Well at the tail end of a ride with my brother yesterday, we tried to use our road bikes on a track.
If that isn't ironic enough for you, we didn't even use our road bikes on a true cycling track. No, we raced my $4,000 Seven and his $800 Trek around a high school track 'n field track for one mile.
Turn about is fair play after all.
Track riding on a road bike is a remarkably smooth if a bit odd experience. The track at this high school was somewhat spongey and coarse, which meant I had excellent grip as we hammered our bikes through the corners, though there was probably increased rolling resistance which slowed us down.
When I ride with my brother, we often do odd things like this. We'll go hammer out a good climb, some fast flat riding, and then cool down on the way back, but he'll often want to stop and eat, visit his work (he's a waiter) or talk to some friend and show off. Riding on the track was just the latest in these after-ride diversions.
The Soul Cyclist isn't above such trivialities. Afterall, he's caught in between the world of newbie/Fred cyclist and almost-there-but-not-quite club rider. I still wear SPD MTB shoes for road riding for the simple reason that I like to walk around a bit during breaks from riding.
My poor brother, however, still has to wear his Reeboks because we can't find any size 16 road or MTB shoes that don't cost 1/4th the price of his bike!
By the way, he beat me around the track. I may dominate him up the hills, but our brief sub-3 minute 1 mile sprint around the track revealed I can't sprint to save my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment