Originally Posted by
Joearch
Very cool to have the jazz band there. Rode by yesterday around noon. I live in Ladera Heights and go Centinela thru Playa Vista and jump on bike path at Lincoln. During the week I go south to Manhattan Beach or Hermosa beach pier. 25-30 miles round trip. Weekends I go north around the Marina and jump on beach path at Washington Venice Beach pier. Go North to Temescal and sometime jump on San Vicente to Bundy. That will also get me 25-30. I don’t do alot of roads and only early as the sun os coming up. Usually low 40’s now at the start which is cold for here. Time for tights and a a few layers up top. I agree top to bottom bike path for the entire coast line would be great. Not very comfortable on PCH during the day. I have been riding single but post C19 may looks for some groups.
What color is your Bianchi? I'll keep an eye out.
Went on a decent ride today and loving SoCal and its 84 degree temp today! Even at the beach it was warm and close to 80. And I've got some miles on this new bike to begin to love it but I have to admit it's mostly for the comfort. What felt like a minimal difference at first is huge after riding some miles. Also, the added lightness is great in all aspects, from comfort to accelerating to simply maintaining a higher average speed; everything is better with less weight!
However, I'm still not sold on the handling. I've watched videos and read some tips on bike handling and I have to say that most of the basics, I already knew. There was no new information that would explain how I'm doing something wrong and that I could change to improve handling. Now it's not horrible, it's just a bit tricky to maintain a line through a curve as the bike feels twitchy. But on the other hand, it is even more difficult to change my line once into the curve. The bike doesn't seem to want to listen and I often end up outside of the proper line which just causes awkwardness. I like to ride fast and take curves as fast as possible, both in everyday driving and on the bike. In a car, I have no trouble changing lines in the middle of the curve depending on traction or changes that occur once into the curve so I think I understand weight distribution, the proper line, differences in front to rear braking, and understeer & oversteer (although I'm not sliding and the these are more for a car, there is still some sensation of these factors on a bike.)
So, not sure if that's just the way it is or if I can learn to control it better. I'm getting more confident with it but it is definitely tricky to just choose a line and fly through the turns and the slower the speed, the worse it is as it just brings out the twitchiness of the bike. This is exactly the same as my Torpado so maybe it's an Italian thing.
How does front to rear weight distribution effect handling? And what lessens twitchiness in a bike? Is it frame design? And if a frame is designed with less twitch, does that mean it doesn't handle as well? I doubt that but just trying to learn more about all this.
Despite all of this, I still love the bike as most of the time, it's just fun, comfortable and easy to ride. I seem to ride about 2-4 mph faster everywhere or at least when I am able to compare to my old bike in places that I remember.