Not Getting the Memo

The good news: Thursday night rides with Valley Cycles have returned!

The bad news: No one told me we were riding roadies.

It was like showing up to a gun fight with a waffle. Err, I'm getting that analogy wrong, which is exactly what happened. I was expecting a fun night full of trail riding and showed up with my 29er mountain bike. Trying to pedal a fat 29er around for nearly 14 and a half miles with a mean headwind wasn't fun. I mean, I was glad to be outside in beautiful weather with a great group of people, but the Excalibur weighs a ton. Now that I know better, I'll be sure to show up with the road bike and have a much better time, next week.

Honestly, I've never been much of a beer guy, but at the post-ride meetup at River Street Jazz Cafe, I sucked down a pint of Yuengling and swore that nothing had ever tasted so good. Good brews, good times... I'm so glad we're doing this again!

One point of discussion among several fellow riders was the upcoming Bike for Habitat ride, this Sunday. I'm glad to know there will be a few familiar faces there! It's going to be new terrain for me, so it'll be nice to have a few "guides" to wheel suck while I try not to get lost. I'll be riding for Cross Valley FCU who are sponsoring the ride and the weather should be beautiful. I'm pretty excited!

I wanted to ride in the Tour de Scranton, last week, but was actually put off by the varying routes. 4 miles was going to be way too short, 15 was also pretty short and there were still 3 routes left -- 32, 46 and 65 miles. Which route to choose? Do I push myself and try the 65 mile route, or do I go with an amount I'm more confident about? I just wasn't sure. Did I want to a lot of climbing or choose something more level? Note for next year: team up with other riders and see what they want to do, then just go with that.

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2012 Giant Defy 5 - I'm just burnin', doing the new bike dance!

Regular readers of this blog (all 2 of you) might remember that I found my dream bike at Valley Cycles back in October. After months of scrimping and saving, I finally brought it home!

Dave, the owner of Valley Cycles, gave me a fantastic deal on this bike; just an unbeatable bargain. He made sure the bike was fitted properly and that I would be comfortable while riding it (as any good bike shop should do) then gave the drivetrain a good adjustment and had me ride it around in the parking lot for a bit. Everything was just as it was several months ago, when I first took this bike for a test ride -- just a few good cranks, and I was blasting off. I couldn't wait to get this thing home and go for an extended ride.

My first ride around town was a short, 2-mile sprint. This is my first "real" road bike, so I have to take some time to adjust to the drop bars and reaching for the brake levers. All in all, I only almost killed myself twice.

The side-streets in Hazleton are a mess. Many still have piles of snow on them and even the ones that don't have a fresh coating of gravel on them, making the ride an unsure one as the thin tires try to grip the pavement. I hate to admit that I didn't exactly engage in the most safe riding practices, either. It's been a while since I've ridden in heavy traffic, and my skills have deteriorated a bit.

The thing that surprised me was the number of drivers who waved me through intersections and patiently waited for me to cross streets -- and this was even as traffic was ramping up for rush hour. Maybe Hazleton is becoming more bike-friendly? Certainly not the streets, but the drivers are at least less willing to throw things at me.

I'm happy to report that the Defy ascends like a dream. Even after sitting out from serious riding for a few weeks, I was tackling challenging hills with with ease and grace. The bike is aluminum, but still the lightest bike I've ever owned. Seriously, it shocks me how light the bike is.

Snow was beginning to fall as I headed home, but that didn't stop from taking some time to make a Vine video, celebrating that "new bike" smell.

Another notable thing about yesterday's ride was that I was able to squeak it in right before February was over. My commitment to make at least one ride a month, no matter the weather conditions, remains in tact!

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Thursday night trail riding in Kirby Park with Valley Cycles

As much as I consider myself a roadie these days, there was a time I loved mountain biking more than anything in the world. And I'm not just talking about riding a bike with knobby wheels around on the street, I'm talking about actually going off-road, through trails in the woods and out into the middle of nowhere. It's been an awfully long time since I've done that.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a new bike shop I discovered called Valley Cycles. Every Thursday night they go out trail riding through Kirby Park, which is only a few blocks from the shop, across the Market Street bridge into Kingston. Last night, I took my bike up to join them and had the time of my life.

The post on Valley Cycle's Facebook page said, "Snow or no, we are riding," so I purchased a pair of wool hiking socks specifically for the event. Along with a headband/ear cover to pull on under my helmet, I was ready. With the temperature dipping into the mid-30s, it certainly wasn't warm out, but I was snug as a bug. It was going to take more than a little bit of cold weather to hold me back!

