Saturday, February 9, 2008

At Rising Tide

Today, I took the N Judah out to pick up my bike from the shop. They were cutting the fork down for me and swapping out the 16t cog with a 15t. (I had wanted to step the chainring up to 46t from 44t instead of switching cogs, but they wouldn't do it for free.) Now, the bike's pretty much complete. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but I really happy with it anyway. 


The weather in the city was great so I rode out to the ocean from the bike store. I wanted to post some pictures but they all came out looking pretty terrible.

It was a pretty good ride. I can tell I'm riding a bigger gear ratio now but it's not that much more difficult getting around. Once I get in better shape, I am thinking about stepping up to an even bigger ratio anyway. In general, I'm getting more comfortable with riding brakeless, and I think I'm getting stronger on the bike all-around. This bike definitely rides different from my Iro but that's a good thing. It fits me better but I get pretty bad toe-over when I make tight turns at low speeds. 

One thing I wanted to mention: I highly recommend double straps. After running single straps for the past couple years, I got Soma quad-gate clips with Soma double straps for my new bike. It's a pretty entry-level set up but they are much, much better than what I've used before. It's really easy to find the straps when I start riding and my feet stay firmly in place when I'm cranking away. There are a ton of upgrades on my new bike compared to my last one but the straps/clips are most noticeable at this point.



Peace.

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