Cycling (35.00 miles / 02:15:23 / 15.50 mph / Cadence ? rpm / HRZ 2.9) Elevation 288M
Plenty of excitement about getting out this morning for the ride as it was the first proper run on the new bike.
Firstly the ride itself was great. I picked out a familiar route that I knew would be about two to two and a half hours.
It's a good route with a few wee rolling hills but nothing of any significance - although I have to admit to puffing on a few of them.
At about 25 miles I pulled out from a side road on to the main road and noticed another cyclist coming down the hill in my direction. He was only about 150M away from me and I thought that he would certainly catch and pass me as he had a run down the hill.
I decided that I was not going to be caught so I put in a bit of an effort and tried to push on.
by the time we got to Moira he was still about 100M behind me and I had the long straight of the Moira Road back in to Lisburn. About 5 miles of straight Road for him to chase me.
I really felt like I was drilling it along the Road, although the reality was that with the slight headwind I was only averaging about 19mph - which is still decent for me.
The good news was that I managed to hold him off until he turned off and headed in another direction.
Now, on to the bike.
The first thing I noticed compared to my old Kuota was that his fits so much better, It may sound weird but I feel like I am part of the bike rather than plonked on top of it - like I was on the Kuota. This leads to a much better feeling of handling than I had before. The bike seems so much more responsive on bends and downhills. I really like it.
A couple of things are different and not so great. The wheels are pretty heavy and I notice a real difference with them. I will be replacing them with my better wheels and keep the standard issue ones for Winter training.
The gearing is also different. Without being a technical geek - the front chain rings are bigger than my last ones and this just makes it a wee bit harder to push on hills. This is probably a good thing for me in order to build strength.
In summary I would have to say that I am very pleased with it and look forward to plenty of miles on it.
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