Since my Gary Fisher SuperCaliber was cracked, I had to find a replacement - an unbranded Kinesis frame, which is essentially a Motobecane Fly frame. I wanted to put it to the test, so I decided to take it on a big climb.
I took off for Hicks Rd. on a very, very cold morning. I don't care what some of the East Coast folks have to say about California weather - 30 degrees is still 30 degrees. If I felt strong at the top, I was going to go all the way up to Mt. Umunhum, which is 3000+ ft up. I can go into details of this extremely tough climb, but toughascent.com does a fantastic report of it HERE.
A few noticeable things about using a mountain platform for road cycling.
1. It handles bumps and lumps like nobodys business, especially with the Schwalbe Big Apples in 26 X 2.35's. Yes, they are heavy and don't roll like road race tires, but boy - are they a dream for comfort!
2. It's a little slow. The geometry is really suited for mountain bike riding, and not going up paved roads fast. I got dropped by everybody, and I'm not THAT slow.
3. The descend was like butter. Again, those Big Apples KILLED the bumps in the road. I think that was the fastest I ever descended. I guess that's where the tires and MTB geometry really took effect. As recommended, the Big Apples only had 40psi in them. Contrast that with 110-120 psi in road tires and you can see how the balloon tires can soak up the road bumps.
I built this as an all-around, chill-out bike that can go far in comfort. But I did want to take it on the local kill-climb to see if it can handle the worst of the paved stuff we have around here... and it did. Again, it was slow, but it was nice. I think for what I intended this to be, it does well. It's definitely not for getting on the podium.
The next test will be off-road - as soon as the trails open again.
I did want to mention the douche-baggery that I witnessed on yesterday's ride. Please, roadies... don't make it worse for yourselves by thinking you're IceMan from Top Gun.
Now, I don't go on the boards hating on road riders - but a d-bag is a d-bag, no matter what they ride.
So I'm stopped at about the 1500ft mark talking to some other riders, when a road rider, right out of an 80's movie, yells out, "Race you guys to the top..."
The guy I was talking to says, "You win."
I was, like, "Really? WTF was that all about?"
Then, I'm granny'ing up the second part of the the climb (which goes to about 3100ft.) and some roadie pulls up to next to me and says, "Ha! I wish I had your gears..."
"Yup, granny gear all the way up. Relaxing ride today..."
"Yeah, ha... my small ring is bigger than your big ring..."
Me ->
He then proceeds to mash past.
Whenever I'm on my road bike, I pay special attention to not promote d-bag behavior by being a little nicer to people (that's my nature anyway). But really, the pissing matches are embarrassing for the likes of what I witnessed today.
Maybe these men have just not accomplished enough in their lives to feel the need to say stupid shit to complete strangers.
Source: http://www.dionridesbikes.com/2010/11/first-ride-on-urban-replacement-frame.html
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