Bubble in the desert

A blog I started whilst on a GE "Bubble" assignment in Nevada. I'm back in Cambridge (UK) now but still miss the desert and my friends out there.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Cycling 52 miles - Kingsbury (2,500ft)- Luther (1,500ft) loop

Decided to take my new bike for a spin. After too much faff getting started I had to drive to meet Scott at the foot of Kingsbury Grade at 6am. A bit more faff while Scott waited patiently (as usual) and we were off.

The Volpe...
Bianchi Volpe (luther summit)

I immediately noted the gears on the Volpe gave me quite a lot of flexibility on the steep grade. I seemed to have 3 gears easier than Scott's. After a while he started to drop me a bit, which I initially thought might be to do with the gearing but in the end concluded it was due partly to my heavier bike and fatter tyres. We made the top in about 1:15 (which is not heroic - locals regularly go sub hour on it). And then we plummeted down to the lake.

We only had to stay on the main road a little bit before Scott turned right down some back streets to avoid South Lake (driving nightmare). After a while we rejoined it for 100 yards and then turned left onto Pioneer Trail. My Volpe dealt with the awful road surface very well but before long I realised that, when riding on the flat we normally get moving around 18mph+ and we were only doing 12mph. My new bike, and wider tyres, is apparently not that fast. Arriving back are 52 miles I was exhausted from the heat and from the bike I think - it felt harder than the 100 miles I did the previous weekend!

At Luther Summit...
luther / big meadow?

Don't get me wrong, the Volpe is great, it's just not super fast and it's not meant to be either. I think it was only hard work because I was pushing it to try and keep up with Scott. Ambling along with a trailer would work fine I'm sure (especially with those extra gears).

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