Texas - The other bike ...

How many of you have had to ride the other bike recently?

Since I bought my road bike, my Trek FX7.2 hybrid has sat quietly on the bike rack. I had to run to a friends house a mile away. I decided to take my 7.2 and exercise it. After pumping up the tires, I was headed down the Braes bike path. I was amazed heavy, slow steering, in general weird this bike now felt. I guess what they say is true, once you go to a road bike you can never go back. I will keep the 7.2 to pull the kids trailer or the trail-a-long, but it was painful ride. Have others had this similar experience?

I occasionally will go back to my road bike for a ride with the social group. It feels really nice for a while but I find it hard to make myself lean into turns so much and fly down hills because of the position.
Laying back on my recumbent is just such a different perspective that on the road bike with any downhill I feel like I'm going over the bars.

I actually took my old fuji touring bike with an xtracycle freeradical attachment on it to the wednesday social ride last week. Carried a keg of ice cold water on the thing since it was the first week it was really hot and ended up handing out water to most everyone about 2/3rds through the ride. It was definately a beat down after 20 miles climbing up hills but it was definately fun. I had to be careful on turns because I really can't cut corners or the back end will scrape the ground and I made the mistake of pedaling a few times on corners and clipping the pedal. This morning on my recumbent I felt like I was absolutely flying and cutting up corners at full pace with the 50 watt hammer pedalling furiously at all times even through the tightest turn.

When my Cross Check was in for repair, I rode my 80's bike boom Bianchi. It's a bigger frame, so I definitely felt like I had to be more careful on the turns. It reminded me why I keep it around, though, it has such a nice smooth ride. What almost killed me was forgetting that I can't brake from the hoods on that bike (and now I know why they call those "suicide levers";))

I decided this morning to my commute on my FX. My average speed went from 15.5 mph to 12.6 mph. Commute time went from 33 min to 40 min. I too forgot where the brake levers were. I appreciate my road bike a little more. But my FX is still better to pull the kids trailer or the tag-a-long. I would have to ride my 90's MTB at this point.

I ride my hybrid bike daily as my commuter, as I have to lock it up outside on campus...where there is a chance of it being stolen...the rode bike sits back at my apartment and is used for "long" rides (not commutes)