As you have read…

Back on December 26th, I had purchased what I had thought was a 1979 Trek 930.  Well I made a slight misreading of the serial number, what I actually have is a 1977  Trek 930.  There were not very many of them made in 1977, this bike was built in March of 1977.  Now before you go and assume that I misread the serial number yet again, I’ve had it checked by others and have had it confirmed that it is a 77 instead of a 79.

Anyways, I’ve gotten enough time on the bike to finally feel comfortable enough to give a review.  Since I got the bike I’ve put  about 600 miles on it.  The weight of the bike is surprising, weighing in at 19 pounds, not too bad for a bike that’s going to be 33 years old in a month and being a steel frame. Originally when I first got the bike I thought that I was going to need to get a different stem because the front felt really twitchy compared to how the front of the pista felt, I have since gotten used to the handling characteristics of the bike and have come to really like how the front end of the bike felt.  Another thing that was a concern at the moment was the 165mm cranks.  Fortunately this wound up being a non issue, there was enough seatpost to set it to  a perfect saddle height.

The ten speed drive train is more than adequate for my needs.  No, not 10 speeds on the rear wheel, 5 speeds on the back and a double crankset.  It took me a while to get used to downtube shifters, but was finding the shifters and operating them without having to look by the 3rd ride.  I’m finding this bike to be fairly responsive when needing to put down the hammer or when climbing, yet subtle enough that it’s comfortable enough for all day ventures.  Braking is solid now that I have new pads on the brakes.

This bike is also a bit of a learning experience for me.  Literally this is my first bike with sewups(tubulars) while it is a bit of a pita to change a tire, the ride and the feel of the tubulars have had a really positive effect on me.  It has disolved a few conceptions that I had about tubulars.

Overall, I know that this bike is not the most state of the art bike out there, but it is pretty much a perfect fit for me.  I’ve been looking for an older bike for a year and a half up until December 26th and am thinking that maybe it was meant to be to go so long without finding one that was worthwhile since I have acquired a bike that is somewhat rare.  Do I plan on ever selling this bike?  Nope, I appreciate this bike as it is way too much to chance having someone who has no idea on what they are looking at get it and henceforth ruin the bike by making it something it simply shouldn’t be.

Also this bike has become my favorite bike in my stable.  It’s also pretty safe to say that I have gotten the vintage bike bug and am planning on locating a 2nd vintage bike soon.

A recommended Read.

Anyone here enjoy sitting down and reading a good book?

Every once in awhile  I will sit down and read some after a road ride or Time on the Track.  The book I am currently reading is Major by Todd Balf.  It is one of the better books that I have read in the past year or so.  Usually I just go through a book quickly and go onto the next one.  This is my 2nd time around reading this book I’m still finding this book interesting enough that I’m only reading a couple chapters a night in order to let it sink in.

The book is a biography about Major Taylor and his quest to be the fast man in the world.  I’ve felt really inspired to get out there and hammer after reading some of the book.

All in total, if you are in anyways interested in the history of the sport of cycling this is a must read in my honest opinion.

Don’t usually do this, but….

Time to bring this loser down.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Theres-a-perfectly-good-path-right-next-to-the-road-you-stupid-cyclist/190080667052

This loser fails to comprehend that we are humans as well and if the dork would read the rules that bicycles are considered vehicles as well.  To sum it up he’s saying it’s perfectly fine to do something to hurt yourself, a friend, family?   To sum it up he’s probably one of these dufus’ in this youtube video…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qvXbIenivk

What can you do?  If you have a facebook account, report the jerk and get this facebook page pulled.

Happy New Year.

Hope everyone had a pleasant new year.

You will have noticed that I didn’t post at all during December.  Well, things were really hectic here during the past month.  Most of all was a heavy work schedule.  Obviously got some saddle time in and weather wise it wasn’t all that bad.  Had some really bitterly cold days here and there, but nothing to really suffer through for days upon end.

When I’ve been online, I’ve had my attention to other matters or I just put posting something off.  I had meant to getting a post in on December 31st, but a splitting head ache put an end to those plans.

