So you might have seen over on my flickr that I bought a new bike.  It is a Novara Forza bike from REI.  I took advantage of the 20% member discount they are offering during this month to pick it up.  I’ve thought off and on for a while about getting one and with summer coming up it is a great way to get back and forth from the office to my house.  I also hope to start riding in the area, Henry Cowell being the first place to explore.  I looked at several different models and ended up settling on the Forza for a couple different reasons.  For one, it was in the price point I was looking at.  It rides fast and easy like a road bike but has the ability to leave the pavement when needed.  I rode down to Safeway tonight and went from pavement to dirt and back to pavement with out any trouble at all.  It has shocks on the front fork that I can engage or lock out as needed.  I plan on keeping them locked for the most part to make the riding as efficient as possible but if I know I’m going to be on uneven ground or going down stairs or something I’ll stop and engage them.

Speaking of my ride down to Safeway, it was definitely a learning experience.  I discovered that I can go really, really fast down hill.  Part of that is the bike and part of it is physics.  The last time I road a bike was probably in high school and it would have been my Toy’s-r-Us Huffy mountain bike special.  Probably 15 gears and big low pressure knobby wheels.  The Forza has 28 gears and relatively high pressure wheels that are styled more like those on a road bike.  I’m certainly not going to be winning any races any time soon, but it’s really easy to go fast.  So once I was down there and bought a sandwich for dinner, I turned around to head back up the hill into Mount Hermon.  I turned on to Conference Drive and started up.  I shifted down into a lower gear and I was cruising.  I had no real trouble getting up to the point where Roaring Camp Road connects into Conference.  I pulled to the side though to catch my breath before making it the rest of the way up.  I was feeling great as I started back out but immediately started to feel my legs loosing power.  By the time I was just starting to come out of the big left hand turn heading up into the camp proper my legs finally gave out.  I could peddle no more.  So I had to walk it back the rest of the way from there.  My calfs were doing just fine, but my quads were killing me.  So, while I didn’t make it all the way back to my house, I at least have a starting point to gage how I’m doing so far.  I think when I go for a ride on Saturday I’ll drive down and part on the shoulder of Hwy 9 and ride my bike into the park rather than trying to climb the hill again so soon.  All in all though, it did give me hope that I’ll be able to start working toward a pretty reasonable goal in riding to church and back at some point during the summer.

So far the only things I’m having trouble with are the gear shifts and the seat.  The gears don’t always click right into place which is a little frustrating with shifter levers because if they won’t engage, it’s not like I can just wiggle the lever or something.  I guess on a couple of them it is more that I have to get the peddles and/or bike going the right speed, kind of like shifting in a car with no clutch.  The problem with the seat is that it is just a teeny tiny bit to high.  I think if I lower it about 1/2″ it will be a lot more comfortable to ride on.  Right now I can reach the peddles with no problem when I’m sitting on the seat but if I stand up to peddle and then try to get back on the seat, I about have to stand on the balls of my feet.  The guy at REI said that it might be a little bit more comfortable to lower it some so I think I’m going to try for that.  Anyway, I’m sure this post is full of typos because I’m starting to fall asleep so I’ll sign off for now.  Later!