Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Rolling solo
The Solo-One that is. Took the KHS Solo-One out last night on a four hour ride to test several things. I was looking to see how the bike would perform on a longer ride and also where my fitness level is right now.
#1 - The bike..... I really like this bike and I feel it packs a lot of bang for the buck. I dig the steel and the softail helps when going over long stretches of rough grass. This bike is also really quick to recover from my errors. A couple of time last night I should have bit it and was able to straighten the bike up very, very quickly. Gotta love a stable platform. I'm starting to like the ugly WTB saddle and will probably stick with it for a while longer. The thing about saddles is you can drop hundreds of dollars trying to find one you like. There are a couple of things I need to change on the set up.
A - my hands, shoulders, and lower back were sore after about 2-1/2 hours. I think a shorter stem and ergon grips will help that problem.
B - I need to change my gear ratio for longer rides. Out of the box the bike comes 33x15 which is good for flat commutes and doing the local TT course, but this morning I had some lower knee pain and that is NOT GOOD!
Over all I'm happy with the ride and just need to make a couple of minor changes.
#2 - Eduardo.....How did I hold up on my longest and roughest ride of the year??? Awesome!! I really don't know why but my fitness is really good this year. I think a bit of a lifestyle change has really helped here. Working at the shop and being on my feet instead of sitting at a desk has helped. I have also been working in the back yard basically every night and on weekends, this has helped keep me in better shape than drinking beer and watching TV. Back to the ride, I rolled out with 60 oz of H2O in the hydro-pack and 40 oz of electrolyte in the Twin Six bottles. I was a hot day and I thought I would use every drop. I also had 2 hammer gels and 2 GU packets. I hit a Gel every hour and drank about 25-30 oz of water every hour. For the first 2 hours I felt great, trails were in good shape and I had really good flow on the bike. I then felt a bit sluggish but was able to come out of it and was strong the rest of the ride. No cramping and no bonking. I was very, very happy.
Looking at the big picture I wanted to see what I needed to do to be ready for the 6/12 hours of Cedar Valley in Late July. Answer - I'm better than I thought and if the race was tomorrow I could complete the 6 hour event without a doubt in my mind. So today while doing my normal blog reading I see Mr. 24 is hitting a marathon race in 2 weeks.... hummmmmm. 5 mile course, 4 hours, how many laps can you complete???? I'm in!!! What a great way to get my feet wet in endurance racing. No lights, a pit crew is really not needed, no second bike, I'm sold. This will be my focus for the next 2 weeks, I hope to keep everyone p0sted on how it goes.
Ed out!!
#1 - The bike..... I really like this bike and I feel it packs a lot of bang for the buck. I dig the steel and the softail helps when going over long stretches of rough grass. This bike is also really quick to recover from my errors. A couple of time last night I should have bit it and was able to straighten the bike up very, very quickly. Gotta love a stable platform. I'm starting to like the ugly WTB saddle and will probably stick with it for a while longer. The thing about saddles is you can drop hundreds of dollars trying to find one you like. There are a couple of things I need to change on the set up.
A - my hands, shoulders, and lower back were sore after about 2-1/2 hours. I think a shorter stem and ergon grips will help that problem.
B - I need to change my gear ratio for longer rides. Out of the box the bike comes 33x15 which is good for flat commutes and doing the local TT course, but this morning I had some lower knee pain and that is NOT GOOD!
Over all I'm happy with the ride and just need to make a couple of minor changes.
#2 - Eduardo.....How did I hold up on my longest and roughest ride of the year??? Awesome!! I really don't know why but my fitness is really good this year. I think a bit of a lifestyle change has really helped here. Working at the shop and being on my feet instead of sitting at a desk has helped. I have also been working in the back yard basically every night and on weekends, this has helped keep me in better shape than drinking beer and watching TV. Back to the ride, I rolled out with 60 oz of H2O in the hydro-pack and 40 oz of electrolyte in the Twin Six bottles. I was a hot day and I thought I would use every drop. I also had 2 hammer gels and 2 GU packets. I hit a Gel every hour and drank about 25-30 oz of water every hour. For the first 2 hours I felt great, trails were in good shape and I had really good flow on the bike. I then felt a bit sluggish but was able to come out of it and was strong the rest of the ride. No cramping and no bonking. I was very, very happy.
Looking at the big picture I wanted to see what I needed to do to be ready for the 6/12 hours of Cedar Valley in Late July. Answer - I'm better than I thought and if the race was tomorrow I could complete the 6 hour event without a doubt in my mind. So today while doing my normal blog reading I see Mr. 24 is hitting a marathon race in 2 weeks.... hummmmmm. 5 mile course, 4 hours, how many laps can you complete???? I'm in!!! What a great way to get my feet wet in endurance racing. No lights, a pit crew is really not needed, no second bike, I'm sold. This will be my focus for the next 2 weeks, I hope to keep everyone p0sted on how it goes.
Ed out!!
