Well, it's time for Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure, the podcast for cyclists who understand that riding is not just about getting to the destination, but the experience along the way. Now here are the original Cycling Men of Leisure, Adam and Michael. Well, hello sir. Good to be with you.

Hello again. Happy to be here for our second podcast. We, we talked last time about who we were and we introduced ourselves. You know, I thought it might be interesting if we talked a little bit about what kind of cycle we're on. What do we ride? You mean my noble steed? I am talking about Adam's Noble steed.

Absolutely. So my noble steed is a track. Let, let me interrupt. He literally calls his bike his noble steed and the man takes pictures of his bike, just the bike leaning against trees and buildings and. Everywhere you could imagine. So I, I've got hundreds of pictures of just my noble steed, , and it looks the same in every one of them.

No, not necessarily. Sometimes they have great lakes behind the bike. Sometimes they've had oceans behind the bike. True. Sometimes it's had. Uh, lakes. Sometimes it's had woods. Sometimes it's had, uh, fences, or sometimes it just lays on the ground where it has fallen. It has unfortunately laid on the ground where it's, where it's fallen.

This is true now, that last time, I don't even think that was my fault. I mean, we got off the bus from our trip to cross Iowa. We were setting up camp. I set it up against the fence. I didn't touch it. The wind didn't. Yep. Noble steeds on the ground. I thought maybe it's just like, I am not riding across Iowa again.

Well, you, you know what you do with horses when they won't get up, so maybe it's a sign.

Um, so what, what, what, tell everybody about, uh, about your bike. What, what are your riding, what is your noble s. I ride a 2013 Trek Damani 4.3. This, uh, was one of the first or near, near the first of the iso speed and ISO coupler, uh, series where they had a more comforting, um, It's a like a rubber piece with, uh, on the seat post.

So if you hit bumps, it's a little bit nicer. It doesn't feel as bad, it's not smooth by any means. When I first bought it, it was just, uh, regular rims and tires. I, of course, as you know, put, um, carbon wheels on it. Um, I also, Uh, tried different saddles, but I originally went, I mean, I went back to the original saddle that came with it.

Um, that was more comfortable saddle for me. And I wrote it that way for quite some time. And all I did was change the grip tape and um, of course did regular maintenance on it. And then I saw some guys riding with arrow bars, and when they were riding with the arrow bars, I asked a lot of questions and said, Hey, what, what is that like?

And um, they're like, oh, that's great. You do long rides. And I said, yeah, yeah, I do. And. They said, oh, you can lay down, you can relax. And sure enough, it took a little bit getting used to, it wasn't a natural feel when I first got them, but eventually, um, I, I have become to absolutely love them. I mean, um, as you know, you ride with me a lot.

Um, I would say that not only do I do it in the flats, not only do I do it downhill, but also going uphill. I, I find that I can actually pull up on the arrow bar while pedaling sometimes for a little extra power. So, um, it is, uh, it is a blue and white paints paint scheme. It's not my favorite paint scheme.

I won't lie. It's my bike and I love it. It's got 16,000 plus miles on it. Um, My favorite paint scheme is the black and yellow and white by trek. But at the time that I bought it, um, which is something we've talked about before, it was just, um, went to the bike store that I had been previously to purchase a bike, and when I was asked my price range, That was the color of the, in 2013, they usually offered one or two colors and I don't know if they offered.

Now project one, you can go crazy on different colors that you want, but at the time there was one or two colors, and I think the other one was white at the time. I, I won't promise on that, but I think it was just plain white and I was like, I don't want that. I want some color. Well, you know, I can, I can change the color scheme of your bike.

Bring it out here. I got a whole cabinet full of spray paint. We will spray paint in whatever color you want. Uh, no, no. I'll pass. I mean, it's, it's, it's definitely, you were whining a lot about the color, so I thought, well, I can fix that for you, whether it's yellow, green, pink, orange, uh, it's comfortable.

And it fits me and it was fit for me. And so, uh, I, I enjoy it. So, you're right, you're right. It wasn't my favorite, uh, color, but I think I'm gonna lay off the spray paint the old rustoleum's for the lawn furniture, not my bike. Fair. Fair enough. But you do bring up a good point about comfort. It really doesn't matter what kind of cycle you're on out there.

