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Old 06-07-22, 05:17 PM
  #379  
Andy_K 
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Location: Beaverton, OR
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Today I finally had the right combination of weather and free time available to take my clunker out for a ride.



Not wanting to use the 20% grade hill I live on as a first test for the brakes, I drove a short way down the hill to Mountain View Champions Park to start this shakedown ride.



From there I rode a pleasant 10.9 mile loop out to South Hillsboro and back. Getting out of the suburbs is generally tedious, but I live close enough to the edge of the sprawl that it isn't terrible. I started out with some very low traffic residential streets.



That got me out into the not-yet-developed area south of South Hillsboro.



Sometimes you see a sign when you're out riding your C&V bike, and you just have to stop for a picture. (I thought about taking down the "weekend" sign, but it seemed like a lot of work for just a picture.



Finally, as promised, I arrived in Stepford ...er...I mean... South Hillsboro.



Though the day was mostly overcast, I got a surprisingly good view of Mt. Hood (from 60 miles away). I can never capture that view with a camera phone, so you get this.



From there it gets really uneventful until I got back to Champions Park.



Almost 11 miles in, and the bar tape is still mostly white. This SRAM tape is clearly worth every penny of the $8 I paid for it.



Ride impressions: Overall, I feel like I'm cheating on the Clunker Challenge. This was a downright pleasant ride. The saddle is considerably narrow than I prefer, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. The tires also greatly exceeded my expectations. I was expecting it to feel like riding on a cheap garden hose. In fact, they did OK. The only time I really thought about the tires was when the bike started to feel a bit bouncy under choppy pedaling. I hadn't brought a pump, so that alarmed me, but it turned out to be just low starting pressure. Handling was predictable and smooth. On a quick descent, the bike felt very stable. Shifting, both front and rear, was excellent. Even the brakes were pretty good.

The bike has unusual geometry for something that the catalog describes as "a legitimate racing machine fashioned after the Super Elite." It might be fashioned after it, but it doesn't have the same geometry. This bike has a 58cm (c-t-t) seat tube paired with a 55cm (c-t-c) top tube and a stubby little 80mm stem. That's perfect for me, but not exactly racing geometry. It makes for an extremely pleasant recreational rider, but if we're being honest that was probably its target market -- recreational riders who want to imagine that they're racers.

I'm not ready to give up my Colnago's spot in the garage to make room for this, but if this were the only bike I owned, I would still be a happy cyclist.
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