Off The Hook

This past weekend I joined 10 others for a 50 mile social ride around the greater Omaha area. Temperatures were in the fifities, making for a messy ride from snow melt. While others had cross bikes & beefy tires (studs), I rode a somewhat anemic Nishiki Sebring on its 27 & 1/4" gummys. Initially I was feeling inadequate on that friction shifter 12 speed, ancient technology and such. But fortunately, there were relatively few trouble spots along the way. The Nishiki did just fine in the ice and mud.

Some of the group didn't refrain from roughing it up, though. EB was a human highlight reel: riding up a 30° embankment of an icy underpass, chasing a motocross biker off-road, intentionally engaging in bike-fu with Lucas (and subsequently crashing -"helmet's work!"), and being the first to ride out onto the ice of Lake Manawa were a few of the highlights worth mentioning.

These thoughts were on my mind while I was setting up the rollers for a spin last night. Because of this inspiration(?) I passed on Old Yeller and choose the p2sl time trial bike. Till then, I had never ridden a TT bike on rollers because I'd been too chicken to try it. You see, with all of the weight shifted forward in aero position, handling gets a bit more squirrely. And let's face it, that concrete floor isn't getting any softer. But riding the p2Sl on rollers wasn't too bad once I learned to relax and control the bike from the hips. In fact, I managed for 40 minutes in fully aero position - much of it blasting away in 53 x 13. And with new found confidence, I finished off the session by spinning Old Yeller on the rollers for 10 minutes with no hands on the handlebars. Look Ma! No hands!

Woo!

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