Originally Posted by
fasthair
As you can tell from my Joined Date that I'm new around here and don't post much. But I wanted to share this and maybe brag a bit.
14 months ago I got back on a bike since my teenage years. Reason? Health since I was for the first time in my life just over 200lbs looking 50 squarely in the face and exercising bores me to tears. What I hadn’t planned on was all of the fun that I was about to have, just like in my teenage years.
Today I’m a solid 20lbs lighter. I can ride for hours and miles on end without feeling like I’m sucking wasps and walking on legs made of noodles. My 7.3 mile commute to work can now be done in under a half hour if I push it but for the most part takes under 35 minutes including the stop at the store for my daily quart of chocolate milk. I’ve up the n+1 factor from 1 to 3 with the latest addition being a 2009 Cannondale Synapse Alloy 5 105. Total mileage from all 3 bikes has just passed the 3,000 mark.
What started out to be to see if I can hit 400 miles in the first 31 days of owning this bike turned in to seeing if I could hit 500 miles in that time. Had I not rode the 1996 Cannondale H600
(photos in another post here) the long way home from work one day last week I might have made it. Can you tell I'm really enjoying this bike?
Other than the seat I really like this bike.
I was oh slow close...
So what's next? I'm going to try and commute through the snow all this winter on bike #3 once I get some different tires on it. This should prove a new learning experience. Any tips?
fasthair
I just turned 50, just dropped below 200lbs for the first time in nearly 20 years, so I hear ya. Dump the chocolate milk, chocolate is very bitter and to counteract the bitterness they put a lot of sugar in it, that means a lot of empty calories you don't really want.
Snow tires? That depends on the kind of snow you get, if it's soft sticky stuff and temps drop just below freezing, then ordinary MTB tires are usually sufficient, but you want them as wide as possible, if they will fit 2.25" (57mm) would be good. If it's the hard packed stuff that turns to ice at the first opportunity, then go with a studded tire, same if you get a lot of ice, especially black ice. If you get much of the hard granular graupel type snow, then there really isn't much you can do, it's like riding on microscopic ball bearings that are in an oil bath. Mind you, when you get an accumulation of that stuff, you really shouldn't drive a car on it either.