If I am lucky (and I usually am) Chris will meet up with me. He will mountain bike and come down from the Bonneville Shoreline in PG. We will then head back to the mouth of Provo Canyon. Even on his mountain bike and riding harder and longer than me, he will be faster on the return route. In my defense though, my heart rate will usually be higher when we ride together.
This past week I thought this was coming to an end. During two consecutive rides, I started to get really, really uncomfortable after a mere 20 minutes or so. I would feel all squished up in my abdominal cavity to the point that I would almost feel sick. This, of course, made me cranky and even slower.
Chris (my hero) started to brainstorm ways we could make my rides more comfortable. He started asking if my mountain bike would be better. (Note: I recently donated my rear shock to Chris' bike while he sent his back for a warranty. Thus I had not been riding it at all.) I said I was not sure. He tried to think of ways he could raise the handlebars...even going so far as to ask me how I would feel about flipping them, i.e. drop handlebars flipped around so the drops are higher. I was not game for that--I have standards.
Chris' Superfly 100 (which he no longer rides) had a riser stem on it that he had flipped though to lower the handle bars. We decided to put that on my CX bike and put all of the spacers underneath the stem. It looks a little ridiculous for the type of bike/riding I would normally do. But when I rode it, I felt so much better. While I could sense that it felt different, it did not feel awkward or any different trying to control it. It simply felt more comfortable...and extends my riding.
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| That is some serious height/rise |
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