Shakedown Ride

Some time around 10:30 pm last night, after two glasses of wine, I installed the Campi 11-speed chain and torqued down the last bolt on the Bianchi.  It was finally ready to ride.  Of course, I knew what that meant.  It meant that it would probably be wet and rainy in the morning for its inaugural shakedown cruise. Now ordinarily I would have taken the rain bike out on a morning like today's, but I really wanted to put a few miles in on the new bike to make sure that the position was reasonably correct and all the nuts and bolts were tight.  Before walking out the door, I made a point of double-checking the quick-releases since building up a bike with a glass of wine in one hand can sometimes lead to unintended omissions. 

Outside, the streets were soaked with water and the fog and mist was so heavy that it might as well have been raining.  The new bike was going to get a good dose of dirt and water for sure, but if it survived that, then I guess everything must be OK.  Although the temperature was the warmest it's been in weeks (at least 65F), I had pulled on the arm-warmers and toe-covers since I knew I'd be soaking wet by the time I got home.  There was a very serious-looking line of thunderstorms heading our way, compete with flood and tornado warnings, so I wasn't expecting to see anyone else on the levee, and I wasn't planning on doing a very long ride.  Last night I'd done a Spinning class at the Reily Center (those new bikes are much better than the old ones were), and I may do another one tonight to compensate for some of the missed rides of late.

Of course there wasn't anyone there when I got to the levee, so I continued on in the dark trying to guess which buttons to push on the new Garmin computer since I didn't have my glasses with the reading lenses and haven't quite memorized everything.  The thing would occasionally beep and display a message that I couldn't read.  I assume those were momentary losses of satellite contact. Before I got to the playground I saw a blinking headlight coming my way.  It was Woody.  He turned around and we rode together out to the pipes where I turned back and he continued on to The Dip.  The ride back was a lot slower.  The wind seemed to be picking up, and there were a couple of times when it caught my front wheel suddenly enough to get my attention.  Riding in the rain and fog in the dark on a new bike is not exactly ideal, but at least it wasn't cold.

So the new bike felt about right.  Something about the saddle, which I had transferred over from the Orbea, felt a tiny bit off, so I'll have to re-check all of the measurements there.  Differences of just one or two millimeters, or even the slightest change in angle, can have immediately noticeable effects.  One thing I did notice was that the bike felt more responsive when I was out of the saddle. Otherwise, it wasn't a big change from the Orbea except that the handlebars are about a centimeter higher thanks to the slightly taller head tube and headset top cap. I'll probably leave the bars where they are, however.  The difference there is trivial and besides, I've never been accused of having my bars too high.  Hopefully I'll get to ride it in the sunshine one day soon.