The weather is finally breaking up here, actually a little earlier than usual so the wife and I got out for a 40 kms bike ride today, the first of the season on our road bikes. It was a windy day and we did a running race in the morning so this combined with the first ride of the season, it’s fair to say that we weren’t at our strongest.
Our route had a couple of decent hills, one killer in particular and a lot of rollers with a bit of flat terrain. The killer hill was usually 39x25 for me and a 39x27 for my wife.
My impression of the 50/34 compacts is that they’re everything that I expected them to be and they were much appreciated on that one hill on the first ride of the year. I’m running a 12x25 cassette but I’m also going to experiment with an 11x23. I’ll probably keep the 12x25 for our area and any riding in flatter areas such as on one of centuries we’ve planned this summer, I’ll probably try the 11x23.
I tend to be a natural spinner with 90+ cadence and even prefer sitting and spinning on hills over standing and mashing so I’m convinced the compact cranks are better for my style riding than the 53/39. Also there’s no way in hell I could ever spin out a 53x11 or 53x12 so I personally have to question the wisdom of big 54 or 55 rings for most of us AG’ers. My first impression of the compact 50/34 is that they’re definately keepers.
As for the Fizik Arione saddle I’m also impressed because all thru the ride I didn’t have to actually think about it. I’m one of these people that has real saddle issues. In fact at one point had a cardboard box full of failed experiments in the basement before flogging them all off on ebay. This is a real contrast to my wife since she can ride and be comfortable on just about anything.
It’s hard to tell from one short first season ride but so far I’m impressed with both these products.