It depends on how "winter" it is outside. Usually, I use my Parlee Z5L from the season before with crappy Specialized tires on it. If it's snowy and wet, I will ride my Parlee Z1 cyclocross bike with road tires and fenders. If it's snowy with real snow, I'll ride my mountain bike, which is a Cannondale Scalpel 29er.
I do, but it is just my mountain bike with my tire pressures lowered. It is one reason to like concrete snow, and hate powder...
Parlee bikes are interesting and exclusive. I've come across the odd one. My normal training bike is a Dogma2 612 BOB but I park it for the winter. I don't race as I don't have time and I'm too fat anyway - gained 35 lbs since I last raced. I just ride for fun and my health. As Scotty also notes, MTB for the compactable stuff is a good idea. Unfortunately, I missed out on the MTB part of cycling history. I can pick up a second CX bike for snow, just not sure if I would get to use it. We had snow accumulation only 1 or 2 times last year and road crews got on it immediately. It used to snow really hard and long when I was in school and riding CX tires was great fun.
I ride a CX bike - but don't have the pockets for an elite ride. I have a Trek ION. Love it. I use it primarily to ride in the Everglades, but have to do a bit of street riding to get to the glades. Obviously don't have to worry about snow.
Ah the dykes, I thought they were all in Holland. Never mind. Post pictures of your favourite machines if you get a chance.
I live at the base of mt. Diablo and regularly ride my epic 29er on the mountain trails. It is a great way to stay in shape and beats the hell out of running! Somewhat related, I had a chance to ride the new specialized turbo ebike a few days ago. It was my first ebike ride and I was blown away by how well it worked. It is very well sorted and was legitimately engaging to ride. It's not a scooter and didn't feel at all like someone's science project. It's a bit heavy, pricey, and the battery life is a tad short, but as the technology evolves I think these ebikes will be game changers. They are poised to transform how we think about bikes, especially for people in urban and some suburban settings. Has anyone else ridden one? Thoughts?
been a rodie for about 20 years. ride about 5 days a week ave about 200 - 250 miles per week in season. ride with large A type group. in the winter the miles are less and any outside temp of less than 25 we stay in and hit the trainer.
You can hear them coming long before you see them, so they are no bother. It's the stuff you can't see or hear that is really scary - bears, panthers, gators etc. Doing a marathon in 2 weeks, then my next task will be to ride the CX bike from Key Largo to Key West (about 110 miles)
Yikes! I hope you're packing concealed carry or something. I think I'll stick to the crappy wet icy roads here. I suppose you must switch to a lighter set of wheels with fast road tires for that and lots of fluids, sunblock… but I guess you're quite used to that. Good luck on the marathon.
Don't have the $$ for lighter wheels - but I will be switching out the tires before the long road ride. Fluids, sunblock and long sleeves are de rigueur for me. I'm a ginger, so burn easily. I never thought about carrying my gun when I ride in the Glades, until recently. Rode by some scat that HAD to be either bear or panther. Got me thinking I need something smaller and easier to carry than my full frame 9 mm.
Can't figure out why it's usually gingers who end up living in Florida? My brother is the firearms expert in my family these days but I suspect something like a Ruger LCP (380) w/Atomic JHP is probably a good option; very light, 6+1 rounds, double-action and relatively inexpensive. Meanwhile coming back on topic, I bought a set of these for about $300, free shipping and they are aero with excellent bearings, orders of magnitude better than the crappy R500s my bike came with. Faster tires also helped. See photo from earlier post.
Those are fantastic shots! We went to Belgium on a trip and went to the Eddy Merckx Velodrome, but they were resurfacing the floor so we couldn't ride. It would have been my first go at a track! There is just nothing around here. Of course in Belgium that's what everyone does on Friday night! What a great country! We did ride cobbles and a bunch of the climbs from the spring classics, this one is the Muur. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I have never been to a veledrome, nice! Ill be riding in Spain and Italy in May, now that my arm is healing from my last crash...
Very cool! I've ridden the Muur du Grammont many times. I've even walked it once. In a race. The times that I ride it in training, I always stop at the chapel on top and say a prayer. It's like the Belgian version of the Madonna di Ghisallo. I think that it's something that every cycling fan should experience in their life at least once. As far as the track goes, obviously I am biased but I do believe that Six Day racing is one of the greatest spectacles in all of sport. If you ever get the chance to watch a real European Six Day, you should do it.
I would absolutely love to do that! I admit that over the last 5-6 years I really lost interest in pro-cycling with all of the controversy. But a 6-day would be like going to a festival! Now most of my riding is solo, and most is for fun. You know very well how much time and effort it takes to race, and I just have too much going on. I have gotten into (car) racing enough now that my training has turned to improving my fitness for driving. Which means I do a lot of swimming But this is the first year VIR is opening the track to cyclists. After every member day now, the track will be open to ride. I have always wanted to see what sort of lap time I could turn, so now I will get my chance! I may not be as fast as the CAT1-2s now (or even 3s....), but I plan to throw down the gauntlet on the other drivers this summer! Ride safe! -J.
Here are some pics that I just did for the catalog for a new Parlee model, the ESX. I'll see if I can post from my ipad. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Another. I think the catalog is available now so maybe they're in stores. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very cool. I like that you ride a track bike, one of these days I'll ride a velodrome. What cat are you in?
Spec Roubaixs are indeed "special" and very popular. It's amazing how much variety there is in bike designs today. Post a photo and share your impressions when you get a chance.