Some Catching Up To Do

A few years back in the summer of 2006 my wife decided to do a bike tour on behalf of a friend who became paralyzed from a motorcycle accident. The tour was called Dam2Dam and is located in Wenatchee Washington. The ride wasn't until the end of September which was a good thing because my wife didn't have a bike so I suggested she get one. She purchased a bike from REI which was a hybrid type. Not a true road bike or a true mountain bike but could do equally fine on both terrains. Years later she would get another bike but that's for a future blog. At the time I only had a mountain bike and thought that would be adequate. Boy did I find out quickly how wrong I would be.


Fortunately we decided to train with our bikes during our sixth wedding anniversary at Friday Harbor on San Juan island of the San Juans in Washington State. While my wife cycled just fine on the island, I discovered how difficult riding a mountain bike on the road is. The rolling resistance from aggressive mountain bike tires on pavement is grueling, especially if your cycling for distance. I would venture a guess that I did not bike more than seven miles before I said no more. I came to the exhausting realization that I needed to get a road bike and quickly.


With only three weeks before Dam2Dam and less than seven miles of training under my belt I purchased a road bike a day or two after returning home from our Friday Harbor holiday. I went to a local bike dealer and purchased a 2006 Raliegh Cadent. The 2006 Cadent is an orange and silver entry level aluminum alloy bike. I went with entry level because I had not ridden a road bike since I was a teenager and I wasn't sure how much cycling I would do after the tour.



On my test ride with the Cadent it became instantly obvious I needed this bike. Compared to my mountain bike, riding the Cadent was effortless and very comfortable. While I was shopping for my "economical" bike the bike shop owner was doing his job by showing me the elite road bikes he had for sale as well. By economical I mean my bike cost me just under $800 and that was with the store owner giving me a discount. By elite bikes I'm talking about bikes made completely of carbon fiber that didn't just cost a thousand dollars but thousands of dollars! Probably because of the sticker shock I was skeptical when the owner told me that once I got the cycling bug in my blood I would be back to buy one of his elite bikes. Surprisingly enough his comment would be prophetic because like my wife two years later, I would do just that.

With my new Raliegh Cadent purchased I had some peace of mind knowing that the Dam2Dam tour would be a little easier for me to accomplish. Still with no significant amount of training under my belt I was in the same position I am with this new blog Adventures in Cycling, I had some catching up to do.