{"id":871,"date":"2022-07-23T10:04:39","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T15:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/?p=871"},"modified":"2022-07-25T08:47:13","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T13:47:13","slug":"new-bike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/2022\/07\/new-bike\/","title":{"rendered":"New Bike!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Just back from my first ride on a new bicycle. Earlier, I wrote a little about my experience visiting three local bike shops. I got as far as Durst Cycles and Fitness, and visited both locations. Yesterday, July 22, I went back to the Urbana shop, long familiar to me, on University Avenue. I had hoped they’d let me try out the Giant Cypress models I’d been looking at online. As it turned out, they did all that and more. I rode three bikes multiple times, not just around the parking lot, but over the railroad tracks and down the bike path. The three were: the Giant Cypress 2<\/a>, the Giant Cypress 3, and the Liv Momentum Vida. They were all very similar, but the subtle differences were what I focused on. Most interesting in feel was the Vida. It’s more of a comfort bike than the Cypress models, and this was my first ride on such a bike. The cassette, the Shimano Altus CS-HG31, has 8 sprockets ranging from 11 to 34 teeth. I wasn’t able to get enough range and variety of topography to try each sprocket. The frame geometry on the Vida was easy on the testicles, and the reach was about right.

All good.

But I rode the Cypress 2 again, and decided that this was the winner. The microSHIFT Advent, with a sprocket range of 11 to 46 teeth, makes potential climbs a bit more doable. I have not looked in to potential mods yet, of course. Another factor was the adjustable stem, which makes it possible to get the handlebars where I really want them. Higher. The hydraulic disc braking is so far superior to anything I’ve been accustomed to. That, despite the likely pain in the butt factor when it comes to wheel maintenance, plus the aforementioned, meant I was sold.

So I bought the bike, strapped it to the rack on the truck, and brought it home.

On the first outing this morning, I notice that it needs some derailleur adjustment: the bike won’t track on the 11 tooth sprocket. I noticed this on the downhill slope of the familiar rail trail up top of Garrard Street, where the slope takes you down to Maplewood. I had spent a bit of time last evening, before SBR 25, installing a Trek bike computer that had been laying around here unused since we bought this house. New in the box! I batteried it up, strapped that bad boy on, and did a hasty calibration given the wheel size. Not terrible accurate, but probably in the ballpark. So I was getting to a whopping 15 (alleged) mph, and just could NOT get the chain to stay put. But I get some service and adjustment for awhile. The advantage of bike shops, eh, Christoper Cullen, oh, nephew o’ mine?

More later… but I wanted to get this logged…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the advertised later (7-25-2022)…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
map of this mornings ride – to Heritage Lake, via the northern Rantoul rail trail…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
the new ride @Heritage Lake…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I noticed while snapping the photo that the rear chain guard has gone askew… that might be from transporting the bike and could account for the difficulty with getting into the 11 tooth sprocket. Before setting off again, I repositioned that sucker. Easy to do. A bit too easy, if you ask me. Is it worth keeping on there? Maybe not. Got a chance, on the big slope up to the lake, to try the 46 tooth sprocket. Again, the limit is not quite correct. That<\/em> might be what knocked the guard off center!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other little tweaks: the saddle needs to go up and back a bit. The up part is easy. But the back part, as well as the angle, takes (oh no! not that!) an allen key. Taking notes for my, uh, slave<\/s> staf<\/s>f<\/em> mechanic<\/strong> down at Durst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any event… it’s a fun bike to ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just back from my first ride on a new bicycle. Earlier, I wrote a little about my experience visiting three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59,68,13],"tags":[83,60,84,61],"class_list":["post-871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking","category-micro-essay","category-travel","tag-bike-nerd","tag-biking","tag-giant-cycles","tag-recreation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":890,"href":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions\/890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ken-beck.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}