New bike…finally!

I bought a new Trek 2.1 road bike a few weeks ago patiently waited until the weather warmed up enough to get out and enjoy my first ride on the new wheels.  On Friday, it was in the 60’s so I decided to take the rest of the day off of work and head on out for a nice 18 mile ride.  I chose to do the same course that I rode during the Tri for Sight last August.  I wanted to test the differences between the two bikes to see if it actually made that big of a difference.  I had high hopes, but what I found was a little disappointing.  During the whole ride, I was averaging just below 14 mph.  At the time, I thought this was great because I had it in my head that my average speed for the triathlon was 12 mph.

Considering that I haven’t been on a bike in over 5 months, I think the ride went really well.  I spent the majority of the time trying to get used to how the gears are set up on the bike.  It’s a lot different than I’m used to.  The front derailleur has 2 positions for each of the 2 front sprockets.  It’s tough to remember which of the 2 positions you are in.  Then you have to remember which way to change gears using the brake handle shifters.  It’s all going to take some getting used to.

The ride was also really windy.  At one point, I was struggling just to keep my speed from decreasing while I was on a steep downhill because it was so windy.  Every stop light seemed to be red too.  And of course, I had to wait through every one of them.  During the triathlon, we had traffic blocked for us so we never had to stop.

After I got back to the house I looked up my Tri for Sight time and I was disappointed.  I rode 2 mph slower on my new bike.  The whole time I thought I was 2 mph faster.  It was kind of disheartening but then I realized that the conditions weren’t the same and it made me feel a bit better about it.  Overall I’m pleased with the bike and the most important thing…I felt great at the end of the ride.  As I write this, a day later, I realize that I might have to look into getting a new saddle.