ppc
08-21-05, 01:47 PM
My local cycling club organized a ride today. It was a 70km ride around my area, centered on the theme of beer, where we stopped and visited several microbreweries. You probably guessed the club isn't exactly a racing club, this was more like a mom-and-pop organized ride where we went an average of 20 kph, taking turns at helping the ladies uphill by pushing on their saddles :-)
Now, we were about 15 riders, all of them on uprights, and me on my Condor, to test riding in group with it (which turned out to be awkward on occasion). On the way back, the last part of the route was a long, wide, flat stretch of cycle path. One of the younger guys on a nice-looking hardtail mountain bike with semi-slick tires, who had showed clear signs of impatience with the glacial pace of the ride all the way, pulled next to me and proposed an all-out speed test. I thought, why not, I never actually tried to go fast with the Condor. So I pushed hard on the pedals, he followed easily, then I pushed harder and harder, pedalling as square as I could, looked in the rear view mirror and saw the guy dropping slowly out of sight. I thought, that can't be right, he looks super-fit and I'm really not. I then glanced at the speedo: 51kph... WOW!
He signalled to call it quit after 2 minutes of that, which was just as well because I was about to cought out my lungs as well, and started to ask many questions about how bents handled, how much they cost, etc... The rest of the group eventually caught up with us and we finished the ride nice and easy.
My conclusion for this test ride:
- Condors can be ill-at-ease with regular cyclists. They're wider and just want to "go" downhill. I had to ride the brakes more times than I can count while others were still pedalling.
- They climb just as well as any bike (we went up a hectic 22% slope and my Condor held its own just fine)
- They're very very comfortable and fast
- I should have mounted knobbies for the muddy part of a trail, that way I wouldn't have kissed a tree
- Microbrew ale is good but it takes its toll on one's ability to ride in a straight-line
- I smoked a weight weenie with my incredible belly power
So all in all, a great ride!
Now, we were about 15 riders, all of them on uprights, and me on my Condor, to test riding in group with it (which turned out to be awkward on occasion). On the way back, the last part of the route was a long, wide, flat stretch of cycle path. One of the younger guys on a nice-looking hardtail mountain bike with semi-slick tires, who had showed clear signs of impatience with the glacial pace of the ride all the way, pulled next to me and proposed an all-out speed test. I thought, why not, I never actually tried to go fast with the Condor. So I pushed hard on the pedals, he followed easily, then I pushed harder and harder, pedalling as square as I could, looked in the rear view mirror and saw the guy dropping slowly out of sight. I thought, that can't be right, he looks super-fit and I'm really not. I then glanced at the speedo: 51kph... WOW!
He signalled to call it quit after 2 minutes of that, which was just as well because I was about to cought out my lungs as well, and started to ask many questions about how bents handled, how much they cost, etc... The rest of the group eventually caught up with us and we finished the ride nice and easy.
My conclusion for this test ride:
- Condors can be ill-at-ease with regular cyclists. They're wider and just want to "go" downhill. I had to ride the brakes more times than I can count while others were still pedalling.
- They climb just as well as any bike (we went up a hectic 22% slope and my Condor held its own just fine)
- They're very very comfortable and fast
- I should have mounted knobbies for the muddy part of a trail, that way I wouldn't have kissed a tree
- Microbrew ale is good but it takes its toll on one's ability to ride in a straight-line
- I smoked a weight weenie with my incredible belly power
So all in all, a great ride!