Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Summer Riding At Its Best!

The “Big J” and I had a nice after work ride around Waynesville and parts of Haywood County yesterday sans the “Wood-man” The “Wood-man” is off enjoying some low country cruising on the Isle of Palms outside of Charleston, SC. I imagine that he is also getting in several rounds of golf as well.

“Big J” and I simply headed out from my office and enjoyed riding part of the local greenway, out and about through some rural 2 lane roads before returning to town and cruising the main roads to and from the big box stores at the end of town. We managed to find some climbs that got the quads burning and also some flat stretches where we worked on pacing.

I received word from my brother, David, that he has added back to his stable of bikes. He recently sold his recumbent and his Specialized upright. He took delivery yesterday of his ANGLETECH/RANS ZENETIK PRO HO27. Taking a page from our friend, Jim Artis, David documented the arrival and setup of his new bike.

DYBike1

 

David reported that a short 15 minutes later, he was up and running, err riding around his neighborhood.  He hasn’t had a chance to hit the fire roads and trails behind his home yet.

 

 

The finished product before the first test ride.

DYBike2 

Miscellaneous thoughts: I’ve enjoyed the coverage and commentary of the Tour De France again this year. For my money, the four Versus commentators of Hummer, Roll, Sherwin, and Ligget are one of the top teams in all of sports. They never fail to keep you entertained and informed. Their expertise in the sport keeps being reinforced daily as they predict race conditions and strategies. I very much enjoy how they keep things humorous between them.

I keep being amazed at the physical fitness of these professional cyclists. I’m watching as Versus pops up heart rates, watts, and miles per hour for the individual cyclists. The most recent rider was running at 32 mph with a heart rate of 120 bpm. How is that even possible? When I’m taking it easy on a training ride, my heart rate is at least 135 and I’m probably only running 15 mph. My heart rate regularly tops 170 on local climbs. Of course, I don’t live in the saddle either. Sometimes, I think these guys could shave and clean up while pedaling down the road!

Well, the peloton is in the process of catching today’s break away. Time to close out and catch the finale to see if Cav can bring it home two days in a row.

 

Until later,

- Zeke

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm no Jim Artis when it comes to documenting my bikes. But then again, Jim's in a league of his own? I do have a few more pictures of the process I may put up somewhere for you to link to. I was most interested in capturing how Kelvin at Angletech shipped the bike mostly assembled. The 15 minutes from box to street was no due to my mechanical prowess! My hopes are to someday ship it to NC for some riding there!