My first bike race – Race4Hope

I was excited to be in my first bike race this morning. Officially called the Race4Hope, it was the second annual race to benefit cancer research and is a held in memoriam for Dick Shaffer.

It was a beautiful day for the race; mostly clear skies and just a slight breeze, temperature probably in the mid-50’s. I’m not sure how many participants there were just yet as I have not received the official race results, but I estimate there were in excess of 125 riders. I’ll update my blog with the exact numbers once the results are released.

I was pretty happy with my ride… my time was 1:19:57 for the 23.42mi distance. That translates to an Average Speed of 17.6mph, and a 3:24/mi pace. I even had a small cheering section at the finish line…Linda was there to document the finish and here are the photos she took.

Please…no comments about my big fat butt. Thanks

How sweet it is

The air that is. My bike ride today was a long one. I rode from my house to Skaneateles, around the Lake and back home. From Skaneateles to almost Borodino, the air was just sweet as could be because of all the Lilacs and other assorted blossoms and flowers (lots of tulips). Another perfect day of weather: the sky was blue and cloudless and the temp was just right. There was a persistent breeze that I had to head into for about a quarter of the ride, but all was good. This is one of my favorite “long” rides. For me, any ride over 30 miles is a long ride so by that standard, maybe this is better catagorized as a really long ride clocking in at just a hair over 60 miles.

Great biking weather

I could have sworn (whoops, pastor wouldn’t like that) that I heard the weather guy say it was going to rain today. It actually turned out to be beautiful with a mild breeze but some nice breaks of sun on an otherwise semi-cloudyish day. The temperature was just right for biking so after I got my work out of the way (funny how easy it is to get work out of the way when a bike ride is called for) I hopped on the bike and headed for what is turning out to be one of my favorite routes. I like this route because for the most part the roads are in good shape and with light vehicular traffic. And this route has some challenging, shorter climbs. Give the route a whirl one of these days…see if you like it.

A fine day for some biking.

I’ve been loving my “new” bike and to prove that love, I’ve been taking advantage of the beautiful weather we’ve been having and riding as much as I can. Oh sure, it’s rained some here and there, but not today. Nope, today was incredible with blue skies, just a hint of wispy clouds and a gentle breeze with temps in the 60’s. Really about as perfect a day for biking as you could ask for. So when my Sister-in-law called this morning asking if I would like to join her and a few others for a ride, I jumped at the opportunity.

A small group of us hit the road around 1:00pm and took about a 30mile ride. We started in Marcellus and cruised around some beautiful and hilly countryside. The colors of the leaves were spectacular although it is now clear that the peak of Autumn is behind us. Lot’s of leaves are off the trees now but still, there is a lot of color left and it was great to be able to experience it today. The weather for this weekend is not looking too good at this point because rain is in the forecast. That makes me even happier that I got out there today. I’d love to have a year like 2006 where biking was possible even in late December…remember the 70 degree days in the third week of December last year? Realistically I think we’ll have a more “normal” winter this year and days like today are probably not going to be too plentiful moving forward.

Live, Love, Cycle!

Back in the saddle again.

I love to ride. I bought a Fuji Roubaix road bike in 2001 and log about 1200 miles a year on the thing. I should say “logged”, past tense, because three weeks ago I discovered a crack in one of the chain stay tubes, the one closest to the chainrings near the bottom bracket. This came as a complete shock to me and I immediately stopped riding the bike since to continue riding it would have been to court disaster.

As I began to mull over my options, it occurred to me that maybe the frame was still under warranty. I went to the Fuji website and was elated to discover that their frames have a Limited Lifetime Warranty. Don’t even get me started on legal mumbo jumbo that let’s something like a “limited” “lifetime” warranty even exist. But I was psyched. My elation soon turned to dismay when I discovered that -my- frame, in 2001, only had a 3-year warranty on the frame. Bummer.

Well, I’m a huge Fuji fan and just loved my Roubaix. It was in excellent condition, other than the cracked frame, and I decided that it could do no harm to call Fuji and speak to the warranty department and tell them my story of woe. I figured that since the bike had obviously not been abused and since the crack occurred right along the weld at the bottom bracket, perhaps they would view this as a manufacture defect even though it was technically out of warranty. The person I spoke to at Fuji told me that the bike dealer where I purchased the bike would have to call for an RMA and send the frame in so it could be evaluated. I called the dealer where I originally bought the bike, Swan Cycles, and spoke to Glenn Swan about my predicament. He called Fuji and after discussing the situation with them, Fuji decided that Glenn might only have to email them a photo of the crack rather than ship the entire frame back to them. Things were starting to look up.

So I don’t quite know what the result of all this will be yet, but in the meantime I had bought a new frame on eBay. I don’t know much about frames, especially road bike frames. I had been told that I should look at a Soma Smoothie or Surly Pacer frame. I wanted to get a steel frame as they typically are a bit more forgiving and consequently have a smoother ride than an Aluminum frame such as I had in the Roubaix. I visited eBay to see what was up for sale and stumbled upon a Jamis Eclipse frame up for auction. I swooped in at the last second and put in my bid for $325 and won! It was a frame value at about $950. What a sweet deal!

There was a problem when the frame was received. The all carbon fork that came with the frame was not the correct fork for the frame. So several frantic calls and emails between the seller (who was in Mexico on vacation), Jamis, and my bike mechanic ultimately resulted on a positive note. Jamis sold my dealer the appropriate fork (still carbon) and my dealer kept the old fork for his stock. The old fork was technically a better fork since it was 100% carbon whereas the replaced fork did not have a carbon steerer tube, but otherwise was carbon.

I had my mechanic move all the components from the Roubaix over to the new Jamis Eclipse frame. It’s an awesome fram, with carbon seat and chain stays, and the carbon fork. The bike is built and I picked it up last night from the shop. This morning I took it out on it’s inagural voyage and was just blown away by the difference in handling and the smoothness of ride. Like night and day. The weather today is fantastic, about as perfect a fall day as you could hope for and the ride was great.

By the way, I can’t say enough positive things about Swan Cycles. Glenn is a legend in cycling circles and he is one of the most knowledgeable people around when it comes to discussing bikes. You can’t beat his prices either. If you’re in the market for a bike or just looking for a good mechanic to fix your bike, give Glenn a call: (607) 277-0495.

Here’s my new bike in all it’s glory.