Sunday, January 9, 2011

chugging along

Heading out in this:


Saturday I rode out to (Blogmaster's note: an undisclosed location) to my friend Bob's house. His son was having his birthday party. Joe joined me on the ride. It was about 12 miles but they were tough. I think it took 1'22" to get there. Seemingly slow but a winter commuter with fenders and studs is no Flexy Flyer! It went well.

Snow covered dirt roads and snowless, wet paved roads made up the route. The dirt sections were the nicest and my favorite. I like the dirt roads for sure and the San Jose (Bianchi) loves them. It feels right at home there and does a great job at holding a good line.

Joe and myself when we first arrived. I'm the big guy on the left!
The bikes (Joe's Kona and my Bianchi)
Look at those spokes! Aero!

The Alfine worked great. I have to say that even though the eight speed limits your gear choices, it makes alot of sense to have one on a winter bike. No snow and/or ice build up in the gears to cause shifting problems. I have a full housing from the shifter all the way back to the hub so I don't have anything that gets in the way of the cable working like it should.

My wife was there with the truck. I loaded the bikes on the rack.
Here is a shot of those spokes again. Ice and snow loves dirt.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks like a good ride Wil. I definately find winter to be slower! Glad to hear the Alfine is still a happy hub.

Unknown said...

Greg, it is most definitely a great thing. I'm very glad that I went with it. One other thing that makes it great is the shifter. I'm glad that someone made a STI style shifter so that I could keep the drop bars. I plan on doing a post about the shifters here soon. Thanks for reading!

Apertome said...

Looks like a blast. I love rides like that ... did something similar over the weekend ... but yes, they sure are slower.