Hulver's site || My first true road bike

Diaries
Everything
Who's Online?
FAQ / Help

My first true road bike

By riceowlguy (Mon May 21, 2012 at 11:36:36 AM EST) (all tags)

Probably not my last.

After more than a year of riding my hybrid and knowing that I would eventually want a real road bike, after four months of knowing that I was going to do Bike Around The Bay this fall and therefore really ought to get one soon, and after a month of actually shopping around and researching, I made my choice:

http://www.cannondale.com/2012-caad10-5-105-20093

That's at the top end of the range I had originally set out thinking about, but hopefully this means it will be a bike I can ride happily for several years and not a bike I will be upgrading from next year.

I ended up going with it over the CAAD 8-6, which would have been a few hundred less (and a lot prettier, in white), mainly because they had it in my size in stock, but also because of the 105 drivetrain and the more aggressive riding position - the whole point of the road bike is to go fast, and I may wish to use this to get on my college's alumni beer bike team. I'll be picking it up after work and taking it on a shakedown ride.

The rest of the weekend was busy but more or less relaxed; lots of shopping for little things here and there. Went to REI with MSO and while she shopped for hiking poles and other gear, I stumbled across a Deschutes Brewing Mirror Pond Pale Ale bike jersey, which just made my day.

Got to the trap and skeet range for the first time in at least three years and shot an 18/25 on skeet, so I still got it.

Did 23 miles on my hybrid in the evening. I'm trying to get back to where I was a year ago in terms of trying to get at least an hour of cardio in every day without fail, even if it means resorting to sandwiches.

< My New Game | Fleet of foot >

Login

Share this entry

Share on Facebook

Related Links

- http://www.cannondale.com/2012-caad10-5-105-20093
- CAAD 8-6
- riceowlguy's Diary

Hit Counter

51 Husi users have viewed this.

Comment Controls

My first true road bike | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Looks like a good choice by Herring

(2.00 / 0) #1 Mon May 21, 2012 at 05:09:59 PM EST

105 is a sound groupset. I like the FSA chainsets too - the boy has one on his bike and I do on my TT bike. They look nice.

One thing I gather about the RS10 wheels is that they are good but the build quality can be variable so either be prepared to get down & dirty with a spoke key yourself or drop them into the bike shop for a tune up after 500-1000 miles.

Deep Blue/In ’97 I voted for you/As Sports Personality of the Year

The shop by riceowlguy (2.00 / 0) #4 Tue May 22, 2012 at 01:50:42 PM EST

does a free "30-day" tune up. The guy said somewhere between 30 and 90 days is fine. If I ride as much as I plan to, I hopefully will cross 500 before 90 days is up. We shall see then. I'm definitely babying the wheels so far. I had a lot of bent rim problems with bikes in the 90's but I was a lot heavier; hopefully between my new lighter-but-still-massive-for-cycling body and newer technology, I can avoid that. When I first got my hybrid I cringed at every single bump I hit and now I pretty much ignore them; hopefully I'll get there on this one eventually.

Anyway, it's nice to have the resident expert say I made a decent choice.

[ Parent ]

: Things bed in by Herring (2.00 / 0) #5 Tue May 22, 2012 at 03:45:06 PM EST

Aluminium components particularly. And gear/brake cables stretch (more realistically, deform to fit the curves better) so getting a 6 week readjust is a good thing to do. Worth learning to fettle the gears yourself though - it's an easy job.
105 shouldn't give you many problems though. I have 2 year old Ultegra on the road bike which will be about the same as new 105 and that runs really well.

Deep Blue/In ’97 I voted for you/As Sports Personality of the Year
[ Parent ]

Woohoo! by The Lord Chancellor (2.00 / 0) #2 Tue May 22, 2012 at 09:07:25 AM EST

Very nice...gonna make it that much harder to keep pace with you!

: Eventually by riceowlguy (2.00 / 0) #3 Tue May 22, 2012 at 01:43:02 PM EST

I only made about 13 miles in just over an hour of riding last night, which is kind of a sucky pace. However, that was on the Braes path where I kept having to slow way down at every intersection because I'm much more afraid of bumps on these wheels than I am on my hybrid. The hybrid is by far the better bike for riding around town. However, if I want to be able to go 50 miles+ on the weekends out in the country, I'm going to have to make myself spend some time during the week on the road bike.
I did have the joy of touching 27mph plus on the final sprint of the day.
I get the feeling that once you guys get back from @danube2012 you will be ahead of me, assuming you can even stand to look at a bike again afterwards.

[ Parent ]

My first true road bike | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback