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A bike does not a cyclist make.

So...I got the new bike in the garage and all I can think about all day today is getting home and taking it for a spin. I got home late the day I bought it and surfed all day Sunday, so today was the day. I should mention that along with my bike, I purchased a few accessories as well. I got clip in pedals, an under seat pouch, water bottle cages, a bike computer, and biking gloves. I mention this because the demise of my first ride on the new bike, came from one of these extra purchases.

Clip In Pedals - An obvious newbie disaster waiting to happen. Lucky for me, I have yet to install the pedals as I don't yet have shoes, so the pedals didn't hurt me today.

Under seat pouch - I'm trying to think of ways that an innocent, under the seat pouch could ruin a ride. Maybe if the pouch was filled with some sort of acid that burned through the pouch and then melted my rear tire. Nah, as you may have guessed, no melted tire, this suspect is in the clear.

Water Bottle Cages - I'm not even gonna try to be clever, it wasn't the cages.

Bike Computer - The computer might make a ride less enjoyable by telling you that you haven't really gone that far, or that you're not really going that fast, but that's not the type of ride disaster I'm talking about. Next.

Wait, that only leaves one last suspect...the biking gloves. How could bike gloves ruin a ride you ask? Good question, I'm glad you brought it up. OK, OK, if I'm honest, it wasn't really the gloves' fault. More likely, it was the person wearing the gloves that set the disaster in motion. Yes, that would be me.

My eagerness got the best of me today. I raced home from work, changed and headed to the garage. Yes, it was then that I noticed a chill in the air. But it's not that cold out right? Having ridden a few times in shorts, I find it hard to revert back to my french rolled wind pants, so here I am, in shorts and my new fingerless biking gloves. Now, mind you, I'm still in the garage at this point. Why not run back inside and put some pants on. Why not run back inside and pull on Becky's snowboarding gloves (ah the good ol' days).

No, that would have made too much sense. It's not that cold I tell myself. At this point, my kid with a new toy brain is not being very rational. Instead of doing the old down and back ride that I've done a few times and since I now have a full array of real gears to choose from, I decided to go on a new, hilly route that should be about ten miles. Short yes, but I'm starting at about 6:30 and daylight (and temperature) are fading fast.

Things go really well for about... I dunno... maybe 217 yards. Then I realize I've made a gross miscalculation. Why Clay? Why don't you turn around? You're still so close to home, please turn around.

Unfortunately, I didn't hear you when I was riding and my ignorant self kept cranking. I got about 2 miles from home and then it really started to set in. It's beyond cold at this point. I'm seriously worried that I'm doing real damage to my hands in their stupid, new fingerless gloves. (yes, I know it's me not the gloves) Excruciating pain has suddenly brought clear reason to my stubborn brain and I know turning around is a must. I head for home but the unfortunate fact is that while I want to race home, the faster I go, the worse it gets for my exposed flesh. Luckily, since I've gone on a few rides, I'm now able to take a hand off the handlebars without losing control or doing the "town drunk", wobbly ride. I managed to ride the whole way home with one hand on the bars and the other in a fist, out of the wind, trying to salvage a ounce of feeling...it was a losing battle.

I hope someone out there has been in a similar boat before, not that I enjoy others suffering, but there has to be someone out there, who understands the unbearable pain I was experiencing. I've had cold hands snowboarding before. I've had cold hands surfing in the middle of winter. I've even had my hands get cold washing them in the sink before the water heats up, but nothing has ever been even close to as painful as this. I make it home only to find that I'm now locked out. I have to bang on the door with my handcicles to get Becky to open it up. To her credit, she didn't expect me home from my ride so soon and was upstairs.

Now this part surprised me a bit. I thought I was out of the woods when I finally got in the house, but oh, it got waaaay worse before it got better. As my hands start to warm up, they now feel like they're on fire from the inside out. Crazy. Only time helped. About a half hour later the numbness/burning/cold had worn off and only my pride was left damaged. No frostbite or black fingers thank goodness. Come to find out, it was 28 degrees with 15-20 mile an hour wind. Not a good day to try out new fingerless gloves.

