Phantomrider
Active Member
Nope, not there
Another new V owner
- Thread starter Phantomrider
- Start date
Phantomrider
Active Member
I had 2 derailure hangers and 4 screws/nuts for the seat and bar tape. Sent a message to the support email box hope we can resolve this soon, I know I don’t want to ride it without that headrest
Phantomrider
Active Member
1happyreader
zen/child method
pretty ,,, pretty blue
Cruzbike Chris
Well-Known Member
Good looking bike Joe. No follow the Ratz riding rules and learn how before you go ride your 100k group ride, please. You will be glad you did.
Phantomrider
Active Member
Actually it’s quite different from the CA2, not sure which color I like the best yet because I like them both.
Phantomrider
Active Member
Thank you sir, Fort Worth is home.Welcome to the tribe. Looks like this is N. Texas. There are a few V's in the area now.
Phantomrider
Active Member
Maiden voyage - finally
I’ve been riding in my neighborhood over the past week learning to handle the bike doing all the things you are told as a newbie. Today I finally received my Perez clamp(genius design Jason). Installed it , put the headrest on and hit the road. I now fully understand I have allot to learn before comfort is going to happen with this bike. I rode 20 miles on the normal streets I ride on, but didn’t realize it was 3pm and all the local schools were getting out so needless to say my first experience was in lots of traffic. I certainly owned the lane today and can honestly say I used most all of it as the handling of the bike was quite different than my CA2,that I’ve ridden for 3 years. The good news is the cars were as afraid of me as I was of them
All In all I think it was a good maiden ride, I must learn to relax. I didn’t realize how tight I was gripping the hoods unti I got off the bike and discovered my hands were hurting from clinching so hard. Stops and starts weren’t much of a problem aside from once I had to try 3 times before getting the bike to move forward, I think this was a combination of not downshifting enough and the pressure of sitting in traffic on a foreign bike. There were no smiles on this voyage but then again I remember my maiden voyage on my first high racer and it scared the bejesus out of me.
Tomorrow morning I plan to ride 30-40 miles across a low traffic rolling hill route and look for a smile.
Etap rocks!
I’ve been riding in my neighborhood over the past week learning to handle the bike doing all the things you are told as a newbie. Today I finally received my Perez clamp(genius design Jason). Installed it , put the headrest on and hit the road. I now fully understand I have allot to learn before comfort is going to happen with this bike. I rode 20 miles on the normal streets I ride on, but didn’t realize it was 3pm and all the local schools were getting out so needless to say my first experience was in lots of traffic. I certainly owned the lane today and can honestly say I used most all of it as the handling of the bike was quite different than my CA2,that I’ve ridden for 3 years. The good news is the cars were as afraid of me as I was of them
All In all I think it was a good maiden ride, I must learn to relax. I didn’t realize how tight I was gripping the hoods unti I got off the bike and discovered my hands were hurting from clinching so hard. Stops and starts weren’t much of a problem aside from once I had to try 3 times before getting the bike to move forward, I think this was a combination of not downshifting enough and the pressure of sitting in traffic on a foreign bike. There were no smiles on this voyage but then again I remember my maiden voyage on my first high racer and it scared the bejesus out of me.
Tomorrow morning I plan to ride 30-40 miles across a low traffic rolling hill route and look for a smile.
Etap rocks!
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
If you did all this; and it sounds like you did, http://cruzbike.com/forum/threads/spring-time-learning-to-ride-time.10889/
5 minutes figure 8 before and after each ride and you'll cut adaptation time in half
5 minutes figure 8 before and after each ride and you'll cut adaptation time in half
Phantomrider
Active Member
Great tip, thank you very much. That made a huge difference on today’s ride.
