Well, today I rode the Volae to work. Man is it ever so much more uphill on the way to work! Took 1hrs 45 minutes! Hard to take after covering the same distance 12 hours before in 1/2 hour less time. Oh well.I'm having some different thoughts regarding riding a recumbent. I'm not sure why, but I'm not as stoked about it as I was last year. I find that when I'm on the bike, I'm extremely comfortable. So much so that I forget that I'm actually trying to get somewhere in a reasonable time period. When I'm on a DF bike, I don't have to work at keeping up a decent speed. I'll ride along on the Volae and find myself spinning very slowly, relaxed and enjoying more the ride than even thinking about my speed. That's a good thing for sure, but right now, I'm in a different place than my Volae puts me. I want to get into great shape, I want to get fast on a bike and I want to be able to commute daily by bike, while taking as little time as possible to do it. 1/2 an hour makes a huge difference when work is very, very busy, home renovation is going on and baby #3 is on the way. I need every minute I can get. The Volae is stealing them from me. I need some time to re-think this bike, and even the whole recumbent thing altogether.
On the way to work I was bombing down a hill, rumbled over some railroad tracks and the rear fender mount popped loose. I need to add a fender washer here. One interesting thing (not really) was when I removed the bolt from the frame, there was a significant amount of air pressure built up in the frame. Obviously just a different temperature or outside air pressure since I put the bolt in last year while re-installing the fenders. I'm glad I now know that the frame is literally air-tight.
While reflecting on the whole bent bike thing, I realize it is nice for carrying gear for work and being very comfortable at the same time. Me arse gets very sore when I've got a loaded backpack on and riding my Allez. My mind has recklessly wondered and I'm thinking about a LHT....... Dang it!
1 comment:
Keep the Volae for another season and see what you think. It's not like you've got 6 bents and you gotta clear one out...=-)
I agree though that bents fill a certain niche in the bike world and if you aren't i that head space you can get out of sync with them. Having said that they are pretty cool and make for a nice change of pace from your other DF bikes.
Post a Comment