Road bike ride #2

Now that I am starting to ride again after my five year hiatus, I get to experience getting back into shape. Today was my second road bike ride so I decided to make it a short hill work out: 1.0 mile and 300 feet down, 3.5 miles and 1000 feet up, reverse.  My only hope is the saying  whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

My 1,000 foot climb was painfully slow and could have been measured with a calendar instead of a stopwatch.  Now I just need to do the climb up to Stein Eriksons over and over.

I took a minute at the end of the ride to figure out my "granny gear" on my road bike.  Needless to say, I spent the entire climb in this gear.

Road bike:

• Smallest front chain ring: 42 teeth
• Biggest back cog: 23 teeth
• Each rotation of pedals rotates the wheel:  1.82 times

Mountain bike:

• Smallest front chain ring: 22 teeth
• Biggest back cog:  34 teeth
• Each rotation of pedals rotates the wheel:  0.64 times

So, dragging my butt up a mountain on my road bike requires slowly grinding, pedal by pedal.  I will be shopping for a new cog.