Petrol bills are falling rapidly in East Belfast. My latest acquisition might turn the whole fuel crisis around in a week or two. If you have shares in the oil industry, now is the time to offload them. And if you are a tanker driver, just be thankful there is still some demand left for your services - that might not long be the case.
I've bought a bike !
It is possible, of course, that the big fall will be me, not the fuel cost - balance is not my main gift!. It is possible that that fuel demand will increase as ambulances race across the Belfast skyline to pick up the bits and pieces that are left of me, once I hit the roads. And it is possible that tanker drivers will all resign the moment they catch sight of my lycra clad rear end on their horizon.
So what is going on here!?
1 The Big idea.
Once my cycling mad daughter finished her Istanbul to London lone cycle, she began planning an idiotic cycle around the coastline of India. Once that plan came to fruition at the start of this year, it was clear that any hint she gave of future cycling plans, should be taken seriously. So the planning has begun for her solo circumnavigation of the world by pedal power on land and sea, in world record time! Preparation for that requires some quick spins - so Lands End - John O'Groats and Belfast - Dublin are being suggested. Clearly, Dad needed a bike to keep her company.
2 The Frightening Choice
Once a bike was a bike was a bike. Now there is a frightening choice of road bikes plus hybrids, plus tourers, plus mtbs and urban ones too. Since dear daughter has such vast experience of bikes, her advice led me in the general direction of the Trek brand. Local Belfast bike shop does Trek's and Trev knows one of the owners.! So it was off to Bike-It to see what they had on offer. For someone who has not been on a bike since they evolved in Noah's ark, it was a shock to see modern bike technology in the flesh, so to speak. Why did no-one ever tell me that they have invented brakes that can actually stop a heavyweight cyclist in less than 800 yards? Why did no-one tell me that gears can now be operated by thumbs while still securely gripping the drop handle bars for dear life? Why did no-one tell me that bikes now are so light, that my granny could carry one in one hand - ( no, I know she is dead and can't actually do so, but this is a piece of literature you are reading, and some licence is acceptable ! )
I did dither for a long time, tossing up the pros and cons of a hybrid with narrowish tyres and straight handlebars or a drop handle bar proper road bike, with tyres so thin I could up up stuck in a drain grating.
The Trek 1.2 Double won the day after a very generous discount from the dealer. The list price is £499 and I can't tell you publicly how good the reduction was! - but it was amazing - thanks Dave and Chris.
3 The Vital Details
If you look on the Trek site you will get the technical details of the bike among their glittering 2008 productions. Some of the spec details would be meaningless to you - as some are still to me.
But the details that affected my choice and my experience include the following. The Double is not a reference to the drink needed before venturing out on to the public highway, but to the double gear wheel on the front of the chainset, which results in doubling the back 8 gears to make 16 altogether. A triple is available for about the same price, but I reckoned it might overcomplicate things for me - so mine's a double thanks.
The shifters on the handle bars look like the standard brake pulls I had 30 years ago. Now, very cleverly, they also incorporate the gear shifters too. On this entry level road bike from Trek, the system is less complex and refined than on the bikes further up the scale. It is a Shimano 2200 STI system. It means that a quick flick of the hand gives an easier gear, while a click of a thumb on the little black lever, gives a harder gear. The draw back of this particular shifter is that those who ride with hands right down on the drop of the handle bars, could have a job stretching their thumbs to those levers.
There are two carbon sections to the bike - the seat post and the front forks. These create extra lightness since carbon is lighter than the aluminium used for most of the bike. Carbon is also supposed to soften the impact of bumps in the road.
A Trek computer keeps a record of distances, times and speeds. It can be used in trip mode for a single journey, or to give overall and average figures for all the journeys done. Be warned, if you are an old geyser returning to bikes after a long while, it is scary to be moving through traffic in the morning, and suddenly look down to see that you are at 28mph!
4 The Exciting Experience.
Using the bike most days for 4 recent weeks has had its hairy moments. Forgetting to brake well before turning a corner has left me negotiating a junction at over 20mph, and that gets the heart racing a bit. The bike is so light that the steering is more sensitive than anything I have ridden before, and I tended to oversteer all the time. The weight, build and gearing of the bike make this faster than any bike I have ever used, and the thrill of that tempts someone of my temperament to go flat out all the time. Which is fine except that I arrive at the gym in the morning for a spin class half knackered befoe I begin! The pedals need to be upgraded. The rat-trap design makes getting one foot secure before setting off, very simple. But getting the other foot inside a strap while on the move is near impossible - for me anyway.! It came with no pump, no bell, and no lights !! I understand that these are not considered to be cool. The effort to make this bike light is not to be meddled with by adding such extras! But I have rediscovered how utterly thoughtless pedestrians can be. My main risks have not been from cars and lorries but from those silly people who walk out in front of cyclists assuming it is possible to bring a bike from 20 mph to a standstill in the space of 10 feet. This constitutes my public warning that this is not possible, and anyone trying it out will experience over 16 stone of solid human muscle cementing them to the road surface - and I promise to be on top.!
5 The Conclusion
This is a good entry level bike if you want to start road cycling - or restart it. The colour is mainly black with some red and white extras, which will not show dirt too quickly, and should not attract the theives too easily. The saddle looks incredibly narrow and potentially painful, but it works well. I will be changing the pedals for some clipless ones once I can afford them, but otherwise the bike is well equipped for a beginner. By the time you get it bought and all the equipment added, it is not a cheap proposition. But the seriously good side to it, is that I get extra exercise each day, and am saving petrol at a rate that will pay for the bike in 2 years. It is great fun to feel the wind in the face, beat the traffic in rush hour, and smell the countryside air. I have not committed to a 100 mile trip to Dublin, but at least I think I could seriously ponder the idea with something other than grim determination. Photos of the lycra in action will follow soon.!
ps - since writing the above, it has come to my attention that a certain one of my 'buddies' - blonde, female, verbose and from Belfast, has taken to the streets locally in some kind of jeep, 4x4, or ex-army personnel carrier. ! ( probably nicked from a former pupil's father's army base ! ) This was a danger that I had not been anticipating when choosing the bike - does anyone know where I can buy full body armour for use on bicycles ? Also, can you tell me a good deal on cycle insurance that covers being hit by a jeep driving erratically on the wrong side of the road by embodied vodka ?
