Whitening my ride

I've wanted to write about the small upgrades of my trail bike last year but I was too lazy. Last year I changed the seat of my mountain bike with a white second hand Selle Italia seat. The original seat got to my city bike so that bike got a little bit sportier and more comfortable (it had a big bulky city seat).

Also last year I changed my bottle cage because the aluminium one was making my bottle dirty so I got a white plastic bottle cage and change the yellow bottle with a white bottle :)

Last year I started to have bigger problems with my pedals, one of them was broken for a few years, but after falling too many time because I could get my shoes unclipped I decided that I should get new pedals. Given the options of silver, black and white I chose some nice white pedals. 

Last week I changed the pedals (I want to change the cleats also, but I need a lot of tome for that) so this Sunday I went for a ride with the new white pedals. 

The trail was nice and dry, the ground was a bit to hard but it was a nice Spring ride.

And a picture white my whitened bike:

And a close up with the new pedals from Rosebikes:

I wonder what is the next bit that is going to be whitened... Too bad they don't make white Nobby Nics with reinforced side walls...

It's Spring again!

Hooray, it's spring again!

Sunday I went for the first road ride with my road bike this year. It's so weird to go out on the road again after a long winter... These were my thought:

• this bike in so unstable (the same feeling every spring)
• help, I can't feel the bike
• this is too fast
• it't too cold
• it's too hot
• this bike is too big
• the bike is not comfortable
• the seat is bad
• my back is killing me
• my legs are on fire
• I need more training
• this is too hard
• need to pay more attention, I almost felt down
• I'm too tired, I want to go home

There were a lot of similar thought going threw my mind but overall it was a nice ride. Every Spring is hard to go out on the road again but I am looking forward to the next ride :)

First Spring ride

The weather is so warm these days that you can say that Spring is already here. The ground is almost dry so we went for a short ride a few days ago.

Strava didn't record all the ride because it was looking for the gps signal but it only missed about 10 minutes. It was a very nice, it was cool that after a long winter I could descend with full speed, I didn't have to worry about slipping :)

Stats:
 - Moving time 00:48:16
 - Elapsed Time 00:52:00
 - Max Speed 51.3km/h
 - Avg Speed 15.1km/h
 - Distance 12.1 km

First forest ride in 2012

This Monday I went for a ride in the forest. It was raining a bit lately but I thought that it would be pretty dry in the fores and I missed the forest very much. 

The weather was kind of ok when I left my flat. when I was climbing up in the forest it was getting very hot. The ground was a bit wet and the sun was shining so the humidity was very high. The humid air combined with the pedaling resulted in me feeling very hot. Also I had some chili sauce for lunch so my stomach was hurting to.  (Note to self: never eat spicy foods before a ride.)

After the first climb the ride started to get fun. In some places the wind was blowing so it was cooler and in some places the trail got muddy so my bike was sliding. The forest is very beautiful, spring is finally here :)

I took some picture and uploaded them here. And now I'm off to the Critical Mass.

Stats:

 - time: 1:23:43

- distance: 20.33 km

 - average speed: 1,45 km/h

 - maximum speed: 45,7 km/h

First road ride in 2012

The first road ride this year was a very cool ride. The weather was warm, the hills were covered by snow and the  road was dry. The only thing I didn't like was the nasty wind. It was nice to get back in the saddle after a short absence :) 

I climbed a small hill near the road to take a few pictures:

The map of the ride is here, we went to a village named Laureni and back.

Stats:
 - distance: 32,11 km
 - average speed: 20,4 km/h
 - maximum speed: 45 km/h
 - time: 1:34:01

Spring in the forest

Last Sunday I went for a ride in the forest near the zoo. The ground is covered with a lot of different colors, green, blue, white, yellow. Spring is definitely here only the trees need to get more colorful.

I was riding on the race course where I was running a week ago and I saw a few deers. This was the closest I got to deers in the wild. I took some pictures of these beautiful animals:

After about two great hours in the forest I went home, changed the bike and went for a fast ride on tarmac.

