Riding the new bike….

Yesterday was the third ride on the new bike. I met Chris down at his house in San Jose and we headed south towards New Almaden. I’ve never been down that way before and the area is really pretty cool. Evidently they used to have a mercury mine and the entire area is now on the historic register.

We took a little detour on Beltram Rd and went back through the neighborhood to look at all the homes. Many from the late 1800s. It was here I realized I left the camera in the truck...

Once the scenic portion of the ride was over we continued up past Quicksilver Park where we turned right onto Hicks Rd. Chris had warned me that this was a “pretty good climb” but I had no idea what I was in for...the next mile and a half was spent in my small ring and standing up almost the whole way. Wow, that was a tough climb.

So far the bike is amazing. I wasn’t sure if, at my level of riding, I would even notice a difference between my old bike and the new one, but I definitely can. On rough roads, the carbon frame is much smoother. When seated on the flats, I feel like it’s a lot more efficient, and when standing and climbing, I feel like every pedal stroke is directly related to moving forward. There’s no flex or wasted energy at all.

The other thing I noticed is that on the downhill the bike appears to be a little twitchier. I’m not sure what the wheelbase on my old bike was, and it’s not that the new bike is un-stable, it’s just different and I need to get used to it. (yesterday’s descents were on shaded, damp roads which also added to my tentativeness)

At one point we were on a slightly downhill winding road with no traffic and I really tried to put the hammer down. I grabbed the drops, shifted into the highest gear and really started pedaling and the bike just responded amazingly well. It seemed like I could have gone on like that forever. I was comfortable, I was making great time, the curves were being shredded and...well...I started to run out of gas…..but the bike was incredible.

We did another climb and looped up through the hills above Los Gatos, before eventually coming back down to the flatlands and working our way back to Chris’ house.

All in all we ended up with 36 miles and who knows how much climbing. A great day on the new bike and perfect weather to boot.