...which turns out to be quite bloody hard.
The last time I rode a push-bike was about 5-6 years ago, when I used to trundle into work every day (about 4 miles) on a mountain bike. Back then I wasn't some kind of gym rat, and so wasn't really burning up the tarmac. As soon as I had a motorbike I relegated the manual option to the garage, and pretty quickly sold it to someone at work. I do vaguely remember that I was reasonably competent and confident on it, normally tearing in and out of traffic, whilst occasionally hitting it (well, once, and I gave the bastard a right verbal for it)...
...what I don't remember is having each and every undulation in the road passed straight up my spine, and a eerie feeling of exposure and extreme vunerability. I suspect that this is very much to do with having spent 5 years perched on a 200 kilo machine, coated in leather and capped with a large helmet, compared to a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and a shaped strip of polystyrene delicately strapped to your head. There is also a slight different in wheel width (about 8-9 inches, compared to the razor-like contact point on the new bike).
As a road (and racing bike) the setup is very different to a mountain bike as well. Some some insane reason the tyres are inflated to 130psi, which is like having iron bars. They absorb absolutely no shocks at all, and as the rest of the frame is also solid the end result is that my wrists and spine take everything. The dimensions of the frame force you to be low to the frame, giving little flexibility for body-weight adjustment to your balance, and the drop handlebars give less leverage. All in all it feels a very unstable setup (which of course it is...it's all designed for speed, not comfort).
The solution, of course, is practice and familiarity. I'm sure that once I have clocked up a couple of hundred miles it will all feel far more natural. I've taken the decision to remove the race pedals while I get familiar (the idea of being bolted to a machine you're not 100% happy on doesn't strike me as the greatest idea ever), and replaced them with normal toe-clips (which several hundred hours of spinning classes have introduced me to). Once I'm not thinking about the bike (and the wierd-ass gears...it took me half an hour to work out that the brake lever pushed sideways was the mechanism to change down...) I can start thinking about speed, cadence and technique, however until I have rid myself of the "I'm about to eat asphalt" mentality I guess I'm back to novice status...
Comments
Sounds like a right boneshaker! My mountain bike is great for getting to work and back or for going up mountains but apart from that, I wouldn't want to try and race anywhere on it!