trapdoor2
Zen MBB Master
Saturday morning I rode in our local annual "Mayor's Ride". This is a cycling promotional ride where the Mayor and city council mount up and ride to promote cycling safety, etc. Last year it was rained out and the rescheduled ride was not well advertised but this year we had great weather and a decent build-up. Ended up with about 250 riders for a 4-mile easy ride.
Of course, I could not just ride 4 miles...that's hardly a warm-up.
So, I started about 40 min early and rode about 12 mi to get to the start. Getting there, I racked my bike and wandered around looking at the promo tents and people-watching. Lots of lyrca and spandex!
Before the start, I retreived my bike (Cruzbike Conversion) and immediately got swamped by questions and comments...all positive! Lots of interest and lots of "what website?" queries. As we rode away from the start, I kept hearing comments from other riders behind me like, "I'll bet that thing is hard to steer!" (I'd call back to them and talk about how easy it actually is) or "He's got to be comfortable." or "Look! It's a lawnchair!". There were other recumbents on the ride (three trikes, a Vision and a GRR) but nothing like the Cruzbike.
I was very happy to have been in the midst of a pack of race-clad roadies when we started the first hill (not horribly steep, but about 1/2 mile in length) and heard one of them say something like, "All right: a hill! Ok, nice bike, see you!" Of course, I took that as a challenge...and I actually pulled away from them on the way up. They caught up again on the downhill (too many people packed together for me to let her go on the downside) and were very complimentary...even though I couldn't answer 'cause I was trying to breathe... :roll:
So, lots of interest, lots of great comments and a lot of fun. After the ride I headed home and ended up with around 30mi total. I haven't been riding much lately so 30 mi is about max for the moment. I'm hoping to start riding regularly again and hopefully ride a couple of the local centuries this coming fall.
===Marc
Of course, I could not just ride 4 miles...that's hardly a warm-up.
So, I started about 40 min early and rode about 12 mi to get to the start. Getting there, I racked my bike and wandered around looking at the promo tents and people-watching. Lots of lyrca and spandex! Before the start, I retreived my bike (Cruzbike Conversion) and immediately got swamped by questions and comments...all positive! Lots of interest and lots of "what website?" queries. As we rode away from the start, I kept hearing comments from other riders behind me like, "I'll bet that thing is hard to steer!" (I'd call back to them and talk about how easy it actually is) or "He's got to be comfortable." or "Look! It's a lawnchair!". There were other recumbents on the ride (three trikes, a Vision and a GRR) but nothing like the Cruzbike.
I was very happy to have been in the midst of a pack of race-clad roadies when we started the first hill (not horribly steep, but about 1/2 mile in length) and heard one of them say something like, "All right: a hill! Ok, nice bike, see you!" Of course, I took that as a challenge...and I actually pulled away from them on the way up. They caught up again on the downhill (too many people packed together for me to let her go on the downside) and were very complimentary...even though I couldn't answer 'cause I was trying to breathe... :roll:
So, lots of interest, lots of great comments and a lot of fun. After the ride I headed home and ended up with around 30mi total. I haven't been riding much lately so 30 mi is about max for the moment. I'm hoping to start riding regularly again and hopefully ride a couple of the local centuries this coming fall.
===Marc