Anyways the highlights to my December were:

• Advancement in my line of work
• Having become a much more potent sprinter on the pista.
• Found out that I can put up with alot of hip pain.
• Finally got a webcam.
• Found out that my riding style does fit in perfectly in that of a track cyclist.
• Taken a deep interest into the history of track cycling.
• Acquired a 1979 Trek 930 that I’m going to keep geared and will eventually restore.
• Grown farther away from the mtb than I have been in previous months.

With the acquisition of the trek, it’s pretty much will cut into using the mtb even more.  I’ll use the mtb once a week, but am going to devote the rest of the time to the bianchi and trek.  For sake of posting here’s a couple of pictures.

Have a great 2010 everyone.

Perfect Ride and a Perfect Day for Riding.

It was pretty much a perfect autumn day in November here.  The air was nice and brisk and there was a slight breeze.  With it being teachers convention this weekend, it meant that there was no school buses to watch out for.  Generally as a whole, there was not a whole lot of cars on the road today for some reason.  But what ever, I’ll take it.  Felt particularly inspired to get some hilly miles in today.  Legs felt great and pretty much attacked the whole day, and had the people who went with me in some form of difficulty.

November is one of my favorite months to ride, a lot of the people who ride for recreation around here have put their bikes away for the winter and won’t head back out until mid  April when things start to get warmer.  November is also the calm before the storm here in NJ.  The weather will start to deteriorate more rapidly come December and will stay crummy until late feb/early march when things start to improve some.  Sure I still ride December through February/March, it’s just that the nature of the ride changes a little.

I’m generally used to longer road rides from March through November, but December through to the end of February, I tend to cut my road rides down to 30-40 miles a day and more intense.  Which despite the shorter days, the cold temps will make your body work harder to keep warm which will result in more of an equal output when compared to my longer rides when the weather is warmer.

The bike setup does not really change much during this time.  Right now I just threw on a set of cheaper road tires in order to save some tread on my Grand Prix 4 seasons for the 3 cold months.  I expect that the tires I threw on will be used up by time of December 1st.  When things dry some, I’ll probably get something higher up the food chain tire wise.  Not about to use my Vittoria Open Corsa Evo CX’s for road use.  I have those for track use and don’t want to ruin them on the roads around here.

Anyways, back on topic,  my current rear wheel has hit the 20,000 mile mark during today’s ride.  The nice thing is that this wheel is still going very strong, thus having no plans on a replacement wheel just yet.  It was such a great day, that the sunset was even nice.

Seems I alway contradict myself when I say I’m going to ditch the mtb.

Because sure enough a few days later I wind up feeling like riding it and without failure, I wind up really enjoying the ride.  I seriously need to get that sorted out.  Biggest issue I think is that I need to accept the fact that I am no longer that competitive with it and I’m still trying to ride at a level that I just can’t anymore because I now have become more road oriented and have slown down reflex wise aka, I may have hit the wall.  Don’t get me wrong I love riding on the road, but the road miles after a few days does get to be mentally straining on me and physically hard on my back.  With that I guess I need to become a bit more balanced.

It struck me today that I am just trying too hard to impress people with my riding with the mtb, when the only person I really need to satisfy with my riding is myself.  What I’m saying I guess is that I am forgetting to have fun.  Which is a really bad thing, you have got to have fun with something in order to be willing to keep doing it.  Which is why I seem to keep falling back to the fixed gear, it’s fun for me.

So I guess what I need to do is to stop being so critical with my own riding and just have fun and not care what others critique my riding on.  After all, all one can be is them self.  Am I a better road rider now, obviously, but I never have any plans on racing or bringing that to a higher level, which is not putting any weight on me, which is why it’s fun for me.  Now that I’ve accepted this, I should be able to just go out and have fun on the mtb, which should equate to many more trail rides and urban sessions this year.

Just how devoted to cycling are you?

Been thinking about this one for awhile now and am just getting around to putting this up.  Just how devoted are you with cycling?

Do you go out and get a ride in regardless of weather? Yes, the weather has to be something that has traffic at a standstill or a full blown hurricane or blizzard.  Do I prefer riding in perfect conditions, well duh obviously.

