The Big One
There are a lot of things you can spend your money on in triathlon, and though I try to limit my spending, I’m pretty much an abject failure in that respect. I’ve bought a swimming lap timer, a pair of triathlon specific shorts, nice running shoes, awesome elastic shoelaces (Seriously, these are cool. I’m going to buy them for all my dress shoes soon, too), and I received an awesome bike computer/heart rate monitor for my birthday. But the obvious big purchase hanging over my head was the bike.
I’ve been riding a Mongoose Crossway 650, and it’s been great for commuting too and from work. I have it set up for that purpose. It has fairly wide tires, a rack and trunk bag on back, and a speaker and iPhone mount on the headset so I can listen to music or podcasts on my way in to work. I bought it from a coworker several jobs ago for next to nothing ($25, if I remember right), and it has served me well. It’s just not set up for speed. I can get it up over 21 mph, but only in its top gear, and it the next one down I’m spinning pretty fast at 17 or 18. So my question had been whether I was going to strip that bike down and use it in the triathlon, or if I’d bite the bullet and get a proper road bike.
I’ve been watching craigslist for a few weeks, and though I see a lot of bikes on there, people often don’t include pictures, specs or sizes, and besides I just didn’t see a lot posted that seemed like a big upgrade over the Mongoose and was also in my price range. So on Saturday I visited some local bike shops to see what I could get in my budget.
Well, a day later I’ve pulled the trigger. Yesterday we ran back to one of the shops, and I picked up a 2010 Specialized Allez Sport. We went to a barbecue yesterday after the purchase, so I didn’t even get a chance to take it for a ride of more than a couple hundred yards until this morning. But I broke it in this morning with a ride up A1A. This morning’s ride was 22.5 miles in 1:38, which works out to an average speed of 13.7 mph.
It’s hard to make a real apples to apples comparison with the Mongoose right now since I haven’t yet put a speed sensor on the new bike. The computer on the Mongoose stops its timer when I’m stopped, so time spent at traffic signals doesn’t factor into your total time. Also, I wasn’t pushing super hard since I’m still getting used to the new bike. (Twice I was rolling up to a changing light and I instinctively grabbed for where the brakes are on the Mongoose, but they weren’t there. So it’s going to take me a bit of time to get used to the new controls.)
I like it, though. I don’t think I even got within three gears of the top gear on this ride, and it has a lot more choices for gears at my normal cruising speed. I’m itching to get back on it soon.