It was a great Sunday on two wheels :)

First real ride

Saturday I went for a ride in the forest, and this was the first good ride this year. The road was dry and it was a lot of fun to ride fast in the forest. I missed this feeling a lot, the winter was too long :)

I saw a huge rabbit but when I got my camera it hopped away. This was the second time I saw a bunny in the forest. I tried to follow it but rabbits are very fast, maybe next time I will catch it with my lens.

After riding in the forest to Acatari I explored the hills around the city, I wanted to do that for a long time. It was a very nice 2 hour ride and I was very happy when I got home.

Spring is here!

Spring is finally here! Winter was too long...

I went for a nice ride last Sunday and the sun was so warm. The hills are getting green and I think Spring is just around the corner. Even my flower has flowers for the first time in 3 years. Here is a picture of Spring from my window:

Spring is in the forest

Saturday I went for a ride in the forest and it is beautiful, everything is green again :)

First ride

Saturday the weather was nice for a few hours so I decided go for a ride with my road bike, the first ride with this bike this year. I went on my usual training route (to Acatari) but I wasn't feeling good on the bike, I didn't like the position of the pedals (I tweaked it yesterday), the seat was in the wrong position and the handlebars were in the wrong place. Although I didn't feel good on the bike and the wind got stronger (the storm was coming) I managed to get my average speed up to 26 km/h and my top speed to 56 km/h. But it was worth it to climb the hill to Acatari, the spring is definitely here, everything is green and there are flowers everywhere.

Stats:
    - time: 50:45
    - distance: 22,04 km 
    - average speed: 26 km/h
    - max speed 56 km/h

More pics here.

When I got home I noticed something interesting, I have traveled 3000 km with my road bike :D :

The first real spring day

Saturday was a very beautiful day. the sun was shining, there were about 20 degrees Celsius so it was a perfect day for some outdoor fun. After I got the keys for my new apartment (only renting it) I headed for the forest with my friend Bálint.

The trail was mostly dry but there was some mud but not like last week. I missed those fast downhills in the forest and I will definitely improve my top speed when the trail will be cleaned (a lot of branches are on the trail).Spring is definitely here, one part of the forest ground was covered by violets, the ground was blue :)

Here are some pics with my new fork (2009 Rock Shox Reba SL Dual Air):

There was some mud in our way but I least I got some pics with the dears (click on the pictures) :)

After a sandwich  and a short rest while admiring  the view I went fishing.

The fishing lake was at about 10 kilometers from the city so I could improve my average speed for the day :D I've caught this huge fish :D

After some great food and a beer and some quality rest I went home happy :D

Stats:
    - time: 2:41:15
    - distance: 50,15 km 
    - average speed: 18,6 km/h (after the forest ride this was only 13,6 km/h)
    - max speed 51,6 km/h (in the forest :D)

More pics  here.

First ride in the forest

Saturday I went for a ride in the forest, this was the first ride in the forest this year after the snow has melted. I should have waited one more week for the trail to dry but... On the first climb it felt like the bike was glued to the ground :(

I was hopping that when I get at a higher altitude the trail will be dryer but I was wrong. The bike was all over  the place so instead of a fast fun ride that I expected it turned out to be a vary hard and technical ride. If I was riding on trail it was so hard that my muscles were on fire, if I was riding beside the trail there were a lot of holes and branches on the ground. The mud was sticking to my bike, so I stopped to clean it a bit and to take some pics.

The forest had a rotten wood smell and I thought that spring is far far away, but I was wrong once more. Going deeper in the forest I saw a lot of flower everywhere. 

This is the Dog tooth lily (Erythronium dens-canis - I had to look it up on Wikipedia :P). On the margins of the forest there was some snow left.

On the way home I passed a bone field, somebody or something had a feast here :)

This is how the bike looked when I got home:

I tried to draw the map of this ride on bikemap, the forest part of this map is not so accurate :)

Stats:
    - time: 1:39:25
    - distance: 22,74 km
    - average speed: 13,7 km/h
    - max speed 41,8 km/h

More pics  here.

I love spring

One more reason to love spring is that you can buy fresh vegetables. Last night I went to the market and I bought a cabbage, some carrots,  tomatoes and radish. I chopped them, I've put some salt, vinegar and olive oil on top and the delicious salad was ready.

It's spring again :D

And I forgot how hard it is to ride on the road with all those cars :|