{"id":1558,"date":"2009-05-12T07:40:21","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T07:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1558"},"modified":"2009-05-12T07:40:21","modified_gmt":"2009-05-12T07:40:21","slug":"first-time-on-my-road-bike-for-18-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/05\/first-time-on-my-road-bike-for-18-years\/","title":{"rendered":"First time on my road bike for 18 years!"},"content":{"rendered":"

After taking Morgan and his friend for a little bike ride and to the playground in Aberystwyth and then sitting around watching the Grand Prix, I didn’t have much time to spare on Sunday. I wanted to go for a bike road though, so rather than drive 30 minutes up to the local trails, spend an hour or so on them and then drive 30 minutes back, followed by the obligatory hour cleaning the mud off my bike, I decided to go for a road bike session instead.<\/p>\n

Now, we should bear in mind that my road bike hasn’t been out of the shed for 18 years so it was a bit of a shock to the system for it. I gave it a quick check over, pumped up the tyres and all seemed OK so off I went. From our house I headed off inland towards Tre-Ddol. All felt OK if a little precarious. At the level crossing a train was coming so I had to stop and let it go. At this point I discovered that my clipless pedals wouldn’t release properly. Thankfully they did release if I turned my heels inwards rather than out so there wasn’t any embarrassment as the train went past.<\/p>\n

I continued along the flat towards Tre-Ddol and at the little rise in the road realised that my front derailleur wouldn’t change back down from the larger chain-ring to the little one, so it was off again to change it manually. Not too worry though I’ll just stick to the little chain-ring from now on.<\/p>\n

In Tre-Ddol I turned right onto the main rain and headed off towards Talybont. Not much of a hill, but I’m sure it didn’t used to be this difficult. Why aren’t there any easier gears? How did I used to manage to get up proper hills? What’s going on! I made it through to Talybont where the heavens opened and I got drenched. Is this supposed to be fun? I was now at least beginning to feel a little more comfortable on the bike, but it still felt a bit precarious. The bars are narrow, the tyres thin and the aero bars just looked far too dangerous. However, this WAS my race bike so everything was set up for use mainly on the aero bars. The gear levers are on the end of them, the saddle is positioned for use in the aero position so it wasn’t as comfortable as it could have been.<\/p>\n

At Bow Street I turned right towards Borth, only to be pulled out on by a car. OK, not only is this uncomfortable and harder work than it used to be but it is now downright dangerous! At least it was mainly downhill from here, things should get easier right? Well, not really. With 120psi in the tyres you feel every single bump on the road and this road certainly isn’t the smoothest. By the time I got to Borth my hands were killing me.<\/p>\n

Just a few miles along the flat to Ynylas though, into the wind of course! I’d made it, my 20 year old tubs with perished rubber had survived too and although only 15 miles and a terrible time of 50 minutes I’d got around in one piece and felt as though I’d had quite a workout.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure if I’ll be doing it again mind you. The road bike is back in the shed and may well stay there for another 18 years, but I can see how a ride like that (or a little longer) each week would help my fitness and improve my speed on my Mountain Bike. Maybe a slightly more comfortable road bike, with indexed gears and normal tyres rather than tubs would be a good idea? Time for some shopping??<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a>

On your Marks<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Go!\"<\/a>

Go!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ready?\"<\/a>

Ready?<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Yeaahhh!\"<\/a>

Yeaahhh!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After taking Morgan and his friend for a little bike ride and to the playground in Aberystwyth and then sitting around watching the Grand Prix, I didn’t have much time to spare on Sunday. 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