The important thing is as long as it's a comfortable ride. So yeah, it's taken me a while to get there. I, I don't want to be dishonest. I mean, when I first bought it, you know, first of all I was inexperienced and so I was trying to get used to it, but I've made a few adjustments along the way. Um, I've, I've taken the handlebar and, and rolled them forward or rolled them back a couple times.

I. Rose the seat up a little bit and then I put it down. Um, I was developing some pains in my knee and um, when I had talked to the bike shop and I explained that, they said, well, bring the bike in. And the guy stood in front of the bike and put the front wheel between his knees and, and he said, okay, now get up on the bike.

And he said, oh, I can see what's going on. Right. And he's, you're, you don't have enough reach. And so we rose the seat up a little bit and it took a little bit of getting used to, but sure enough, he was absolutely right on my longer rides that really took away the pain. So if anyone's having, uh, a little discomfort or whatever, don't be afraid to go to your local bike shop and tell 'em what's going on.

I mean, they're definitely knowledge, so Absolutely. What about you? I know what you ride, but our audience doesn. That's right. Uh, well, the pink huffy, but it's a fine and it's more of a burgundy huffy, actually , uh, cause that's, that's a mighty fine. Huffy you got there?  ? No. I am on a 2016, uh, Bianchi Intrepid.

Um, full carbon, um, components are, uh, shaman 1 0 5. And, uh, the saddle that I have, I, I changed saddles out like five, six times last year trying to find the right one. Um, because some things had shifted in my body somehow and I finally settled on the, the shaman pro stealth, and that's what I'm right. I wrote all this year on, and that seems to be the, the saddle that's fitting me the most comfortable right now.

But, um, it's. It's more of a touring, the, the geometry's more set up for touring versus racing. It keeps me a little bit more upright as far as, um, being a little bit more aerodynamic. But I like that, uh, cause I don't race. And, uh, like yourself, I've got arrow bars on it. In fact, thanks to you. I've got arrow bars on it.

I, I, uh, I'm, that was something I definitely had to get sent over to you because, um, Some of what we do is you and I enjoy to do the longer rides. Um, maybe not during the ride, but the feeling of the accomplishment afterwards, um, is, is just one of those amazing feelings. And so I thought, man, I I gotta get this sent over to you, so I'm happy to do that for you.

Well, I appreciate it and uh, it does take a while to get used to, um, had 'em when we went to Rag Bri and Rag Bri is so compact and there's so many people there. I didn't feel comfortable really.  working from my handlebars, going down onto the ArrowBar cuz I felt a little wobbly. So it was something that I really had to kind of put off to later rides and just practice.

And now it's a pretty smooth transition when I'm going from one position to the other. I like it cuz it kind of shifts your body a little bit, um, takes some of the pressure off your backside. Um, and it really helps on the hills. You mentioned those, but man, you can get down there and you can just really helps you, uh, you know, crank up those hills a little bit, a little bit better.

At least it does for me. . Um, of course it's Bianchi, so there's only one color. As far as I'm concerned. Any Bianchi bike should be black, so no. Thanks for playing . Uh, it is the Celeste color, the bianchi blue, if you would. Um, so it's a, it's a really, uh, really comfortable bike. I've had it since. Yeah, I've had it since 2016, so, um, or maybe it was 2017, excuse me.

Um, but it's, uh, it's served me well. It's before I had a laman, very happy with that, but it kind of crashed out. One thing I will say is this one only came with 1 0 5 s when I originally bought it. And my plans were to beef those up a little bit and get a better set of, of components on it. Um, my old laman had the.

Altegra Altegra on there. Uh, and I completely, I mean, those were, I couldn't move 'em over because that's, I completely shot those. Um, and I had intentions of moving up to a better or a higher level, um, components. But I, I didn't, and I haven't yet and I probably won't. Cause I realized, you know what? For the way I ride, That fits me just right, and I haven't had any problems with it.

So it, it kind of got down to, is it really worth the cost? I didn't think. People out there would probably say, oh, definitely have to have a better, uh, better component set. But it's, it's served me well. I think the Shaman 1 0 5, you know, one of the pros of doing that is if you were to break down, um, on some of the rides that you and I do, there's.

