Chuck Smith's Blog

Earlier this year while watching the Tour of California on Mount Palomar I was bitten by a bug: the Road Bike Bug.

You’d think I would be happy enough just being on TV.

Chuck and Amanda on Versus Network

But no: I realized that my destiny is climbing Mount Palomar on my own bike next year.

The first step was to wait to see if the bug bite would go away. Was this just something I wanted in passing? Would I actually use a road bike? I started riding my mountain bike to work to see if that satisfied the craving. It actually intensified because I came to realize that the knobby tires are rather inefficient on paved roads. It also got me enthused about riding again because even these short jaunts to work were enjoyable.

Part of the justification for the new bike is that I want to ride more, but we only have one car and the VW Beetle can’t easily swallow a bike. So we have to ride near our house, and there’s not a wide variety of off-road trails near downtown San Diego. Florida Canyon is pretty good as it turns out, but man cannot live on one canyon alone.

I started shopping around, trying bikes from Novarra, Trek, Specialized, Giant, and Felt. One of the issues was my thumbs: both have been injured in the past and make it difficult to grip things. Road bikes put a lot of pressure on your hands, so I had to find something that was not going to cause too much pain. In the end I decided to go with the Felt Z35.

My New Road Bike: Felt Z35

Its handlebars are spaced up a bit for a less aggressive ride stance. The seat was the most comfortable I rode even though it has a slightly unconventional some shape to it. The bike has good quality parts all around: carbon fiber frame, Shimano 105 components. Instead of getting new pedals and shoes I saved some money by just installing my mountain bike egg-beater pedals.

Amanda has just signed us up for a 25 mile bike ride that involves crossing the Coronado bridge, so that will be my next fitness goal after my July 4th 10k run (more on that anon).