New Orleans Bicycles

It's been a while since I've posted something. School season has started and time riding on the bike has been rare. The only quality times that I can log some mileage are either in the late evenings or the early mornings. This is where a couple good quality lights come into play, but that's for another future post.

I've been out of town for several days down in New Orleans. A friend of mine is getting married in September and his bachelor's party was in the French Quarter. Other than drinking, shopping, sightseeing and drinking I was able to take photos of the local bikes.








The one impression that came to me was that most or all of the bikes were your so called Walmart type bikes. Not very expensive, but that's a benefit when you're in the French Quarter or any large city. I would assume if you were to leave a semi-expensive bike it would grow wings and fly.






The school of thought was that, so long as the bike can get you from point A to point B, it was darn good enough. There were bikes from the 50's rust bucket to bikes off the display shelves from Walmart. These are what you would call city bikes, no nonsense, Cinderella sister ugly, but will get you to where you want to go. They are the mutts of the cycling world, a true utilitarian, but with characteristics to start a conversation.

Test riding the new upgrades on the Strada

Last Friday and Sunday I had a chance to test ride the Strada with the new upgrades. 650c wheels, racing tires, new seat, new seat bag, and cassette gearing gave the bike about 2 mph extra speed but also, took away the plush ride characteristic with the old parts. I'm fine with loosing the smooth ride, so long as I can squeeze out some extra speed. It's a recumbent so the bumpy ride will not be as bad as a regular diamond frame bike.

Friday's ride I met Mike, a 7 Hills Cycling Club member. He was out riding his Litespeed road bike. He caught up with me doing around 22 mph. We road together towards Loveland until my water bottle fell off my bike and I had to stop and look for it. With the jarring ride it finally wiggled off and no I didn't find it.

Sunday's ride I met Mike again when I turned around half way on the trail. He was doing his long recovery ride. He had already had gone around 80 miles when I met up with him again. Mike had another 25 miles to go to finish off his 105 mile ride.

I had hoped to follow a fast roadie on the way back on my half way point. It was fortunate for me to meet Mike again and be able to chat on the way back as well. When you're riding with someone your speed seems to pick up and not such a chore to maintain. We were doing around 20 mph on the way back.

I learned more about Mike on the ride back. He belonged to a racing team in his club and is quite a competitor. His work environment and home life allows him to spend allot of time on the bike. I'm so jealous. I forgot to ask him what his ranking was with the USA Cycling Organization. He had to be at least a Cat 3 or 2.

Latest Upgrade to the Strada

I finally acquired several key upgrade parts to my Bacchetta Strada. The wheels I switched out to a 650c size, the seat I replaced with the Bacchetta Euromesh, added a Bacchetta Brain Box seat bag and replaced the 11-23 cassette cog to a 11-34 cassette.

The 650c wheels allowed me to ride with thinner road tires. The Velocity Spartacus wheels I won off of eBay. They came with cogs, tubes and tires. The tires alone equaled the amount I paid for the wheels. So for the price of two racing tires I got two racing wheels that would normally cost around $300.

The seat and seat bag I purchased off the bike's manufacturer's website. The seat is not as light as a high end carbon seat, but it's lighter and narrower than the normal standard Recurve seat. The new seat finally allowed me to place two feet on the ground while seated. The wide seat pad of the original Recurve seat didn't allow me to do that. Also, it was lower and allowed me to move the seat backwards. The original seat's lower padding was at least two inches high which increased the seat height.

The seat bag mounts to the top back of the seat. The bag stores up to 600 cubic inches, which is allot of space. It stores all the necessary items, such as tubes, tire repair kit, tools, pump, power bars, cycling glasses, bottled water, wallet, cell phone, etc.

But the most important upgrade was the changing of the original cogs to a 11-34 teeth. This is the same cog number that is on my Baron lowracer, which works well for me. I immediately noticed a two mph speed increase.