The Blue Ridge Parkway
Suffice it to say … I am insane. 🙂
So, I went to visit my parents who now live in the greater Asheville, NC area and I brought my bike thinking it would be a great time to get some rides in because the weather is so predictably nice there. Originally Michelle and me were going to make the trip together, but her mom’s too sick right now for her to leave. So off I went by myself.
Asheville is in the Smokey Mountains. It’s hilly. It’s beyond hilly. It’s just up/down/up/down. There’s basically nothing flat. There are some nice backroads that have easier grades/profiles. The problem is the rednecks BOMB along those roads and it’s just a scary situation all around.
I found a book with some great rides outlined, but the cue sheets were REALLY detailed. I thought, “Great … I have to maintain momentum on these hills *and* navigate???”. No way. So, I finally decided to just ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The locals told me “around Asheville it’s a lot flatter”. It seemed like a good place to ride because the speed limits are much slower and the area is very friendly to bikes and motorcycles, etc.
I park my car and head UP the onramp. (everything is UP … I wish I had some instrument on my bike that told me the grades of the hills)
So, the warm-up first 15 mins consisted of pedalling uphill for 1.54 miles until I just stopped and turned around … I was like “oh man, this is insane!”. The downhills are crazy, too. Squeezing my brakes I hit a max speed of 34mph. I’m not yet totally comfortable with the bike and so that was as daring as I felt.
In the end, I rode for about 13 miles. Normally that would seem like nothing. It took me a little over an hour to grind out those miles. My average speed was about 12 mph because I was soooo damn slow on the hill climbs.
Afterwards I went to Carolina Fats Bike Shop and the guys hooked me up. The owner was awesome … I told him that I know I need to keep riding and get into better shape, but asked if there were any adjustments we could make to the bike. He did three significant things:
1. my stem was only 70mm and he swapped it for a 90mm
2. lowered my handlebar height and raised my seat
3. replaced 25 tires with 23s
Muuuuuuch bedah!
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