Anatomy of a tcr bike

Its easy to spot bikes being prepped for a bikepacking race out on a training ride – the bike packing bags are obvious markers.

But what else has turned an ordinary bike, (a 2015 Cannondale Synapse in this case) into a bike capable of epic adventures.  Some alterations are obvious, others are more subtle.

First decent Ride on the new long distance bike

Matching bikes… How cute

Fat and Unfit – Lets Start Training Again

Training

I’ve done no proper training for a year.
I’ve lost a lot of fitness.
I’ve put on 10kgs.
I’ve been putting all my energies into work, as a result I am stressed, fat and unfit, and unhappy

New Bike…. :-)

So I have the chance of a dream bike.  I have £5k of some inheritance money to spend, and, as my dad hated me biking, its the first thing I’ve gone and bought.

My TCR bike is finished (well, almost)

Bike Fit / Bike Decision

Big thing last week was getting a bike fit done on my prospective bike.  I went along to Freespeed in West London.

Why?

pondering bike choice

My Current major issue….bike choice.

• Number 1 consideration is comfort. Being able to ride an extra hour a day makes up for being 2 kph slower.
• Number 2 consideration… Speed
  I need to be making progress.. So a slow bike is not only slow, it takes more energy to ride slowly. I use a cyclocross to commute on. It goes over anything, but sucks the life out of my legs.