NYJayhawk

I'm Steve, aka "NYJayhawk".

Here's my story:
Live outside of NYC, married, 2 kids. Love riding. Also an avid golfer (13 hdcp), skier, and play drums in a garage band.

Riding:
Started riding 3 years ago for exercise on a Trek 7300fx hybrid fitness bike. Loved it immediately. Spent two and 1/2 years on the Trek, did a couple of centuries on it, and many rides in the 65-75 mile range. In September, I upgraded to a Ridley Excalibur, and am loving riding more than ever.

East Hill

Hello Steve, did you get the Ridley as a frameset or complete bike? Nice upgrade, whichever way you went!

Welcome to BF!

East Hill

hoopsterky

Hi, Steve....sounds like u are a pretty busy fellow.....i have a question about your old Trek.... i ride a FX7.6 and really enjoy it. I also am doing pretty long rides, 40 to 50 miles and am training for a century. Did you have the stock handlebar or did you add a handlebar with more positions? My hands get numb in the same position after awhile... thanx and welcome to the club

NYJayhawk

East Hill: Hi. Bought the complete bike with Campy Centaur. A couple of swap outs from the LBS to make it fit better (slightly upright stem, different saddle), but that's about it.

Hoopsterky: Howdy. I too had numbness issues. When I first got the bike, I had bar ends installed so I could have more positions. Then I put some neoprene padding on them, and use padded gloves. Two things helped: 1.) getting used to riding longer distances, and 2.) switching hand positions frequently and giving my hands a good "shake out" before the numbness sets in too bad. My first year, I did a 75 mile ride on nowhere near enough training. My right hand went so numb that I had zero grip strenght...couldn't squeeze my water bottle or anything. I didn't get my hand back to normal for almost a month.

Bottom line, I think I just got too tired and was putting too much weight on my hands. The better shape I got in, the more balanced I was, which put less pressure on my hands, resulting in less numbness.

Don't let your bike hold you back. You can do centuries on a bike like yours, and laugh at anybody who tells you that it's not possible (as you pass them of course).

East Hill

^^^
Yes, a very nice upgrade .

East Hill