It kinda goes without saying that in order to lose weight through cycling, I needed a bike. Sure, there’s a knackered old mountain bike sitting in the shed, but I want to do this properly.
Personally, I think it would be bordering on insane for a 21 stone man to ride a bike on the road (there’s a good reason cycling shorts aren’t available with a 52 inch waist). Instead, I’ve opted to buy a road bike and a “turbo trainer” - although I don’t think there will be much turbo-ing going on to begin with.
The last time I bought a road bike was 1994. It was a traditional steel framed affair, and weighed almost as much as Yorkshire. It cost £375 from a tiny bike shop above the cobbled streets of Settle in North Yorkshire, run by a man that looked a little too much like an OAP version of Chuck Norris for my liking.
How times have changed. These days, even the most basic of road bikes has an oversize aluminium frame with carbon forks. After literally minutes of research, I narrowed my choice down to 2 choices:
Orbea Asphalt Fleche
Trek 1.2
Last week I went to KB Cycles in Newcastle, as they are Trek dealers. As luck would have it, they are also Orbea dealers, so I could compare both bikes.
I liked the idea of the Trek, because I love America and all things American. However, when comparing the Trek and the Orbea side-by-side, the Spanish bike wins. I’m not going to into great depth (because it’s not particularly interesting) but basically the Orbea frame just seemed to be better to me. I also like the fact it’s a little different.
I spent a while looking at turbo trainers and the merits of wind, magnetic and fluid resistance. In the end it was irrelevant as KB Cycles only had a CycleOps Mag in the shop, so that came home with me too.
Cycleops Mag Trainer
In addition to the Orbea and trainer, I picked up a pair of NorthWave clipless road shoes from KB Cycles. A Polar heart rate monitor and Trek Incite 11i bike computer shortly followed courtesy of ebay.
So, I’m all geared up now. No more excuses. Time to start.
Shit.