Modern bike

Some posts ago I mentioned that I bought a new bike last year and that I was going to write about it.  Here is that post.

I bought a NEW bike.  It was so new that it was from the future:  a 2020 model that was already available in 2019.

I had fun buying the bike.  I went to my favorite local bike shop, Champaign Cycle, one day last fall to check out the selection of new Trek bikes.  I took 3 test rides:  2 on a slightly too small Domane and one on a slightly too small Emonda.  The Domane felt interesting, but odd.  Neutral handling with big tires but sort of fast feeling.  The Emonda felt like any/all of my previous road race bikes (e.g. my departed Look KG 381).  I ordered a red Domane in my size, and picked it up a week later (after a business trip to Denver).

Here is how you know that you're buying a fancy bike:  it doesn't come with pedals.  I had the shop install my trusty, 15 year old Ultegra road pedals.  At home, I replace the saddle with the racier saddle that was on my old Trek previously.  Tires were changed from the stock 32 mm to my super duper fancy Compass (now Rene Herse) 35 mm tires.  A few weeks later, I replaced the -6 degree 11 cm stem with a -17 degree 13 cm stem (I still need to cut the steerer tube).  The rest was left alone.

This is my first bike with:

• disk brakes (hydraulic!)
• through axles
•  integrated bb spindle cranks
• 11 speed cassette ( I did have 10 speed at one point before dropping back to 8)
• tubeless compatible rims (I'm using tubes)
• aero shaped frame (frame tubes are HUGE compared to 531 steel tubes)

My Wild Card friends didn't recognize me on the first group ride with this (granted, I don't ride enough with them in recent years).  Instead of being on my 1982 skinny tubed steel classic, I was on a super modern looking brand new bike.  People congratulated me.  I was special, the guy with the new bike.

Mercifully, we have had a few nice weekend days this winter.  Off in the horizon you can see the forbidding Mt Block, possibly the biggest climb within 50 miles of my house.  Also observe that I moved my fat thumb away from the lens!

 This is what I see when I look down.  Clean!

Very modern, no?  The frame has some micro-suspension elements at the seat tube and headset area.  I'm not sure that I can tell how much difference they make.  I like that carbon fiber enables engineers to design features like this.  The frame is lively in a sort of stiff feeling way.  Why?  How?  I don't know, but it rides so, so well.  5 stars!  Both thumbs up.

I picked up the bike a few days before the IL Kanza gravel race last fall.  It had rained a few days before, and I wasn't ready to sully the brand new bike.  So I rode the old Trek.  Guess what?  That bike is still really great.

I placed okay in the race.  Perhaps I could have done better if I had taken off my windbreaker before the race (pretty chilly morning that warmed up quickly).  Below you can see that I got it half-way off.  I roasted very quickly and dropped off the lead group (below photo taken by Der Kaiser).

Should you buy a bike like this? 

• Yes, if you ride lots and have a good job.
• No, if you don't ride much or would rather spend your money on vacations or medical bills.

Downstream from the decision

Good and wise friend Jarrod asked me how much I have processed our decision to leave our church of 14 years.  Well, a lot, in my head.  It's still rolling around my mind now and again though.  So I haven't finished.  Writing thoughts out sometimes helps, so here goes with that.  And maybe this will help when friends ask us what happened.

At the time of our decision, the biggest driving force was our weariness of the feeling of frustration.  We saw obvious problems. We saw nothing being done.  Why?  Why? Why? Frustration developed.  And stayed.  And stayed.

2 months after our decision, the feelings have diminished.  The befuddlement remains.

Several good friends from the old church have asked me why I left.  I don't think my story for them was clarifying.  This is partly because I want to avoid speaking badly of friends and partly because I haven't/ hadn't assembled the pieces into a story.  Here is another try:  a story I wanted to experience but didn't.  I wanted a redemption story.  It could have gone like this:

After messing up relationships with staff and some congregation members, our pastor would lead us through his process of confession, forgiveness, and restoration of what could be restored.  [Instead he left.]

My friend who was under church discipline due to conflict with leaders would get together with them and fix the relationship.  [Instead leaders banned him from the church.]

Church members would talk about tough issues, why they matter, and what the church should do to ensure unity in spite of them.  [Instead discussion was actively discouraged.]

Perhaps like the pastor I left too soon?  I hope that is true.

The second reason for continuing to process is that the decision cracked a story about myself:  that I'm a stayer.  I finish things for better (marriage, raising kids, projects for customers, bike races) or worse (grad school, bike races).   But I left this, happily.

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I've taken some pictures with my phone lately.  Someday I might learn to move my fat fingers or gloves out of the way.

a lot can happen in a decade

Today is super bowl Sunday.  Many years ago when the 49ers were regularly great, the 2 weeks between conf champs and the final passed slowly.  Whereas today, I say already?!  I also used to care a good deal if they won.

Yesterday, Wild Card Cycling teammate Ryan emailed that I was the last person to pick up this year's jersey.  So I met him and the rest of the crew at Quality.  The bigger event (which I had forgotten because I'm so detached and clueless) was a celebration of captain Karl's retirement.  Which brought out a good chunk of the crew that I rode with before Clara was born.  Dave, Luke, Greg, Martin, Karl, Art, John, and more!  

Greg recalled Jill being pregnant when we first met.  Now Clara is 10 years old and would read all day every day if we let her [today's book is Peter and the Starcatchers book 2.  Janny still lives at home also.  Yesterday we bought her birthday pinata; she needs to get to know and love it for a month before bashing it to pieces].  Dave said he hasn't ridden in the last 3 months!?!  In the old days, you were at least mediocre if you could stay on his wheel during his surges.  I'm positive that's still true today.  Larry is now 69, and he's still faster than me.  John S didn't recognize me at first due to my bald head and scraggly beard.  Luke reminisced about how we would have ridden 60+ miles in current weather (35 and cloudy), whereas it seemed like no one road yesterday.

John B's younger sister passed away from a brain tumor this week. 

So did friend Tom from [old] church.  So 2020 is off to a bittersweet start.  I'm so grateful that I had one last chance to see Tom in the fall.  A few years ago, Tom and his son joined me on a day like today to ride in the arboretum.  I took them through the woods near Windsor road, which was a really terrible idea.  Mud, mud, and overgrown trails.  They didn't ride again with me there.  Probably a wise choice by them.  Tom wanted to pass along their smallest bike that younger son had recently outgrown before he passed.  It's now cleaned and tuned up in our garage waiting for Janny to grow a few inches.

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The recent event that did make time pass slowly was our church's 21 day fast.  Our choice for what that meant. Jill practiced an eating plan close to Daniel's (of lion's den fame) consisting of fruits and veggies.  I went with more of a vegetarian diet plus no desserts [and I took some breaks while I was in St Louis; didn't want to be a pain to coworker]. 

I continue to realize how much of my life and mindset is driven by my body.  I hate feeling hungry.  I quickly grow tired of eating sweet potatoes.  On the bright side, my soul is slowly emerging from some intertwined layers of apathy and frustration.  May this decade be more fulfilling than the last.