First ‘Proper’ ride with my new Road Bike
I got my new bike on Thursday and went for a first ride by myself on Friday. After 3 miles I was pretty tired, but I kept on going and did 10 miles – see the GPS results.
So I was a little bix anxious about the 35 – 40 mile ride with Team Milton Keynes that I was going to do the following day. However I turned up (at 0930 <yawn>), met some great people and had a really good time – despite it raining pretty much the whole time! We rode around 37 mile, stopping once at a cafe in Wilmslow (hot chocolate and toasted teacake – yum!). I can see this being a weekly thing.
I should point out Team MK runs 3 groups on the Saturday road cycles – ‘steady’, medium and fast. I went with the steady group as it was my first time and found myself struggling a little (in particular after we had sat in the cafe for 45 mins and had to tackle a couple of big hills) so I will stick with the steady group for at least a few more times! Here is the route we did.
I think I need to loosen my cleats a bit and raise my seat 2cm, but other than that all is good. I noticed that the other people in my group all rode with their hands on top of the handle-bar the whole time – I didn’t even know I could ride like that – i.e. there are 3 hand positions on the bike! So it was good riding with other people just to learn that. I also learned that straight front forks can feel twitchy, but they seem okay to me (very direct, but not too bad). I also got a lot of good comments about my bike 
Also, next week Nathan has invited me to cycle around Emberton next Sunday, which will be good fun.