RojoRacing
Donut Powered Wise-guy
Your welcome about the clamp and yes I too would do parking lot figure 8s and one handed drills in the 5-10 before group rides with my friends as we waited for everyone to show up. Already sounds like you are weeks ahead of where I was after my first rides on the V20
Phantomrider
Active Member
Let’s talk about rides 3&4 and a few early observations
Ride 3 - disaster
This was to be the first real road ride on the bike, even though I had 2 earlier rides that were, 5 and 15 miles in length. I have a 40 mile route that I routinely ride with lots of rollers on it, one nice climb 11% and some flats mixed in. I enjoy this route because after the first 5 miles and the last 3 miles it’s pretty open country road. Upon leaving I discovered road construction had the route closed so I zigged and zagged to get to the part I like, no big deal just another day on the bike. The bike and I were getting along well when I downshifted after a good descent 35 mph braking to make a turn when I heard pop, clang clang clang and no power to the pedals. I got the bike stopped and quickly observed my chain dangling from the crank. Crud, busted chain, upon observation I discovered where the extra links were added there was only one quick link and the other end had a mangled link. It was obvious they did not use a quick link on both ends but rather joined the chain using the pin. After calling my wife, waking her up and getting the 7th degree she agreed to come get me. Some 45 minutes later she called to let me know she was leaving but had no idea how to get to where I was. I dropped a pin to her phone with my location and told her to call me when she left the house and I would watch her on my phone to make sure she could get to me. Well after she got lost making a wrong turn we finally go her on track and headed to me. Some 2 hours later I had the bike loaded in the rack, apologizing profusely and asking what she would like for breakfast. Finally got home and I took the bike back to the shop where I got help building it. The shop owner immediately rectified the situation, apologized and sent me on my way at no cost. So ride #3 was truly a bust. I was enjoying the bike and still acclimating until...
Ride #4
This time I decided to take a route that I ride a couple times a week after work, this would give me a pretty good comparison. Following Ratz guidance I did my 5 minutes of figure 8’s and headed out. This route doesn’t have a great deal of climbing on it but there are two pretty good hills and some flats and some deceiving 2% grades of half a mile or so. No issues today aside from a dropped chain when going from the 52 to the 36 and trying to downshift the RD at the same time, lesson learned. Today’s ride was quite pleasant and after comparing the statistics to my last ride on this route I found the speed (18mph)to match the previous ride, my cadence was 1 rpm less(86) this time and the average HR was 20 BPM less this time. I don’t use a power meter so can’t really say what the difference in output was but don’t feel that I was working as hard as normal.
Some early observations, I now have 90 miles on the V after riding the CA2 for 18,000 Miles.
I think the seat on the CA2 is much more comfortable, it seems to wrap around me better and has some curvature to the back that is missing on the V.
The V produces more road noise than the CA2, I assume it’s the frame difference as I’m riding the same carbon wheels on b0th bikes.
Climbing - the jury is still out on this one, need more time on the V to really pass judgement.
After only 4 rides on the V and to match the previous ride on the same route with the CA2 I think the V just might prove to be faster after all. Comfort is just as important as speed to me, after all I ride for fun and will never be like the racers and at 60 years old I am ok with that. I,look forward to more miles and see how my body adapts before placing final judgement on the bike, after all I rode the CA2 for 3 years.
I will say the opinions I keep reading on BROL about how hard this bike is to ride do not apply to me, I followed the rules thanks to CruzbikeChris for beating that into my head and the fact the Perez Clamp wasn’t initially in the box. I still have more acclimating to do and I know that. I haven’t ridden anything but bar end shifters so switching to brifters is much different, riding with a headrest is driving me crazy. You see pony tails and headrest don’t mix well and the pony tail ain’t leaving!
I have one question - is there a standard location that I should start with placing the brifters, I have placed mine to far back toward me and that isn’t comfortable to shift, brake or just ride. Any recommendations would be appreciated and thanks to all for the encouragement and feedback.
