Old and New

On my OUTDOOR ride yesterday I started to think about technology of road bikes. I had lots of time to think about this as I headed out towards the wonderful hills of the Oro/Medonte area. This thought really didn't jump into my head right away, I'd climbed up the first Vasey line hill coming out of Coldwater doing everything I could to stay aerobic. Coming over the crest of the hill I had the wind check happen. I swear the leaves were coming up the hill faster than I was going down. This still didn't make me think to much about bikes.

The though came about 20 minutes later as I was out in a very open area and getting blasted from the side by 100 mph winds and wondered how far I could lean the bike when the wind hit and not tip over when it lighted up. This is when I started to think about the huge changes and thought of what riders dealt with 20 years earlier. I think of the huge carbon tubing of the bike frame that is wind tunnel tested etc making my sweet TCR a sub 16 pound bike verses the old steel tubing that was all of a 1 inch diameter that from the side barely had any wind catching surface.

Of course the new versus the old on looks, comfort, weight etc the new is so much better except when there is that nasty cross wind. I wonder if the cyclists blown off the road stats have continued to increase with the evolution of the bike. Next up were the wheels, deep dish rims, bladed spokes. Same thing, huge surface for the wind to catch verses those old metal round spokes on wheels that weighed a ton in comparison.

I started to think about how tough old road racers were riding bikes that weighed as much as cars and only have a couple gears in comparison to racers now on super light 20 speed carbon rockets and in most cases riders of old were tougher, except for a windy day. Of course as soon as I was back to enjoying the tail wind my thoughts of all of this disappeared as I giggled while going up hill at 40 km/h. Of course this all came to an end when I had to make the return home straight on into the beast.

Legs were feeling pretty good with the 2500 feet of climbing in just under 2 hours. The wind did add to the challenge. I also randomly thought about how much I hate the wind and that this is one of those reasons that I race mountain bikes. The wind impact in the bush is minimal, still have the thoughts out for this weekends road race. The weather is still back in forth on my thoughts. Right now the thought is more coffee.