After many months I've finally got a decent ride in on the new Pereira!! I picked the bike up from Tony after the NAHBS on Feb 10 and rode about 20 miles over the week before I headed to CO for two months. Poor thing sat in the basement waiting patiently...
I got back the first week of April and rode three days on club rides, about 20, 25 and 35 miles. Then, on Wed. I was invited to join a 24-hour team ride called a fleche (an traditional spring randonneuring event) and I decided to go for it. Of course, choosing to ride 240 miles in 24 hours is not necessarily wise, but it sounded like fun and I'd done 3 or 4 others in past years, so why not?
I decided to take the Pereira of course, though again, choosing a new bike for a long ride is not always wise either...but it really wanted to get out there and prove itself like a faithful companion, so off we went! This is what the bike was built for and it was really nice having it all ready to go; no zip-tie doohickys holding fenders, lights and other bits in place, no electrical tape holding things together, no funky bag mounting. Everything is as it should be. I swapped out the new Brooks Pro for a used Swift as I knew the new one was not broken in, otherwise all was set. Hetres pumped to about 50psi, chain lubed.
We left at 7PM on Friday night from Hadlock and rode down around the east side of the Hood Canal and out toward the Pacific coast to Montesano arriving at 6AM, then back along the west side back to Port Townsend to finish near 7PM Saturday. The first third was fairly flat and fast, the middle third lumpy and the final third was very hilly. (Why we plan things this way I'll never know...). The Pereira not only did admirably climbing and descending, I could change jackets while riding no hands, and best of all, finished feeling not nearly as beat up as I normally would. We fit together well and I felt confident in it's handling, so there were no nervous moments. Even with the fat tires, the bike feels fast and smoothes out the road, there were no flats despite riding over some brutal debris strewn highway stretches.
The bolts on the handlebar bag decaleur and all three cages had to be tightened, but that was the extent of the fiddling for the whole ride. I need to move the saddle ahead a tiny bit and level the handlebars a smidge, but otherwise the fit was perfect. I can see many happy miles ahead and I can't wait to get it up in the Olympic Mountains for some forest road exploration.
After some sleep and food, I'm ready to go again!
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4 comments:
Jeez John, next time it sits for two months you could loan it to me!
Sounds like a dream bike - congratulations.
Oh yeah, I should have thought of that...not. Just kidding, I know you'd treat it with care!
Sounds wonderful Jon! I can't believe you had to wait 2 months to ride it though - must have been torture!
True, but I had some good snow and tele skiing to pass the time, so all was not lost. Anticipation is good you know!
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