setup at a bike shop. It would be great to know just what a bike “should” feel like. That is the ultimate culprit in my two days of painful riding at the start of the week…just not knowing. At the top of the hill I hung a right onto quarry road which is reasonably flat with some slight downhills. It runs a ridge line and has some great views of Louisville. Shortly into it there is a quick drop and then flat road. This is where the power of the bike became most apparent. I dropped into that tiny 11 tooth cog and cranked the bike – i was at 30 MPH in a blink. So fast my eyes were starting to water behind my glasses. I raced down the back of Old Vincennes and through the city back to work. 9 or 10 days ago this route took me 1:12:53, Friday was only 01:05:30 – quite a lot faster.

So the week on the whole was quite a success. I am happy to be in a proper road bike and will be looking for new routes next week to stretch out a little more.

I left the office today with hills on my mind. I headed west giving my self options depending on the results of the first climb. I knew as soon as I sat down that I was going to have some pain in the seat region. I guess the upside is that I seem to be sitting lighter on the saddle? I am quite positive that it is time to get some proper riding shorts or at least underpants. That was just the beginning, My whole body feels like it did almost three months ago when I got started riding. This riding also seems to be physically more taxing. I am repeating rides that have almost become not enough on my other bike and I feel more exhausted doing so. I am definitely going to have to do some work on the bar stem to get it up higher. I can not get into the drops for any time at all. It makes me very uncomfortable. Not to mention the breaking in period for the required neck position to view the road ahead to avoid frame rattling bumps. A work friend and I checked the seat height and leg position this afternoon and it seems to be about right. I just need to get a little less angle into the bar.

I choose to take the flat route after the initial hill. It does offer a nice, open, relatively flat area on Corydon Pike to open up and really ride. I didn’t think I could make it up the long climb to Edwardsville so I bailed and took the long ride back to the office for a respectable 16.5 for the day. I still can’t believe how much faster the bike feels. Once again in the flats I got up about 25 MPH with only moderate effort. That is very exicting. What is less exciting (for now) is fast descent. I am not comfortable enough to be careening down steep hills going much more than about 30 – and I don’t really like that. So do get my hands on the brakes I have to a least be on the brake hoods, aerodynamics improve and the bike goes fast!

As I entered the final stretch all I could think was “no way I could make 30 miles on this bike”!

All bitching aside is was a great day to be out in the breeze clearing ones head from the day so far.

YTD – 572.24
MTD – 90.46
Today – 16.06

My good friend Tim made me quite an offer to let me borrow his Classic Bridgestone RB-1. This is every bit the road bike I have been wanting to try.

The Verdict

Good – immediate, palpable increase in speed. An increase of 4.5-5 MPH in the flats (+25%)

Bad – sore bum, sore neck, sore hips.

Granted some of this will be addressed with tweaking some aspects of the setup. Also, my normal bike is very much an upright bike. I am not used to the angles required to grab the handlebars at all on this bike. The funny thing is I had felt that the seat on my normal bike was a little skimpy…now I know its not! I did not really improve my time overall because I was dealing with some of the awkwardness of a road bike setup (where are those brake levers again!). The differences in feel regarding wobbliness are very pronounced when you are normally riding fat 26 x 1.5 tires. Everything on the RB-1 feels like it happens faster, like there is a decided lack of forgiveness. I am going to head to the hills today and give that a shot. I have a “choose your own destiny” ride plotted in my head. That way if hill #1 proves untenable I can bail to a flat finish. If it goes good I can proceed to a real test.