I've been doing a lot more road riding lately than mountain biking. The main reason is that it's easier to hop on my road bike and just ride versus having to drive to mtb trails (most of which are at least a 30 minute drive). One of the downfalls of racking up road miles on my Steamroller is that I am becoming blatantly aware of what a huge difference having gears makes. It has nothing to do with ascents and descents, but rather spin and speed. My regular Sunday morning ride used to just be my buddy Christian and I, both on single speeds. Lately we have been riding with a couple of other guys though who are on geared bikes and keeping up with them can be difficult at times. There usually isn't an issue as long as we stay in the 16-20 mph range. Once they drop down (or is it up?) a few gears though we have to spin like crazy to stay with them. Anything over 24 mph is pretty much impossible to sustain for longer than a mile (at least for me). I thought about increasing my front ring from a 47 to 52 but that seems like a quick fix and will open up a new set of problems.
So, I'm in the market for a geared road bike. I've owned aluminum and very briefly (thanks to a SHITHEAD THIEF) titanium bikes, so I'm pretty confident that I want to go with a steel frame. The bike that fits my budget, has a decent group set and isn't too bad on the eyes is the Bianchi Imola. Bianchi wont allow their bikes to be shipped and there isn't a local dealer, so I might have to order it from a shop up in DC and pick it up. More on this later.
No comments:
Post a Comment