Hello! It’s been a bit over a month, and not all of you are in the Telegram group (or pay attention to me [or anyone] there), so let’s catch up.
As is customary, words before pictures.
Old bike — First and foremost, not sure if I ever mentioned it here, but I sold the Cannondale to a coworker of my wife’s. I got 50% of the initial purchase price from three years ago, after some 1,750 miles and a few scratches. I feel like that was a good return, and the buyer was super stoked. He took it to the shop where I got my Trek for a tune-up, and they told me there wasn’t anything problematic going on, so I didn’t screw things up too badly on my own.
New bike — Speaking of my fancy new Trek, it’s been an awesome journey so far, and increasingly so! I’ve taken the bike on some muddy adventures while the world was still ending here, and some dryer ones since. Still predominantly road riding, as that’s what I have within reach from my apartment, but fun nonetheless. The bike is truly a joy to ride, I think in large part because it’s just so damn comfortable.
Bike fit — I got a
bike fit a few weeks ago, and it’s been quite helpful, I’d say. We lowered the saddle and moved it slightly forward, experimented a bit with bar height, moved the cleats around, and actually replaced the stock saddle with a triathlon one, because I liked the wider pressure relief channel and especially all the room for my junk up front. I need to try a lower bar height on a longer ride, as it’s possible I’m finding it too high right now, and am thus reflexively propping myself up with my arms. I also might eventually experiment with other saddles, as I test this one out on rides longer than two hours. I have some follow-up appointments available to work out other things, should that be necessary. A+ experience, would recommend, especially when spending all this money on the sport already. I definitely feel like I put more power down now, even as unfit as I currently am.
Riding goals — I’ve basically only ever ridden solo or with a friend or two, with a few notable exceptions on some
protest rides. While that’s all well and good, I want to try some bigger structured events as well, so I signed up for
Phil’s Cookie Fondo in late October, with the plan to ride the 49-mile Sugar Cookie route. Sometime around then I’d like to do the
Long Beach to San Diego century again, even if I end up riding alone. And next year I want to ride
AIDS/LifeCycle, in all its 7-day, 545-mile glory. These are all road adventures, and I’m not planning a ton more specifically to leave room open as I ramp up my off-road abilities and aspirations. I might bring the bike to a
conference I’ll be attending in late July, for some spur-of-the-moment riding in the countryside. If anyone wants to join me for any of this, let’s do it.
Pictures — I know, I know, most of you probably skipped to here anyway, and that’s fine.
I got a
SeaSucker Talon for versatility, and felt some seriously epic nervousness the first time I used it with my asspensive bike, but it was obviously totally fine:
Found some pretty serious mud on that ride that neither I nor my tires were equipped to deal with:
It was a lot more miserable than it looks in the photo:
Downside of mounting a muddy bike on top of the car:
Took the bike to the shop the next day to get the rear tire re-mounted so it would lose less air, and felt a lot less nervousness this time:
Tried the lock at a quick stop by the store:
And got some sweet Muc-Off valves in rainbow oil slick:
Also got what turned out to be a pretty solid ride snack:
Got a
Lead Out! bar bag and wallet since I don’t love carrying too much stuff in my jersey pockets:
A week after that muddy ride I remembered I never cleaned out my fancy new shoes, and they looked predictably awful, but a bit of soap and water cleaned them right up:
Here’s that
ISM tri saddle I got during the bike fit:
This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like:
Ocean ride photo:
City ride photo:
View from a park atop a small but steep hill:
Tried using my old GoPro Hero7 Black for ride pics so my phone could stay put inside the wallet inside the bar bag:
I was able to marry the existing brake callipers with the STIs, and I even managed to properly bleed the brakes afterwards so they still work well. 
You shift up with the right shifter and down with the left one.
also I’m not sure those are legal over here? No idea…
the look of rainbow oil slick on the otherwise super stealthy bike. I want a full set of bolts from Better Bolts at some point, for some serious flash. 