Sexy Beast

Lately I have been swamped with Outlaws business and preoccupied with learning as much as I can to do well in riding brevets so I can make it to my goal of earning the Super Randonneur medal by riding a 200, 300, 400 and 600K brevet in one year.

So, here is my post, quick, to the point and worthy of serious envy.

I went out and bought a new bike specifically for ultra distance riding. It is Beautiful! The bike is a 2006 Lemond Zurich. It has a combo steel/carbon fiber frame. Folks at RoadBikeReview.com liked the bike as well. I took several pics but have not loaded them onto my lap top yet so I’ve yanked a picture off the web.

This bike is pure comfort and is also fairly light, fast and very responsive.

How comfortable you ask? I was able to take it out for a spin on my first day of ownership without a single issue. Did I mention that spin was 103 MILES?

Because of VERY adverse weather conditions the ride took me just under 7 hours to complete but I’m telling you, the only discomfort I had was fatigue in my arms. I did not put aero bars on the bike and I’m not yet conditioned to spend multi-hours in the saddle without aero bars.

During my ride I hit cattle guards and rumble strips as well as the usual road cracks, warps and poorly patched holes. The worst feel I had were the cattle guards and rumble strips. It felt like I rank over a bag of marshmallows someone had dropped.

Ready for some bike porn?

Next event, well, besides the P.F. Chang’s Rock-n-Roll Arizona marathon this weekend, which I think I will go ahead and run-walk with my wife because I think my foot is healed enough to take, is a 300K brevet in Casa Grande Arizona on February 3rd.

Ok, one other item. The weather for my ride this last weekend…temps never exceeded 35 degrees and I spent about 30 of the miles in a direct headwind. At one point I was on a flat road in the small chain ring (not the third ring or granny gear but ring number two) out of the saddle in order to reach a speed of, get this, 5.9 mph!