Greetings, I hope this post finds you well, as this summer continues to fly by 🙁
Today, after three years, returned to cycling as additional activity next to my fitness regimen, alongside strength training. I spent the last month preparing for this return by first putting my 1988 vintage Nishiki Rally 12-speed racer back in the shop for a tune up after not riding it for three years. I decided to use a local shop called Family Bike Shop for the most recent tune up which was about two weeks ago. The following is a note entry from when I got it out of same shop three years ago:
01 Aug 23: Got my bike out of the shop 10 days ago and finally took it for a short spin. It’s a 1988 Nishiki Rally 12-speed racer. The ten minute spin was long enough yo see how it rides after the tune up, get the HR up for a bit, but to really test out mirroring the AW, via the iOS Accessibility feature, to my phone so I can use it mounted like a pseudo-bike computer. The bike rides well but I was disappointed that, despite riding in pavement, there was enough vibration to turn off mirroring. I wonder how I can prevent this next time, because I’d really like to take advantage of the new cycling features when watchOS10 drops.
After getting it out of said shop two weeks ago, I took it for a short test ride when I got home. My plan was to use this bile to ease back into cycling. After two days of sitting in the garage, I planned to do a second ride but found the front tire was going flat, apparently due to a very slow leak. I found it a bit strange that it was so slow that nothing leaked after the shop having for six days. I called the shop about this and asked if checking tire pressure wasn’t part of the activities I paid $125 for. They said technically not but they do give a cursory look and invited me to bring the bike in BUT didn’t offer to replace the tube. I passed as I already felt it was too much trouble. Nonetheless, they lost my business on the repair side of things but that is of really no consequence, as you see soon.
I’ve always been one to do a substantial amount of research before making a purchase and while any kind of online pros and cons review is helpful, it’s always best to get a personal recommendation when possible. Despite already doing enough research to purchase the Trek Domane AL 4 Gen 4, I received a number of personal recommendations from a long time friend and motivational/inspirational athlete and fitness training enthusiast, Ray Garraud, thanks for all the chats and references leading up to this day, Ray, always appreciated! It was Ray’s recommendation that helped me choose the Trek Domane Al 4 Gen 4, not only as a better bike then the Al 2 Gen 4, but as in investment in fitness.
Along with conversing with Ray, I spent a fair amount of time perusing in and posting to two or Reddit’s subreddits Cycling and Road Bikes. The amount of shared information there was extremely helpful for not only helping me settle on the bike purchase, but in learning about other areas such as bike computer and other accessory recommendations, recording video of your ride, fueling/nutrition, etc. I tend to use Instagram for research as well and always find it useful, but the noise can be so loud from an influencer standpoint, I’m very picky on who I consume from, let along follow. It can, understandably, be very overwhelming if you don’t consume with a specific rhyme and reason approach that best applies to where you currently are and what you’re trying to achieve.
On to the purchase – last weekend, six days ago as of this post, I opted to purchase the bike from a Trek store about a 30 minute drive from me because it had the bike in stock with the color I wanted, vs a closer non-Trek (but very popular and well known) store due to having to wait for store delivery. The whole experience at the Trek store, from the initial phone call to interaction with the sales tech activities like a basic fitting, a demo for getting in and out of clipless pedals, shop talk about the bike geometry/crankset/test ride/etc. was great and the icing on the cake is that store had a very friendly shop dog 🙂 I happened to finish everything up right before a wicked thunderstorm hit the area, so I sat in my care for almost 30 minutes while it passed over. Afterwards, I got the bike home, did another once over and stationed it in the garage for the next few days and reading more about the bike, watching YouTube videos/continue to check Reddit/etc.
On to the ride – One thing I really planned to do before ANY ride, was to ensure that I can easily get in an out of the clipless pedals. I still plan to do that but that is going to take some practice to prevent frequent falling trying to get released, LOL. That said, I decided to throw on my Nike Metcon 4 training shoes instead and practice clipless release on off ride days. planned to take this first intro ride in the cool of the evening last night but that got preempted so this morning it was. I purposely got about 8 hours of sleep, pulled out one of two bib shorts and cycling shirts I have, got dressed, had breakfast and proceeded to head out. I finally left the house a little after 10pm and the temperature may have been around 80 degrees. I decided to just ride around the community to get a feel for how it rides, gear shifting from the handlebars, braking, etc. There is one hill that leads out of my community in the next neighboring one, so I took advantage of it. There are a fair amount of active folk in my community so I past two runners and a speed walker. Aside from that, the neighboring communities have a number of group riders that I’ve noticed always passing through over the years. The breeze was good however I definitely started to break a sweat to the point where I barely covered 5k (3 miles) at the rate and exertion was going at, thinking after three years, it wouldn’t be an issue. I took note of my cycling stance, noticing if I was riding locked-arm unconsciously or not. Definitely have to get used to the stock saddle or need better bib shorts (or both haha). After about 15 minutes, including a six minute pause, I decided to call it quits as I had enough experience to assess how I should approach these subsequent rides. Frankly, I was disappointed that it wore me out more than I expected, to the point where I sat for a good minute AND laid across the garage floor a bit to stretch and breath in the heat LOL!!! Whew..lesson learned.
I’ve always tracked my fitness stats in one way or another and cycling has been included. Not having a bike computer, ever, I returned to just using the Apple Watch cycling workout tracking which did fine as it has done prior to watchOS10. At the intro of watchOS10, a lot of new cycling features were added, including the ability to add bluetooth cadence and power meters to your bike so you can track those metrics as well. Seeing I have none of those either, the tracking did fine BUT (as it did before) somehow I didn’t see live activities showing up on my phone, even though my phone was in my bag for the entire ride. In addition, Strava only picked up half of the workout stats. All this I’ve have to investigate and solve in time for future rides. In addition, I need to figure out how I’ll record my ride videos. Just a few hours ago, I just got my first bike computer, the inexpensive but often used CycPlus M3. It has all the initial features I’m looking for right now, as I’m not too concerned with navigation yet, seeing I’ll probably mount my old iPhone 12 with Waze.
All in all, despite the outcome of today’s ride, I’m excited to add it to my fitness regimen and get better than I ever was before. It’s been a few hours since and no strain or pain anywhere so that’s a good thing. Looking forward to the next ride. Feel free to follow my adventures via my Instagram feed, MrFreshRides, photos and stories will be there pretty regularly.
Thanks for the read!
Best, Fresh.