Lesson learned; no matter how excited I am, check the weather and plan accordingly. Also, just because it's "spring" and the sun is shining, doesn't mean that it ain't bitterly cold out. The good news is that for a brief time, the new bike performed well. A more thorough report to come, once I get it out on a respectable ride. Stay turned.

Upgrade!

The New Bike is Finally in my Garage.
Sorry to have left you hanging until now about the bike purchase. It took all day on Saturday, then we had plans Saturday night, and then Sunday I had plans to go surfing all day. So not only have I not had time to blog about the bike purchase. I haven't had time to even ride it since I got it home. Anyway, here's the story.

After much shopping and deliberating, the purchase was made and I'm now the proud owner of my first road bike. The lucky cycle is a 2009 GT Series 4. A nice entry level bike with a carbon fork and Shimano Sora component group. I have to hand it to GT for making an entry level bike that doesn't scream "I'm a slow, newbie!". Certainly that's true, and people are going to find out soon enough, but I'd like to be the bearer of that news, not the look of my bike.

So, Saturday morning, Becky and I headed up to Simple Living Cycles up in Boston. I decided to check this place out was because my brother Clint had a good experience there and got a great deal on his road bike. I had talked to the owner Phil, on the phone a few times, he was sure that he had a couple bikes that would fit me and would be in my price range so the trip seemed worth it. When we got there it was pretty much as I expected. A hole in the wall bike shop, packed to the gills with bikes, parts and who knows what else that had accumulated over years of Phil's unique organizational style. Luckily, I'm not OCD in the slightest so it didn't bother me, I was here for a bike not a lesson on clean living so he put some pedals on a few and I started the test driving.

First up was the GT series 4. Immediately I loved it, but I didn't want to make any rash decisions as my comparison point at this time was a 30 year old Lotus. I moved onto a Jamis, nice but I wasn't in love. Next, I tried a GT series 3, a step up components wise from the series 4 and it was good but I couldn't really tell a difference. One nice thing about being new is that I haven't yet developed that curse of only loving the most expensive, highest end stuff. I'm sure that'll come, as it seems to with any hobby, but for now, I'm enjoying the bliss of being happy with almost anything produced in this decade.

The Series 4 is a sweet matte black with bright green accents, while the Series 3 is royal blue. I know having Tiagra parts versus Sora is a step up, but I couldn't tell the difference, plus Phil was telling me why spend the extra money. Hilarious. The owner of the shop telling me that for an entry level bike, because it isn't my dream bike and it will be upgraded from eventually no matter what parts it's got, I might as well save the money and go with the cheaper bike. Who does that in retail? I'm not complaining, just a funny observation. At the end of the day, I went with his advice and got the Series 4. Now it was on to finding the perfect size. I went back and forth riding the large then the XL, trying to determine which would be a better fit. It was very hard to tell the difference. Again, being new to cycling, finding the tiny nuances between sizes was tough. The good news, was that I wasn't uncomfortable on either, and eventually settled on the larger frame. I'm six feet tall, and the XL I was told is equivalent to a 58cm bike, and it felt comfortable, end of story. Oh, did I mention that this happens to be the exact same bike that my little brother bought about a month ago. He's about my size (yes, a smidge taller) and is loving the XL, has put a few hundred miles on it, and had no complaints. I'd be lying if I didn't say that made the purchase a lot easier. So to be fair, if you see us riding together, yes, he had it first, I'm the copy cat.

About to leave with the new purchase.

Here are some more pictures to enjoy. I hope to get in a "sizable" ride after work today, so I can give you a good review of the new whip. So excited...

Tomorrow, tomorrow...

The Big Day is Finally Here

Tomorrow, I'm heading up to Boston to my brother's local bike shop and I'm praying that the bike shopping will end there. I'm so excited, yet at the same time, it'll be hard to move on from the Lotus. We have a bond now, I feel a little guilty; like I'm trading her in for a younger, hotter model. Which I clearly am, but she knew this day would come, so we'll all move on, even if it ain't easy. Stay tuned for the celebration, pictures and stuff. Wish me luck.