Breaking in a new toy.

A couple of weeks ago I went on the Peach Peloton ride and noticed that shifting from the big ring to the small ring was intermittent. I took it to The Bike Store & had Charles look at it. I was just thinking that the cable was loose and just needed to be adjusted. I found out that I was wrong. The guide on the frame was stripping out. Charles did what he could to fix the problem, but I didn't know what the result would be. I went for a ride on Monday & found out that once I shifted to the big ring, the only way to get it back on the small ring was to unclip my right foot from the pedal and push the derailleur back to the small ring. I asked Charles to see if he knew anyone who had a 54 cm frame that I could borrow until I could afford a new one. He called back a bit later in the evening and told me about a 2008 Trek 1.2 and asked if I would be interested in it. I asked him to let me know what the cost would be and how we would work it out. We came to an agreement and I went to the shop to swap out the parts from the Orbea to the Trek. I went up to Epic to make sure the fit was correct and Mike worked his magic once more. Yesterday was the first ride. I did the Peach Peloton ride from Howard Middle School. We started together then broke up into 3 groups to practice rotation for a bit. The road we used to practice the first set of rotations was mainly uphill and the bike worked great. The frame was stable and responded great. We regrouped and rode 2 abreast until we hit Hwy 42. That was the next section of rotation practice. Chad let me know that I might want to hang back and hang in. I'm glad I listened to him, as the pace was quite fast. I don't think it dropped below 20 mph the entire time down 42. The last hour of the ride we had a tailwind and it felt good, the pace was pretty fast, but I was able to hang with the group. My legs were certainly feeling it close to the end of the ride. All in all we did 66.96 miles and I had an average speed of 19.86 mph. Today I went on a steady effort ride with Eddy. My legs were a bit sore from yesterday, but I really wanted to get more of a feel for the new frame. I just followed Eddy and let him dictate the pace. On some sections of the ride, we were riding what seemed like an easy pace and at other times it felt as if we were hammering. We rode out to Perry and used the Perry Parkway for a good section of the ride. I really like riding the parkway, it's just nothing but rollers, but it will give you a good workout. The Trek worked flawlessly, just need to work on the motor for it now. I'm very happy with the frame, it may be called an entry level frame, but it seems stiff enough for me and stable enough at higher speeds for me. I just need to break in the new saddle and that will only come with getting on the bike. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more adventures....