Saturday, March 30, 2013

New Cannondale Bikes!!



I recently got two new Cannondale bikes from Pathfinder of West Virginia!! The first one is the SuperX Hi-Mod Disc. So far I've only taken it on one ride since it is not cyclocross season but that first ride really tested the bike and got it really dirty as shown in the before and after pictures below. We went on some really muddy roads where the disc brakes were really useful. There was a couple of times that Jerry's bike would not move anymore because of all the mud in his brakes. Even though all the mud that the tires picked up made riding hard at least my bike would still move.This is the first bike I have ever owned with disc brakes and I think they are definitively worth it going through the mud and when going down hill. When I would go down some of the hills around here on my old bike I would be squeezing the brakes as hard as possible and only slow down but not stop. With the disc brakes I can finally stop on a downhill if I need to. 




My second new bike is the F29 2. When I went for a mountain bike with JR and Jerry I learned that JR knows some crazy ways to get from his place to White Park. The way there was kind of hard since we had to walk our bikes a few times but after we got to White Park the ride was a lot of fun. I've never ridden a 29er before so everything was very different since my center of gravity felt a lot higher than with 26in wheels. I got a flat on the ride but luckily I stop at Pathfinder of West Virginia before the ride to buy some tubes. The flat was the front tire so the lefty fork made changing the flat easy since we did not have take the wheel off to change the tube. Also, I learned that the pump that I won in last year's ABRA cyclocross series is the easiest, fastest, and effortless mini pump I've ever had.  It is the Cannondale Airspeed Nitro Mini Pump. After JR was very nice and changed the tube for me I started pumping it up, with little effort the tire was at about the same pressure I started the ride with. Any other time I've gotten a flat I've given up on pumping up the tire before I get to the pressure I really want but not this time because this pump worked so well. This ride also got my bike dirty, I like the mud but when will everything be dry so I don't have to clean my bikes after every ride?


Overall, I'm really happy with my new bikes! I can't wait for mountain bike racing to start soon.and I really can't wait until cyclocross racing starts

1 comment:

  1. You will have to give me some MTB tips Stephanie. Good read.

    ReplyDelete