If a picture says a thousand words, the following video I found online from a previous ride should pretty much cover this blog post, and yet it still wouldn't convey the amount of fun I had last night, nor would it convey the enthusiastic, friendly attitude of the Valley Cycles staff in setting up these rides and introducing them to new riders. Just watch:

There were 15 riders in all, and the sight of headlamps flying through the near-pitch blackness of the woods at night was astonishing. Riding along the river bank, knowing that a slight wrong turn or loss of balance could be the difference between mountain biking and an impromptu swim in the Susquehanna River made the ride that much more exhilarating. But it was the feeling of camaraderie as we tackled steep hills, dips, low-hanging branches and thick brush that made the ride a great time for everyone. And don't think these rides are a young man's game! There was a wide range of ages represented in our group, and several women riders, as well.

As one might expect, the ride wasn't without some consequences. There were a few spills as riders hit nasty sections of the terrain, and I managed to find nearly every puddle of mud along way, slipping and sliding as my thin wheels sank into the softer spots of earth. On one occasion, I bottomed out on a log-over and broke the chain-guard on my front sprocket. If I'd been going a bit faster, I might have been able to get a little more air under the front wheel and cleared the log, but at least the sprocket survived without major damage.

To be honest, I'm surprised my city-hybrid survived at all. I certainly didn't baby it, and though it might have fared better with wider tires, I can't say I had much of a problem getting through the night. I think I held on pretty well, considering this was my first night ride on unfamiliar ground. 

Afterwards, kicking back with a post-ride beer and chowing down on a pasta dinner at the River Street Jazz Cafe while sharing battle stories and war wounds was the best way to finish the night. I'm so totally looking forward to next week!

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Finding my dream bike at Valley Cycles in Plains, PA

Located in Plains, PA, next to River Street Jazz Cafe.

I stumbled upon a new local bike shop on Friday, while on a job in Wilkes-Barre. We were passing through Plains when I spotted a mountain bike stood up next to a sign that read, "Valley Cycles." Well, always one to try out a new shop, I made a note to stop in on my next day off. That was yesterday.

The shop is located in the same building as the River Street Jazz Cafe, just in the next door. Inside, I passed along the rows bicycles, stood up like stallions in a stable, each eagerly anticipating a fast, powerful ride. I brought my Frankenstein's creation along with me, hoping an expert's opinion would answer my questions. Could it be saved? Would it be worth the effort and the cost? But even as I gingerly pushed it along, I was lustfully eyeing up the gallery of new bikes.

Dave, the man behind the counter, immediately started looking at several options for fixing up my bike. In the end, my suspicions were correct. I could either spend a few hundred bucks fixing up a bike that was still too heavy for the kind of riding I wanted to do, or I could invest the money into a really nice bike that would be exactly what I wanted and come with a full warranty. I decided to go with option 2, but which bike to choose?

I expressed interest in riding trails and doing some off-roading, which is why I was refitting an old mountain bike in the first place. Based on that, the first bike we looked at was a Giant Escape. It was a nice bike with 700c wheels. Just the right size, good fit and extremely light. The only downside was that it had flat handlebars. Even so, I took it for a ride, just to see if I'd like it.

Out in the parking lot, I gave the pedals a few cranks and just about lifted off the ground. I couldn't believe how nimble and quick the Escape was! It just felt... fun! Fun was the best word I could use to describe it. So light and quick, I was in love. But there was that flat bar. It seemed too wide, and something else didn't feel right. I wheeled it back into the shop and decided to try again.

Here's where I was really impressed with Valley Cycles. No sooner did I mention that I'd like to have drop bars, Dave was on the computer, looking up possible configurations to get me exactly what I wanted out of the Escape. But as I waited, I wondered, were drop bars really for me?

I prefer the lower riding position of a road bike, and even as often as I like to ride along the Lehigh Valley Gorge trail, I'm on the road about 99% of the time. If I were specifically looking to go off-road, I could always use my hybrid. It's not a mountain bike, by any stretch of the word, but it could do. Even so... I'm just more of a road bike guy, that's what I want.

My mind kept poring over my feelings when another bike caught my eye, a 2013 Giant Defy 5. At $720, it was a little more than the $500 budget I set for myself, but when the cost of converting the Escape was added to its $450 base price, I was going over budget, either way. I took the bike for a ride to see if it would change my mind any more.

Even lighter than the Escape and featuring drop bars, the Defy 5 was already everything I wanted the Escape to be. Nimble, quick, as I did sprints in the parking lot, I didn't want to come back in. How I longed for a chance to tackle the Weatherly-Plains Road, just to see what it would be like to slay that beast on a steed like this. That experience would have to wait, however -- at least until I had enough money in my pocket to bring it home. I wheeled it back inside, and let the feeling of riding it burn in my mind. That feeling is going to have to last a few months, while I slowly save up.

As I wheeled my Frankenbike out of the shop, it felt even heavier than before. The back wheel dragged, and I no longer wondered how I was going to fix it, but how I would get rid of it. It would be nice just to get the bike back in working order, just enough to sell it off, but there's no way I could get enough money to make the investment worth it, especially as I could be putting that money into saving up for the Defy.

Last night, I went to bed with visions of the Defy in my mind. Soon, my pretty. Soon.

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