Yeah, I was listening to Green Day this morning........
I put the first 100 miles on Frankenbike this weekend, the majority of which came on Monday and a 3.5 hour ride in the mountains between TN and NC. There were two really nice climbs over Spivey Gap - 6 miles on the Tennessee side and 7 on the North Carolina side and a remarkable amount (considering we live in the mountains) of flat stuff in between. So far I have been happy with the way the bike has worked. There has been some learning with the ENO hub and the carbon frame. The bolts that hold the wheel on also maintain the tension in the chain once you get that set. Since they have to be really tight and the frame is carbon, I err'd on the side of caution and had to fiddle with them some until I found the right combo. The 48X18 gearing works good and is a decent balance between flatland utility and climbing prowess. Spivey Gap is probably one of the easiest climbs for the length in our area and I was able to maintain 10-15mph right at my threshold (of blowing up). Any steeper and I would have had to slow down and really push but since this bike is for training and the object of training is getting stronger, it's perfect.
Perhaps the hardest part of the day was beginning the climb with a full 10 minutes to warm-up. It was kinda painful and that was made worse by me and buddy Rob playing cat and mouse once we neared the top. Coming down the mountain was fun and kinda hairy in a couple of spots as we were still screwing with each other and (Rob weighs roughly as much as my left leg so he can climb like a monkey on crack but just hasn't got enough ballast on the descents) I was looking for a place to pass him. I picked the inside on a decreasing radius corner (only problem was I didn't know it was a decreasing radius corner) and I got pinched off (my fault) and almost shit myself. I don't even think Rob knew how close I was.
Disaster was avoided though and all was good. It was a great day.
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