Sunday, April 8, 2012

The New Bike

As I mentioned a few posts back, I signed up for a race called Odin's Revenge coming up at the end of June.  When I signed up, I knew none of the bikes I had in my stable were ideal for the race, but I got lured in by the pictures of the area and all of the Dirty Kanza (very similar) talk at the Berryman Ride.  As the days went by though, I began thinking more and more that I probably need a new bike to have any shot at completing this ride.

I started researching bikes, and narrowed my choices down to three: the Salsa Vaya, Masi CXR, and Kona Jake the Snake.  All 3 are mid-level cyclocross bikes, which I think are much more suited to doing some gravel riding than a standard road bike or my hardtail mountain bike.  I don't know if I'll try and do some cyclocross races this fall, but if I get a wild hair and try that, I'll be able to do that as well on this bike.  After printing off the spec pages for each of the 3 bikes, I went to see my mechanic for his opinion on them.  He immediately recommended either the Kona or the Masi from 2011 because they have Shimano components rather than SRAM and he is extremely partial towards the Shimano product.  I've also heard that the shifting mechanisms on the two bikes are different enough to be annoying if you're used to one or the other, so after hearing his reasons for going with Shimano, I crossed the Vaya and 2012 CXR off my list. 

As it happened, the night I went in the shop, there was another guy there that was looking to unload a barely used Jake the Snake.  It was a 59 cm frame rather than a 56 that I probably would've gotten if I bought new, but he was only an inch taller than me, so I made arrangements to go test ride it and see how well I fit on the bike.  After riding it, it felt good, so I went ahead and purchased the Jake the Snake.

After getting it home, there were only two things about the bike that made it look anything other than factory fresh.  The tires and the grip tape.  The frame looked immaculate.  Unfortunately, it was about a week before I really got to take it out anywhere.  I was gearing up for the Lost Valley Luau the week after I bought it, but finally I took it down to the Al Foster trail the week before last.  The Al Foster is a gravel trail that follows the Meramec River, and it is the closest place to my house where I can try it out on the surface it is designed for.


I was not disappointed.  The bike definitely felt more stable than my road bike going down one of the fast descents into the river valley, and when I got off the pavement and onto the gravel, I felt plenty stable as well.  The only iffy part was at the access point to the trail where I think they recently put down some fresh gravel that wasn't packed in (or washed away) like the rest of the trail.  Being right along the Meramec, the trail is known to become submerged when the river floods.  Along the trail, cruising at 15 or 16 mph was no problem on this where 13 or 14 feels like I'm pushing it when I'm on the mountain bike, so I can definitely feel the speed advantage off of pavement.

I'm still trying to decide if I'm being slowed down on the pavement with the knobbier tires.  Coming home from the Al Foster that first night out, I was running pretty good going up the hill out of the valley - 15-17 in the flatter areas, 9 or 10 on the big part of the climb, but when I went back down there last week and did the same route coming home, it was more like 12-14 in the flats and 6 or 8 on the climb.  Tonight I took the bike down to the levee trail in Chesterfield, and I was running 16-20 pretty consistently with a light wind.  While it was a struggle to maintain 14 or 15 at times during the Super Century, my bike definitely had something going on with it that day.  I'll have to take the Schwinn back out and compare.  I know when it's calm, I can hold 17 or 18 pretty easily, so it might be a wash.  If I put some slick tires on the Kona, maybe that would give it the edge.  The Trailnet Bicycle Fun Club season starts up next week.  I'll bring the new bike on the first couple of those and see how I hold up with some of the faster riders I know.

1 comment:

  1. Man, I'm so jealous. Sweet looking bike.

    And I've got shimano components on my road bike and SRAM on my mountain bike. It usually takes me a few shifts to figure out what the heck I'm doing when I ride the one that's been sitting longer.

    ReplyDelete