I'm stuck and I got a new bike

I'm riding about three to five times a week now. I'm climbing hills. I've turned into a cycling maniac. I just can't seem to get enough of it. I still weigh 240 pounds. Sometimes I drop to 235 and sometimes I’d bump up to 245. I don't seem to be losing any weight. Muscle mass! That's it, I'm gaining heavy muscle mass. As they say, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I began to suspect that my beloved Rocinante was probably not the right size for me. It is a 61cm frame and I was stretched out over it like I was on a medieval rack. I started dropping by bike shops and trying out different sizes of bikes. I took body measurements (my wife is beginning to think I'm nuts) and with the help of information I gleaned from the web, I discovered that I really should be on a 56 to 58cm frame. So I reluctantly put an ad on craigslist and sold my Klein to a young student who was about 6’6” tall. He was the right size for the Klein and it felt to me like he was gonna take good care of it. I replaced the Klein with a 56cm all carbon Masi 3VC Volumetrica frame and built it up myself with relatively high end components.

Masi was (emphasis on the past-tense) a legendary bike brand founded by Faliero Masi in the 50s. His bikes won a bunch of Giros d'Italia, Tours de France and Vueltas a España. Some of cycling's most legendary figures rode Masis to victory. The riders in the iconic movie Breaking Away rode Masi Gran Criteriums. Faliero Masi moved his frame building business from underneath the velodrome in Milan to Carlsbad in the early 70s and later moved back to Italy leaving his company behind. Masi is now owned by Haro bikes in Vista. Many Masi purists deride the new Masis as fakes. I don't know about that. I just liked the history behind the name and good quality vintage Masis are outrageously expensive.

I haven't given the Masi a name and I don't know if I will. It doesn't feel as significant as my first ride, even though the component mix is far better than Rocinante, it's much stiffer and much lighter, too. I'm becoming obsesses with making my bike lighter. The thing is though, that where I really needed to shave... No, hack off more weight is from my body. I still weigh 240 pounds.

Down to 240 and an anniversary

Start of Tour de Palm Springs

When I bought Rocinante just about a year ago, one of my goals was to ride in the Tour of Palm Springs. I figured it would be something of a homecoming for my bike and to celebrate that I made it so far. The Tour of Palm Springs is one of the largest organized ride in the west. I think they said there were about 6,000 riders, riding on courses varying from 25 miles to a full century (100 miles). I signed up for the 55 miler. This was my longest ever single bike ride.

Last Christmas, I bought my son a carbon road bike. He's got the perfect physique for riding, tall and lightweight. I told my wife and son that all I wanted from them for Christmas was for them to commit to riding two organized bike rides with me.

The first was kind of a warm up for the Palm Springs ride. We signed up for the Tour of Borrego Springs a couple of days before the new year. We got a bit mixed up at the start and started early with the guys riding 100 miles. When we turned off to follow our route, no one was ready for us at the rest stops. When we finished, we came in 1, 2 and 3. The rest of the 33 milers started arriving about 20 minutes later. We didn’t tell anyone we started 20 minutes ahead of everyone else in our group.

MMCC at the Tour of Palm Springs

The second ride was Tour of Palm Springs and rode 55 miles with my wife and son. It was an easy 55 miles, with just a bit of wind, lots of rest stops and lots of stops because of the huge crowds, particularly at the beginning and at the first rest stop. Once out past the first 10 or so miles, the riders thinned out and we had lots of room. The CHP was out in force doing a great job of protecting the cyclists. Overall, it was a really great event, and very well organized.

The Palm Springs ride was special to me because it marked the first anniversary of my getting back on a bike. I was feeling much better physically, my riding was strong and I'd made some progress in the weight loss department. I weigh 240 pounds; in a year I managed to lose 30 pounds. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to do anything else to shed the weight a bit faster.

Cleats, part 2

Look Keo

I soon discovered that my Speedplay Frogs, good as they are combined with my touring shoes didn't quite cut it for road biking. For road biking, aside from weight, stiffness is king; particularly for climbing, you want as much of your effort to be transformed into forward motion. If, among other things (and there are lots of other things!) your shoes aren't stiff enough, you end up using some of that precious power to flex your shoes. That's the excuse, anyway.

You also want your cleats to have a relatively wide platform, so you can distribute that force over a wider area, reducing the stress of hard pedaling on the cleat/pedal system. While mountain/touring bike shoes have two holes on the sole, road shoes will have three (most common, pioneered by Look) or four holes (Speedplay and some Time systems).

Time iCLIC

One of the best selling pedal systems is made by Look. Their Keo pedals are pretty ubiquitous and are ridden by just about every level of rider from beginner to Alberto Contador, the 2007 and 2009 winner of the Tour de France. Look claims to have invented the clipless pedal. I wonder if they were responsible for naming them clipless too. Time makes some pretty good pedals too, and they claim to have pioneered the whole idea of "float". Other manufacturers are Shimano and Speedplay.

For those of us with heavy frames (I mean body, not bike!) the issue of float is important. Float allows the cleat to move from side to side on the pedal, theoretically making it easier on the knees than a fixed cleat that doesn't move once it's on the pedal. Time's iClic cleats have about 5 degrees of float, Shimano offers fixed (0 degrees of float) or 6 degrees of float. Look's Keos can be outfitted with zero float, 4 degrees of float or 9 degrees. Speedplay Zeros can be adjusted by set-screws in the cleat to an infinite number of settings in between zero and 15 degrees. Other Speedplay models have fixed non-adjustable floats.

Speedplay Light Action

Most of the manufacturers have different levels of pedal performance. Material on the lower end are usually chromoly steel (I don't think I spelled that right). Then you usually have stainless steel in the middle with carbon and titanium pedals rounding out the top end. You can expect to pay more for lighter and stiffer pedals.

I still have my fear of getting stuck on the pedal and ignominiously falling over in front of a crowd. I also wanted a system where I could choose different float angles. I still don't know how much I'll need or even if I need any at all. I also wanted a system that had replacement cleats readily available. I ended up choosing the Look Keos. I tried the black cleats, no float: Wow, if you're even mildly claustrophobic, you're not gonna like no float. You may like them if you're into the kinky bondage scene though. I also tried the red cleats, which provide 9 degrees of float. The foot movement was disconcerting and I decided I didn't like so much float (which is strange, because my Speedplay Frogs had at least that much float!). I'm now using the gray cleats which provide 4 degrees of float.

Shimano Ultegra

The Look pedals are very easy to clip in and out of. Hardly any effort is required for either, yet unless you twist your foot in strange ways while pedaling, they'll keep your foot firmly clamped onto your pedals. My only complaint is that they're one-sided, so you have to fiddle with them a bit to get them facing the correct way to cleat in. I've been riding them for a few months now and so far, I'm happy with them. I paired the pedals with Sidi shoes and guess what? I still suck at climbing! On to the next excuse.

By the way I lifted the pedal photos from www.competitivecyclist.com. I don't mind recommending them because so far, they've treated me right and their prices can be very good, particularly for closeouts. (I'm not in any way affiliated with them, I just like them)