Monday, August 19, 2019

I'm getting behind...

I set a 2000 mile goal for the year, but with 600 to go I think I'm a little behind schedule.

Part if it is spending so much time fiddling around trying to make the hybrid fit. Part of it is too many uber-hot days that I haven't been able to ride in.

I've tried acclimating to warmer rides, but given that I overheat easily, there's a threshold I don't dare cross, and it's right in the 95 degree range.

But, I'm looking at another bike tomorrow, and I've removed most of the extras I added to the hybrid in preparation to sell it. I really hope the bike tomorrow will fit well; it has a moderately crank-forward position--not as much as my Townie, but closer to my Pedego--and it's a 27 speed so hills won't be as much of an issue if I encounter them.

I doubt I'll buy it tomorrow, but I might put some cash down if they don't have the color I want and can get it. It comes in white, and I kinda want that. Other choice is black, and...meh.

I'll take black if it's all I can get and the bike is perfect.

But...I gotta get out more. I don't want to get too far behind.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Frustration

I've got the seat height on the Marin dialed in, I think. The new seat still hurts but it also still has that feeling that once it's broken in, it'll be awesome.

It's still not perfect, and the more I ride, it's nowhere near great. I swapped the bars out initially because I had a lot of shoulder and back pain, and now that I'm not hyper-focusing on my knee, I can feel the same tugging between my shoulders and the same lower back pain.

I took it out for a short ride today, trying to pay close attention to the things that bother me, seeing if I could figure it out without bugging a bunch of other people. If I can get more upright, it eases up. If I lean forward more--as if I were riding with drop bars--it eases up. Yet if I change the bars again, I may be back to square one, dealing with my knees because the overall geometry will change.

I've hit the point where I kinda want to sell this bike, and sell the older Raleigh, keep the Townie, and look for a more upright bike with more than 7 speeds. The downfall of the Townie is the gearing and its weight; 99% of the time it doesn't matter, but if I hit a hill, I'm gonna have a bad time.

After the short ride on the Marin, I grabbed the pink beast and headed back out, and it was nothing but fun. I need that, but without the motor.

I've been eyeing the Electra Townie Commute--upright and 27 speeds--but I have to clear garage space before I can even think about it.

Friday, August 02, 2019

Aces!

My birthday is near the end of the month, but I've already gotten a gift from a couple of my close friends.

Unlike the stock seat, this is female-specific (I bought a men's frame. And as I leaned, the seat kinda matters in terms of gender) and it matches my bike, with extra splashes of pink and blue (if you know me, you know why I dig hot pink.)

It's the 4th seat for the gray hybrid. I tried the stock for a while, a well-reviewed seat off Amazon, a Pedego memory foam, and now this. I thought the Pedego would work; after all, on the ebike it's super comfy. But I didn't account for the wider seat with a standard pedal position. The Pedego has a very mile crank forward position, about an inch to an inch and a half. It makes the wide front portion of the seat a non-issue, but on my hybrid, that tiny bit of extra seat dug into my thighs and was seriously uncomfortable.

So I put this one on this morning, leaving the new Kinekt seat post in place, made some adjustments, and then took off on a short test ride.

Zero knee pain.

That's mostly from the changes in the seat height, I think, but combined with this seat? It works. At least for the time I was on the bike, five miles, it worked.

The seat definitely needs to be broken in, but my gut says once it does it will be terrific. I didn't feel squirmy until mile 4, and most of where it bothered me can be taken care of my pointing the seat down just a tiny, tiny bit. The rest will come from breaking it in.

It was a good test for the seat post, too. I intentionally rode over a street surface so bumpy that it generally makes my teeth rattle, and the vibrations from it render my side mirror useless. I didn't feel a thing going over it today and had a stellar view of the idiot driver of a car coming up behind me at about 25 over the speed limit.

So far with this bike, I've swapped out the flat bar for the Surly Open Bar, lessening my reach, which helps with my back. Added the rear rack and Topeak tail bag. Kinekt seat post. And now the Terry bike seat. Really, I think the only things I now need are splashes of hot pink to make the bike seat look even better with the gray bike.

I also have a bit of a conundrum now: which bike to ride on any given day. This bike is fun. The Townie is fun. The Pedego is seriously fun, though harder to get my HR up now. What do, what do...