Category: cycling (Page 3 of 37)

Granted I ride an old bike by most standards, a 2005 Scott CR1 Pro. A fine bike, one I have ridden almost exclusively – my stable has 4 bikes – with the Scott being my main ride, my road bike. Though she is old, nothing wrong with old if you catch my drift, the frame and fork are topnotch and fit me well. Plus with a few thousand miles of riding each season all the other parts have been replaced at some point, including an upgrade last year to Campagnolo Chorus 11 groupset. All parts except the wheels that is, until recently.

I have put serious miles on the stock wheels and hoped they would need replacing. If something needs replacing it is a repair not an upgrade and easier to rationalize and accept the cost. Anyhow, that wish came true this summer when my rear hub was pronounced toast by the mechanic at my LBS.

Like most cyclists I had heard no upgrade changes the performance of a bike more than wheels and I am here to tell you it is true. Incredibly true. I wish I had done it years ago.

To be fair, I went from the stock Mavic Ksyrium wheelset to Reynolds ARX41 carbon fiber wheelset with tubeless Schwalbe Pro 1 tires so you would expect an improvement in overall ride, climbing, etc., and I did, but I was cautiously hopeful about any improvements I would see.

The wheels have exceeded all expectations and made cycling even better this summer. So if you have been on the fence about upgrading your wheels I encourage you to take the leap. With us entering the off-season for cycling you can probably find good options at a good price.

My Scott pictured above; I opted for the tan Schwalbe tires to complement that beautiful black frame. I like the look. Thanks for reading!

The Mighty Bicycle

Healer of my heart | Restorer of my soul | Keeper of my flame

I love this piece, Centering by Patrick Brady of Red Kite Prayer, one of my favorite cycling blogs. Centering is what cycling has done for me countless times throughout my life and still does. ~Susan

An excerpt from Centering by Patrick Brady:

“Three days into a three-week tour I had my first moment of reckoning. I was on a Western Montana highway with mountains to my right and little other than blacktop before me. This was my first big chance to go deep on the thing I loved doing—riding my bike. However, as I was buffeted by the backwash from a passing semi, I was thrust upon the spiky end of a realization.

There were hundreds of miles between each of my big destinations. I was going to be pedaling a long damn time.

Going for a ride had always meant getting on my bike and heading to some destination; home, my apartment, work. A bike ride started in a familiar place, went someplace interesting and then returned to a familiar place. To this point in my life those adventures had been contained within a single arc of the sun. But now I was confronting the idea that I wouldn’t reach either the end of an adventure or my destination before the sun set.

I didn’t appreciate that I’d put myself to a kind of test. For days, I would wake, break camp, and then spend the day riding, only to arrive at another campground, with my destination closer only in my intellect. To my eye, I was still nowhere.

I was going to find out just how much I liked riding a bike.  But what is riding a bike? Is it the going someplace? Is it what you see on a ride? Is it the fun you had in riding the particular terrain? That question eluded me, didn’t compute. I didn’t know enough to ask it.

When was it I finally understood that cycling is the act of pedaling a bicycle and pointing it in a direction, no more, and certainly not less?
It was a day in France, on an Alpine climb longer than many movies when I began to understand. I looked down at my legs and watch the circles my knees traced, my feet going round and round with the pedals.
This is what cycling is.” —Read more of Red Kite Prayer’s Centering here