Seth Cooper
Well-Known Member
Dalmac is Lansing, MI to Mackinaw, MI, about 360 miles and 10,000 ft climbing on the west route.
First multi-day ride with the V20. Some impressions:
1. Got to go down some bigger hills than at home. Holy Hell the V is fast. I feel comfortable in the 30-40mph range, but 40+ it gets intense, you have to be sooo gentle with the steering inputs. Picked up a KOM on one of the descents. Max speed on the Garmin was 48.7 mph. Wheee!!!
2. Proved that I could still climb. One hill on the route is "the wall". The top of the hill is 15+% grade for 0.16mi. I wondered if I could get up it on the V. Two years ago I did it on my road bike in 2:01. This time on the V in 1:38. Pretty much an all-out effort for me. Got to the top and someone said, "Whoa, that guy did it on a recumbent!". In my mind I did my best Isaac Hayes: "You're damn right".
3. I think I did a nice job demo-ing the abilities of a racing recumbent, and the V specifically. Showed a lot of DF riders that I could stay with them on the climbs and just blow their doors off on the descents.
4. The stock seat and headrest are going to get swapped. My shoulder blades were getting a little sore where they wrapped around the top of the seat.
5. I can really see the need for an easy to adjust seat angle, preferable while riding. Sometimes I just wanted to relax and look around a bit more. I can do that on the V by raising my head, which is easy to do for little bit, but a seat that can change from 30-40 deg for climbing or touring to 20 deg for fast running / descending would be nice.
6. I really like how quiet the V is. The short chain line makes it that way. When descending while pedaling (like on a light grade -1.0 to -0.5% or so) the bike is so fast and so smooth, just the sound of the wind and the quiet howl of the carbon wheels. I often hum a modified line from Tom Petty's "Running down a dream". "The trees went by, me and the Zipps were singing. a little runaway, I was a-flyin' "
7. Riding in the rain requires taking off glasses and lifting my head to tilt it forward so I can try to keep the rain from hitting me in the eyes.
All in all, it was a great ride.
First multi-day ride with the V20. Some impressions:
1. Got to go down some bigger hills than at home. Holy Hell the V is fast. I feel comfortable in the 30-40mph range, but 40+ it gets intense, you have to be sooo gentle with the steering inputs. Picked up a KOM on one of the descents. Max speed on the Garmin was 48.7 mph. Wheee!!!
2. Proved that I could still climb. One hill on the route is "the wall". The top of the hill is 15+% grade for 0.16mi. I wondered if I could get up it on the V. Two years ago I did it on my road bike in 2:01. This time on the V in 1:38. Pretty much an all-out effort for me. Got to the top and someone said, "Whoa, that guy did it on a recumbent!". In my mind I did my best Isaac Hayes: "You're damn right".
3. I think I did a nice job demo-ing the abilities of a racing recumbent, and the V specifically. Showed a lot of DF riders that I could stay with them on the climbs and just blow their doors off on the descents.
4. The stock seat and headrest are going to get swapped. My shoulder blades were getting a little sore where they wrapped around the top of the seat.
5. I can really see the need for an easy to adjust seat angle, preferable while riding. Sometimes I just wanted to relax and look around a bit more. I can do that on the V by raising my head, which is easy to do for little bit, but a seat that can change from 30-40 deg for climbing or touring to 20 deg for fast running / descending would be nice.
6. I really like how quiet the V is. The short chain line makes it that way. When descending while pedaling (like on a light grade -1.0 to -0.5% or so) the bike is so fast and so smooth, just the sound of the wind and the quiet howl of the carbon wheels. I often hum a modified line from Tom Petty's "Running down a dream". "The trees went by, me and the Zipps were singing. a little runaway, I was a-flyin' "
7. Riding in the rain requires taking off glasses and lifting my head to tilt it forward so I can try to keep the rain from hitting me in the eyes.
All in all, it was a great ride.
