Okay, I’m officially impressed with the ride of my Bridgestone. Indeed it’s a shame I’m back in Honolulu and it’s still in Hilo. I want to go back now so I can ride it again tomorrow. I’m going to have to content myself with my RB-1’s spiritual grandchild, my Rivendell Quickbeam.
I put in almost 29 miles today riding from my folks home into town, then out to the Panaewa Zoo (one of my favorite places), back down to sea level and out Keaukaha way, and finally back home.
Here’s how nice the ride was..I figured I’d put in just over 20 miles when in fact I was bit short of 30. The ride felt really fast to me overall, but I wasn’t timing it so I could be pretty far off.
Actually the ride didn’t start that well. I must have banged my rear derailleur bar-end shifter or something because it the gear kept slipping back onto the smallest cog. This wasn’t great but as the initial bit of the ride is downhill I was able to cope with it. Once I was in town I did a wee bit of tightening and the bike shifted fine for the rest of the day. I didn’t stop to do this on the way into town as I had an appointment and didn’t want to take the time out to make a fix for something that wasn’t really hurting me at that point.
Once I was fixed up and my obligation finished I was off to the zoo. It’s an easy climb of about 400 feet over a few miles so while you do notice you are going up it’s not really a lot like climbing hill after hill in Iowa. It’s just up.
After a cold drink at the zoo and quick walk around it was time to head back down. Down is fun. In fact I felt so good at the end of down I did flat for a few extra miles. Then it was time to go home, shower, have lunch with my mom (and answer a few of her Facebook questions – yes, she’s on FB), and get to the airport.
I can’t wait to go back so I can do this all over again…
Slower, cheaper, less useful…