New type of riding

After a very brief and failed experiment with a triathlon style bike last year, it became apparent to me that there are a few limitations that I cannot overcome. One of the big things I cannot and probably will never be able to do is triathlons. First I do not know how to swim. Never learned, never really wanted to either. When I get in a pool I never venture over to the deep end, I don’t like being in water higher than waist deep. I am not afraid of the water, just don’t know what I would do if I was ever in water. The second thing like it is this, I hate running! When I say hate, I really mean I detest running with all my being, every bone jarring stride, every sweat drenched mile. No thanks, not for me.

But I still think the cycling part of triathlons are really cool, it’s too bad there is nothing like that without the swimming and the running. Oh wait, there is and its called a time trial. Back in the day I used to go out to Coburg, OR. Every Tuesday night the local bike shop would sort of run an unofficial time trial. Some times there were just a handful of us other times many riders. It was just about 15 miles. The first mile in a crosswind, the next 6 miles into some of the most sever headwinds you would ever want to ride in. There was then a 1.5 mile crosswind section and if you happened to be fast enough or really lucky you would finish with a 6.5 miles of tailwind, speeds would approach 20 miles per hour as you were helped along by the wind. I was slow and usually unlucky so the wind would have died down by the time I reached the last stretch of road. Still occasionally it would be a fast trip back.

Back then I road a Trek 2000 road bike, not the most aerodynamic bike available, but still a nice comfortable ride. After a while I got a set of Scott clip on aerobars, then finally a Uni-disc. For those that don’t know or remember the Uni-disk it was a fabric disk on an aluminum hoop that snapped into clips attached to the spokes in your wheel. It did not fit real snug but it did provide some aerodynamic advantage for those of us that could not afford a real disc wheel.

Enough history. Please note that I am also a cheapskate, and want to find ways to do this on the bare minimum budget. So while I could wax peotic about Cervelo P3C or the Trek TTX, what I will talk about are inexpensive aluminum and or carbon frames. Save a buck here and there, wherever you can, since time trial bikes are not everyday riders, there is no need for me to spend a ton of cash. This is about bang for the buck. It’s about buying speed on a budget. It is about getting to the finish line in the shortest time with the least amount of green. The next time we will talk about what choices are out there.