Ride 3 - disaster
This was to be the first real road ride on the bike, even though I had 2 earlier rides that were, 5 and 15 miles in length. I have a 40 mile route that I routinely ride with lots of rollers on it, one nice climb 11% and some flats mixed in. I enjoy this route because after the first 5 miles and the last 3 miles it’s pretty open country road. Upon leaving I discovered road construction had the route closed so I zigged and zagged to get to the part I like, no big deal just another day on the bike. The bike and I were getting along well when I downshifted after a good descent 35 mph braking to make a turn when I heard pop, clang clang clang and no power to the pedals. I got the bike stopped and quickly observed my chain dangling from the crank. Crud, busted chain, upon observation I discovered where the extra links were added there was only one quick link and the other end had a mangled link. It was obvious they did not use a quick link on both ends but rather joined the chain using the pin. After calling my wife, waking her up and getting the 7th degree she agreed to come get me. Some 45 minutes later she called to let me know she was leaving but had no idea how to get to where I was. I dropped a pin to her phone with my location and told her to call me when she left the house and I would watch her on my phone to make sure she could get to me. Well after she got lost making a wrong turn we finally go her on track and headed to me. Some 2 hours later I had the bike loaded in the rack, apologizing profusely and asking what she would like for breakfast. Finally got home and I took the bike back to the shop where I got help building it. The shop owner immediately rectified the situation, apologized and sent me on my way at no cost. So ride #3 was truly a bust. I was enjoying the bike and still acclimating until...
Ride #4
This time I decided to take a route that I ride a couple times a week after work, this would give me a pretty good comparison. Following Ratz guidance I did my 5 minutes of figure 8’s and headed out. This route doesn’t have a great deal of climbing on it but there are two pretty good hills and some flats and some deceiving 2% grades of half a mile or so. No issues today aside from a dropped chain when going from the 52 to the 36 and trying to downshift the RD at the same time, lesson learned. Today’s ride was quite pleasant and after comparing the statistics to my last ride on this route I found the speed (18mph)to match the previous ride, my cadence was 1 rpm less(86) this time and the average HR was 20 BPM less this time. I don’t use a power meter so can’t really say what the difference in output was but don’t feel that I was working as hard as normal.
Some early observations, I now have 90 miles on the V after riding the CA2 for 18,000 Miles.
I think the seat on the CA2 is much more comfortable, it seems to wrap around me better and has some curvature to the back that is missing on the V.
The V produces more road noise than the CA2, I assume it’s the frame difference as I’m riding the same carbon wheels on b0th bikes.
Climbing - the jury is still out on this one, need more time on the V to really pass judgement.
After only 4 rides on the V and to match the previous ride on the same route with the CA2 I think the V just might prove to be faster after all. Comfort is just as important as speed to me, after all I ride for fun and will never be like the racers and at 60 years old I am ok with that. I,look forward to more miles and see how my body adapts before placing final judgement on the bike, after all I rode the CA2 for 3 years.
I will say the opinions I keep reading on BROL about how hard this bike is to ride do not apply to me, I followed the rules thanks to CruzbikeChris for beating that into my head and the fact the Perez Clamp wasn’t initially in the box
. I still have more acclimating to do and I know that. I haven’t ridden anything but bar end shifters so switching to brifters is much different, riding with a headrest is driving me crazy. You see pony tails and headrest don’t mix well and the pony tail ain’t leaving! I have one question - is there a standard location that I should start with placing the brifters, I have placed mine to far back toward me and that isn’t comfortable to shift, brake or just ride. Any recommendations would be appreciated and thanks to all for the encouragement and feedback.
Phantomrider
Active Member
Tell me about your new seat please
I went with power on cyclings in house seat because I got a great deal on one. It is similar to thor and Bacchetta hardshell seats with A little variation in hip width. The main difference is that it elevates shoulders. I'm still playing with headreast, but getting close. Figure 8s became a snap the first time I rode it. Larry can ride at 2 degree angle but not me. Might give up a tiny bit of speed from stock but im also in my 60s( new 40s) so comfort is pretty important.