What type of cycling are you devoted to? I used to be devoted to the mtb, but seeing as how the mtb no longer provides a smile for me and that I am thinking of parting it out, I have to say that I prefer my fixed gear to the point I am planning on building up two more fixed gears.

Are you the type of person to get a ride in even when it’s getting dark? Yes, that is what reflective clothing and lighting is for.

Do you get grouchy if you can’t get a ride in every day? Yes/no, if the weather is way too bad (and for me it has to be extremely bad) that I deem it unrideable, then I am not grouchy and can substitute it with working on the bike.

Would you consider using a trainer or stationary bike? No, no, no.  I’m the kind of person who needs to be moving and going somewhere in order to ride.  And with knowing my preferences with weather, I see no need for a stationary bike or trainer.

Do you ever see yourself breaking off from riding everyday? For certain I can’t say, but I can say that I am fairly certain that I have no plans on breaking from my routine anytime in the near future.  The road riding is proving to be perfect for me now, and if I want to change things up I can simply just change route, change pace, change the drop bars to the bull horns, drop the brake and go to the track for some track time.  So, not one of my road rides will ever be the same day in and day out where with the mtb, there was just so much one can do and I was no longer progressing and needed something new to take on.  With that I guess I will probably never really get tired of riding on the road seeing with how easy it is to change things up and make new challenges.

Yes, pretty much answered my own questions and yes I am very much devoted to cycling.  If you would like, you could answer them yourself.

It is here that I must put my foot down.

I’ve had it with people who think just because that they are great runners that they should be equally good on a bike right from the get go.  Plus when they discover that they are not equally as good they are quite whiny about the bike and say that it’s the bike and not them since you use the same muscles in your legs.

First from the get go, different muscles are being used as well and those other muscles just are not built up as much as the ones you run with.  Second, it is not the bike, trust me on this, the motor is weak, and the only thing operating a bike is your legs and arms.  Ok, it’s simple you are not going to be fast on a bike until you log on a lot of time on the bike.  Let me ask you this, were you fast right out of the box with running or did you get faster as you got stronger?

This Bothers Me.

Don’t know about others, but I feel the need to vent, and I have likely vented about this in the past so please bear with me.

It’s fairly often that I hear this come from a few really snooty individuals where I live and it’s not always aimed towards me, but of other people.  Putting one’s ride down because of parts spec, drivetrain type and frame tubing.  Just because it is not the latest or greatest thing.  I have one person who weekly bothers me that I should go get a geared road bike instead of that singlespeed that I have.  While it does bother me, I can take comfort in knowing that I have been on a road ride with this guy and made him look bad.  He’s bugging me to go geared because he knows that I would fly on a geared road bike and would make a great road bike racer.

While I have thought about getting one in order to shut him up, I’ve thought about the road bike racing and to be honest, it’s not in my cards.   The velodrome is a better fit for me and that the lifespan of a carbon frame with how I ride on the road and the road conditions here would equate to be about the proportional length of a Robot Chicken episode.  That and I just don’t have the ability to be that disciplined to take part in a road race.  I like to go hard for long distances and to go to the beat of my own drum and not listening to some coach who thinks his approach to things would be the best for me.  Sorry, I don’t believe in all this new fangled bull.  I just want to ride my bike for how long and how fast as I please.  However I would love to do an hour record attempt before I die.

What really irritates me though is when they try to steer people towards a bike that is going to be way too much bike for their needs.   For example had one newbie in deciding on a road bike and there is a guy who is trying to steer him towards a bike that was going to be way too much bike for him and for his budget, the guy isn’t  even an employee.  If he was trying to get a job by making a big sale, he wouldn’t have been offered a job.  The bike he was trying to sell was $10,000 to a newbie who had never used a road bike before and the last time he rode a bike was in the 1970’s on a schwinn stingray.

Fortunately, the person didn’t listen to him and wound up getting what fit his needs and budget at the moment the best and  what felt best to him with his test ride.

What a boat load of fail.

This isn’t about the Somali Pirates trying to hijack a French Naval Flagship, while true it was pretty funny to read.

This one is in regards to the weather again.  Forecast says sunny, high of 70.  Right now; raining, temp of 61 degrees.  Why do I even pay attention to the weather forecast anymore it almost seems like they are always wrong.