Anyone into cycling?

JCL · #8 08-22-2009, 11:33 AM

Into cycling? Yes. Road cycling for me. My primary bike is a Trek 5200 OCLV with Ultegra, not used as much at the moment so it is mounted on a Computrainer 3D with real course videos. I have been doing the bike portions of the Ironman series on that, in stages. No racing, just for fun. I am currently spending a lot of time on a custom built Co-Motion tandem with my wife. We did 132 km last Sunday, pretty typical for any weekend in the April-September timeframe; we are at 1800 km so far this summer, and we did 2000 km last summer. I will get back on the Computrainer for the winter, except for the odd RW cruise on a nice day. The Co-Motion is a Supremo Co-Pilot, 30.5 lbs plus the XTR pedals, and it comes apart at the S&S couplers for airline shipping. Full Dura Ace, except for the XTR rear derailleur and custom IRD sprockets. We did the MS Ride for a Cure on the tandem two weeks back, not timed, but we managed to stay with a rather energetic group of younger riders over the full course. (They were 20 and 30 -somethings, we are going to celebrate our 50ths fairly soon) We finished the 60 km course before our friends finished the 30 km short course, so that was fun. We hit 60 km/hr most weekends, and cruise at 40 km/hr on the flats.

Best ride(s) of the summer involved a week at the Burrowing Owl winery guesthouse in the Okanagan valley. The Subaru Canadian Ironman course goes past the driveway, and while we don't race, we did segments of the course each morning. We got in 360 km over the week, and still got to laze around the pool the rest of the day. Heaven.

If I find more time to get back on a single bike, a Cervelo RS custom built up with 2009 Dura Ace and decent wheels is on the list. A couple of shots of the current bikes are included below.

I grew up on Grouse and Fromme mountains, on the North Shore of Vancouver, and we still live within 30 km of that site. It is a mecca for mountainbike riders, so the locals who ride a fair bit are really split into two camps; either the roadies, or the crazy downhill riders. I stay away from the trails, as I can't afford the broken bones. A sample video is shown below. The serious riding starts at the 1 minute mark. Lots more videos available if you search on North Shore or Whistler.

YouTube - North Shore Extreme 9