Back In The Saddle

My new-to-me cyclocross bike

I have always enjoyed cycling, but when I was in high school, in the early 1990s, a friend of mine started cycling in a serious manner. I had been friends with him since we were in the third or fourth grade when we played on the same soccer team. I saw what he was doing and it looked like a lot of fun, so I followed along and bought my first road bike from him, a Schwinn Prelude, very similar to this one minus the aero bars.

Up until that point I had had a bike of some sort growing up and would ride all over the place. Now I was moving into another chapter of cycling in which I would wear lycra shorts, clip in to Look pedals and ride the narrowest tires I had ever seen. I immediately fell in love with this new type of bike riding. I began riding with him and the local racing club, though I had a hard time keeping up at first, I eventually was able to keep pace with the group.

My next bike would be a Trek 1400.

It still had downtube shifters, I think I bought this bike one year too early to get in on the whole brake lever shifter revolution. I never upgraded either. I rode this bike for more miles than any other. Racing club training rides, races, centuries, solo rides just for fun. Shortly after I bought the Trek, I converted, as best I could, the Schwinn into a quasi-cyclocross bike. I removed the brakes and put cross tires on it and installed toe clips on platform pedals. I would casually ride this in the woods near my house. The terrain was flat and sandy.

I eventually let the Schwinn go in the mid-90s. I was still riding the Trek when I made the move inland from Wilmington to Raleigh. I would eventually let the Trek go, a decision I still regret to this day. Don't ask, it is a long and painful story. After a couple of years of not riding, I was seriously getting the itch to ride again. So I spent less than $500 on a bike from, of all places, Dick's Sporting Goods. Honestly, I love that store.... for other gear. I buy most of my stuff for soccer there and that is fine. However, the bikes are just not what I would like to ride. However, I did do quite a bit of riding on that bike and even a few metric centuries. I must admit, I enjoyed being able to keep pace with all of the other riders on much more expensive setups than mine.  Over time though, I found some soccer teams that were looking for a goalkeeper and that began to consume more of my time and my bike became more neglected.

This latest urge to ride started in 2018 when I went to The Virginia Creeper trail with my kids Boy Scout troop. We rented bikes, were taken to the top of the trail by van and rode down the mountain. It was incredibly fun but did not satisfy my need for a challenging ride. We did it again this year and this is when I seriously started to consider another evolution in my cycling life. I wanted to get a cyclocross bike again. After the years of riding on the road in the Raleigh area, dealing with increasing traffic, and being run off the road, I felt that all I really wanted to do was ride on our greenway system and find some trails suited to cyclocross. So I began my stalking of craigslist to find a bike. Getting back into cycling I did not want to spend a lot of money so I thought this would be a good alternative. After some time watching the site, and a few bikes in the price range I was looking for being sold before I could talk to the seller, a bike showed up that looked perfect. It was my size, a cyclocross bike, and was being sold along with two extra wheelsets (an additional tubular set and a clincher set), the original longer stem, original short cage Shimano 105 derailleur, original cantilever brakes, and Shimano SPD pedals. I could tell right away this was an enthusiast and had spent time and money to make this a nice bike and would suit my needs well. I jumped on the opportunity and contacted the seller right away. We arranged for a test ride the following evening. The test ride went well and I bought the bike the next day. Gina was very supportive of this purchase as she knows how much I enjoy riding. It doesn't hurt when we go look at new bikes and she sees the prices there.

For the past two days, I have taken this bike out on the greenway near my house, which also has some single track trails. Riding on the greenway is simple. I have quickly found out though that riding off road, up hill, is much harder than any cycling I have done in the past.  It is still incredibly fun and is something I will continue to do. In fact, my plan is to, if the Boy Scout troop does the Virginia Creeper trail next year, is to go early, ride up the mountain and meet the troop either at the top or as they are descending. Eventually, I plan to put some road tires on the clincher wheelset and ride this bike down the Neuse River train into Johnston county and back. I doubt I will race again, but just being able to get out and ride between my three to five soccer games a week is my goal. Here are the two rides that I hope will get me back in the saddle again.
https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3623884402
https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3635640133