- 30,023
- Thailand
@Moglet, the warranty and the customisation on the Bird would justify the extra money for me.
Today I suffered. And I loved every minute of it, in retrospect.
I only went out to climb the local Doi Suthep mountain but what a tough morning it was.
On the start of the climb I rode up on a German guy with at least 10 years on me. We got talking about riding and he told me he'd done a few years semipro in his time and he was in his third climb of the mountain that morning.
By kilometre 5 I begun to realise that I'd been riding at his pace. His pace is 50 minutes up the climb with a PB of 39. At that point my heart was under too much pressure and I wanted to puke once I realised I was almost burnt out not even half way up. I told him I'd meet him at the top and he dropped me.
I lowered my pace and heart rate and started to feel much better until my right knee, less than two weeks from a crash, begun to hurt. A lot. I thought I'd healed up but obviously there's still some damage there.
Gritted teeth and leaking fluids faster than a cheap hose pipe I just about managed the top. I had to walk the last 100m because I became so tired I swerved into a curb and unclipped to recover leaving me unable to get the bike moving again (the last 200m is around 20-25%).
Had a drink at the top and then headed back down. Having not ridden the bike since it was crashed I was in for a rough ride. The rear brakes were out of place so I had to lock them down onto the rim, the levers were useless. Front brakes were only slightly better but useless for cornering.
I don't know if my frame got bent slightly but going down was terrifying at anything close to 50kph. The wheels skipped around the road surface and then on the lower slopes some drizzle set in and lubed everything up. Yay.
By the time I'd got off the mountain my back, neck, elbows, ankles and everything else was stiff and covered in salt.
Absolutely, punishingly terrifying.
I loved it and made 1.04 to the top, fastest I've been up. Gonna do it again next week I think.
Today I suffered. And I loved every minute of it, in retrospect.
I only went out to climb the local Doi Suthep mountain but what a tough morning it was.
On the start of the climb I rode up on a German guy with at least 10 years on me. We got talking about riding and he told me he'd done a few years semipro in his time and he was in his third climb of the mountain that morning.
By kilometre 5 I begun to realise that I'd been riding at his pace. His pace is 50 minutes up the climb with a PB of 39. At that point my heart was under too much pressure and I wanted to puke once I realised I was almost burnt out not even half way up. I told him I'd meet him at the top and he dropped me.
I lowered my pace and heart rate and started to feel much better until my right knee, less than two weeks from a crash, begun to hurt. A lot. I thought I'd healed up but obviously there's still some damage there.
Gritted teeth and leaking fluids faster than a cheap hose pipe I just about managed the top. I had to walk the last 100m because I became so tired I swerved into a curb and unclipped to recover leaving me unable to get the bike moving again (the last 200m is around 20-25%).
Had a drink at the top and then headed back down. Having not ridden the bike since it was crashed I was in for a rough ride. The rear brakes were out of place so I had to lock them down onto the rim, the levers were useless. Front brakes were only slightly better but useless for cornering.
I don't know if my frame got bent slightly but going down was terrifying at anything close to 50kph. The wheels skipped around the road surface and then on the lower slopes some drizzle set in and lubed everything up. Yay.
By the time I'd got off the mountain my back, neck, elbows, ankles and everything else was stiff and covered in salt.
Absolutely, punishingly terrifying.
I loved it and made 1.04 to the top, fastest I've been up. Gonna do it again next week I think.
Vantage Point Tour De Yorkshire - Stage 3 Wakefield.
