Blog: Roubaix
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Roubaix - Thursday, June 19, 2014
When Aaron and my dad came up last month, Aaron brought up a new road bike I'd asked him to order for me, a white Specialized Roubaix SL4 Elite 105, MSRP $2,600, which he was able to get from the bike shop he worked at for $1,600 including tax.
Since then according to Strava, I've put over 100 miles on it, mainly commuting 8.5 miles each way to work. After moving to our new house, the commute was too tiring to do on my Crosstrail so I'd only done it once, on Bike to Work Day. But with the new road bike, the commute is so much more comfortable. Whereas hitting 20mph on the Crosstrail took quite a bit of effort, on the Roubaix I can do it with relative ease.
I've gone riding with co-workers to Philz twice, and I'm trying to spearhead semi-regular afternoon cycling rides at work. This past weekend I biked with Alex on a good deal of the Stanford Loop, except instead of starting from Stanford, we started from his place in Mountain View and took Foothill Expressway to get to Arastradero Road. The whole ride was 24 miles and my first real ride with hills. Fun!
The next thing to do will probably be upgrading the stock platform pedals; those are the only things that feel cheap on this bike. I swapped the hard saddle with the more comfortable one from my Crosstrail, which helps alleviate the pain on my sit bones from prolonged rides. Once I get used to wearing my new pair of bike shorts (Pearl Izumi from Amazon), I may put the original saddle back. I also feel soreness in the shoulders after prolonged rides; I haven't figured out the cause yet, but a co-worker suggested replacing the stem.
Right now, perhaps due to the new cables stretching, my shifting has gotten sloppy. Interestingly, I've never had this problem with my Crosstrail; it still shifts fine after I've put maybe 1,000 miles on it. Anyway, learning how to adjust the shifting on the Roubaix will be good to add to my repertoire of experience.
Since then according to Strava, I've put over 100 miles on it, mainly commuting 8.5 miles each way to work. After moving to our new house, the commute was too tiring to do on my Crosstrail so I'd only done it once, on Bike to Work Day. But with the new road bike, the commute is so much more comfortable. Whereas hitting 20mph on the Crosstrail took quite a bit of effort, on the Roubaix I can do it with relative ease.
I've gone riding with co-workers to Philz twice, and I'm trying to spearhead semi-regular afternoon cycling rides at work. This past weekend I biked with Alex on a good deal of the Stanford Loop, except instead of starting from Stanford, we started from his place in Mountain View and took Foothill Expressway to get to Arastradero Road. The whole ride was 24 miles and my first real ride with hills. Fun!
The next thing to do will probably be upgrading the stock platform pedals; those are the only things that feel cheap on this bike. I swapped the hard saddle with the more comfortable one from my Crosstrail, which helps alleviate the pain on my sit bones from prolonged rides. Once I get used to wearing my new pair of bike shorts (Pearl Izumi from Amazon), I may put the original saddle back. I also feel soreness in the shoulders after prolonged rides; I haven't figured out the cause yet, but a co-worker suggested replacing the stem.
Right now, perhaps due to the new cables stretching, my shifting has gotten sloppy. Interestingly, I've never had this problem with my Crosstrail; it still shifts fine after I've put maybe 1,000 miles on it. Anyway, learning how to adjust the shifting on the Roubaix will be good to add to my repertoire of experience.