Monday, April 30, 2007
The Cycle Challenge Just Became a Trek
This evening I did my usual twelve mile weekday evening ride, out of Saxmundham across the currrently closed bridge over the River Fromus, up the hill and onto the empty (thanks to the closed bridge) winding road towards Leiston before heading North towards Theberton, skirting Clay Hills and then back down the hill into Kelsale and the final sprint back along North Entrance into Saxmundham... However, today it was different as I did it on my new bike that I bought earlier in the day.
I went to the shop wanting to buy a new Specialized Roubaix, but to be honest, to get the high end components you had to pay in excess of £2,500 on the Specialized. Instead I opted for a 2006 model Trek 5.2 Madone in Discovery Channel colours.
It was almost half the price, reduced by £600 because it's last year's bike and Discovery Channel are reputedly pulling their sponsorship of the Trek pro cycling team. That doesn't worry me, saving £600 smackeroonies does. And the bike is fantastic. It's feather light and goes like the wind. You can immediately tell the difference between this and my previous Allez. The gears sounds like they could be electronic when changing, giving off a pleasing click, instead of the grinding clunk of the Allez. I didn't have time to fit the computer onto the new bike so don't know what speed I was doing, but I do know that despite a very feisty headwind, the ride seemed much easier than usual, and I was home before my daughter had to go to bed.
Next time I'll put the computer on and tell you the top speed. It's not quite the Ferrari of road bikes, but it's certainly the Porsche Cayman....
Finally, my website of the week is MapMyRide.com. It allows you to ploy a route on detailed road maps (ignore the Americanisation of the site, search for a UK town as a start point and it's got all the UK maps too). It then tells you the distance, the calories burned and shows you the hills you've been up and down.. Try it out, there's one for runners too.
Labels: Discovery Channel, Madone, New Bike, Trek
