Can you explain this?
After 10 years of riding my 5 speed raleigh road bike I went ahead and bought a brand new 2004 specialized sequoia sport.
I love my old bike. I put high handle bars on it that allowed me to sit up almost straight. While I know this position goes against everything I know about bike position, I have loved it. I ride my bike everyday in new York City and have even rode in two centuries and several long tours. Over the last two weeks I have riddden my old bike between 30-50 miles a day in preperation for an upcoming century. People are always surprised when they see me do these rides on this old bike. I am not fast on my rides. At best I average about 14 miles an hour.
I bought the new one because I started to notice much inefficiencies with my bike as I tried to take hills. I also wanted to have the experience of a differnt bike after 10 years. And since I'm doing another century in a few weeks I thought it would be fun to have a more efficient bike.
Well I have had my new bike for 3 days and have put about 40 miles on it.
The quick conclusion is that I'm not in love. My biggest 2 complaints are as follows. First, I spend a lot of time looking at asphalt as opposed to my suuroundings. Second, and most importantly, my lower back really hurt after riding. I don't know if that is a function of not being used to leaning over, or if my muscles are just not developed yet.
Anyway, yesterday I was going on a 50 mile ride and I decided to take my old bike. The ride was a breeze.
So I am still up in the air as to whether this was a smart purchase.
If you have any thougts I'd like to hear them, particularly about the back pain.
adley