Well, it's been a year since I had any kind of speed and I was truly coming to grips with never riding as "fast" as I used to. All my rides this year after months and months off for more surgeries have been pathetically slow. But a few rides the last week or so saw me getting back up to speed for a few miles of a ride. Today I hopped on the Oscar Freire bike and decided to see what the legs could do. Missed the mark but did manage an 18.8 mph pace. A lot faster than I've done on any other ride this year. The positive thing about today's ride is that I did this despite being slowed down, stopped, and even ran off the road at one point. If this had been a clean ride I've no doubt it would have been at least 19 mph. So, I'm hoping in a few weeks I can start getting a bunch more of the bikes into the 19 mph club. I feel like age and other things are really catch up to me. Shoulder is not coming around yet from the surgery and is a hinderance. I actually had to put a heating pad on it pre-ride just to loosen it up. Arthritis in my other hand is just killing me most of the time too. But anyway, hopefully soon I can start adding back to the list and get bikes like the Krapf and the Rickert into the "club". I had the Krapf so closed a couple of times last year and they one should be easy to get there once the ol' body is up to it again. Really curious about the PT-3500 also. Can I really propel a heavy bike with 700 x 38 tires as fast as those 5 lbs lighter with my more normal 700 x 25 tires?


Almost today...almost. There is hope for this old geezer after all.