Year in Bicycling
Dec. 19th, 2025 05:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
varidogThis year in bicycling, I wore out.
In January, it snowed enough that the paths weren't safe, so I took the bus and the metro for a month.
With a return to office in March, making pedaling five days a week, like it or not, I began pedaling full time, and I found this exhausting. I soon switched to interleaving metro days with pedaling days. That helped.
We considered an ebike back in May, but with my job highly uncertain, it was cheaper to take the metro. In fact, I could ride the metro for five years, part time, before equaling the cost of an ebike.
I took to riding my 26 inch wheel bike more, because it had an overall less-bumpy ride because of its big tires.
In September, I put the drop bars back onto my road bike, and I've been relearning how to use it. I'm still not convinced on drop bars. The right brifter had troubles, so I replaced them with Microshift brifters. I'm still sorting out that mess. Generally, I'm not using my road bike to reach the metro, and my mountain bike to pedal longer distances.
I may yet go back to handlebars and friction shifters on the road bike. That was a very nice combo. The main thing holding me back is the sunk cost of the new brifters.
I've only ridden into work once with brifters, and this time around, I was better at it, because my core strength is far better than it was years ago. However, my hands don't fully like drop bars.
In January, it snowed enough that the paths weren't safe, so I took the bus and the metro for a month.
With a return to office in March, making pedaling five days a week, like it or not, I began pedaling full time, and I found this exhausting. I soon switched to interleaving metro days with pedaling days. That helped.
We considered an ebike back in May, but with my job highly uncertain, it was cheaper to take the metro. In fact, I could ride the metro for five years, part time, before equaling the cost of an ebike.
I took to riding my 26 inch wheel bike more, because it had an overall less-bumpy ride because of its big tires.
In September, I put the drop bars back onto my road bike, and I've been relearning how to use it. I'm still not convinced on drop bars. The right brifter had troubles, so I replaced them with Microshift brifters. I'm still sorting out that mess. Generally, I'm not using my road bike to reach the metro, and my mountain bike to pedal longer distances.
I may yet go back to handlebars and friction shifters on the road bike. That was a very nice combo. The main thing holding me back is the sunk cost of the new brifters.
I've only ridden into work once with brifters, and this time around, I was better at it, because my core strength is far better than it was years ago. However, my hands don't fully like drop bars.
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Date: 2025-12-20 06:21 am (UTC)