SAG support and, and they have mechanics. I think you're gonna find the Shaman 1 0 5 parts throughout most of those mechanics. I think that'd be a standard part that they would have. I think they would have altegra as well. But, but I think push comes to shove due to the shortage. And, and, and, uh, I don't know if you know, but there's this thing called covid and unfortunately it seems like everything is a shortage now, but, um, I, I think you could still get altegra parts, but I, I, in my personal opinion, I have no proof of that.

But I think that you'd be better off if you could still get the Shaman 1 0 5 s one of the, I was gonna do the same thing. I was gonna upgrade, um, because the frame itself will take the altegra parts and all you do is swap everything over. The problem that I had is, is I've got one of these, um, CS bike trainers and on that trainer I have the cog for the 10 speed.

So it's, for me, it's not just changing the, the, the bike to the 11 speed Integra, then I gotta buy the cog for the trainer and then it's just the fallout. So I was like, you know what? Same thing as you for the type type of riding that I like to do. I don't ever think that I'm gonna get the $500, um, out of it by changing it.

Um, I'm so comfortable with the bike now. I, I enjoy the, um, riding style of it, um, and. I think that also helps with, like you said, it's all in your mind. If you have a large ride to do, whether a large ride to you is 20 miles or a large ride to you is a hundred miles or 160 or whatever you're doing for the day or or for the adventure and maybe do a week long ride across the state, it's all upstairs.

And whether you can do it in the confidence level, I think. Important to have a bike that you feel comfortable with. And for me, that's it. I don't care if it's a 2013, I'm, it's, it's a comfortable bike for me. So, and I totally agree with you. It's all about the mindset. All about the mindset. So, You have your bike, do you have favorite shoes?

Do you like a certain kind of pedal style? I mean, I know in a, um, our last episode you talked about, you know, clipping shoes. I mean, different people have different styles. Do you have a favorite style? Um, I use, uh, SPDs. Um, the shoes that I have are not like a, a racing style shoe. It's more of a, a mountain type bike shoe.

It's got a, the, the cleat actually fits up into kind of a channel, like a, so when you're walk Yes. So when you're walking, uh, number one, you don't have that I'm on tap shoes type sound. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, it. Those, those are the kind I've been using those forever. I do like those better than the look style pedals.

I know, unlike my Peloton, uh, has a look style pedal on it. I do not like those as much as, as what I'm currently using. The Peloton, the one that last time I was there that had the sweater hanging on the seat. Well, I bought the upgraded version of Peloton. It's the peloton slash clothes drying rack. So , uh, it's, it was an upcharge, but I think well worth it.

You know that thing in the middle of the night, um, when I come to your place, I stay in your guest bedroom in the middle of the night. That thing went on by itself. I kind of got creeped out. I'm like, what is going on here? So I don't know if it did an update or something. I'm like, I'm not riding at two in the morning.

So, , um, Well, I, I have the look style pedal actually, um, Ram took over, uh, the pedal that I had. It was called the Power Tap P one. And what had happened was, is when, back before what is now cycling Men of Leisure, um, I was having that writing style of I wanted to go bigger, better, more, faster. And some of the guys I was riding with had the power pedals.

And there's some pros to that. I mean, I could see what I was doing. What's really nice about the pedals when everything is working correctly and which is most of the time, um, you can actually see which, which foot you are dominant on. If you're, um, you know, Pedaling more with your right foot, you can actually look right down on your head unit, your computer, and you can say, oh, well look at that.

Every time I pedal 60%, I'm using, um, my dominant, which is I'm right-handed. So that makes sense. But you can actually kind of go back and forth and make it more equal. So, um, I'm actually looking at doing a pedal change and a, and a cleat change. Um, unfortunately my cleat is not. The kind of rides that we do, we park in these towns and we do a lot of walking around.

I think I'm par for the course for changing the cleats header every trip. So I'm, I'm, uh, I think before our, our season that starts in 2023, you might see me with a different pedal and a different, uh, different style of, of cleats. . Yeah. You go, you go through, uh, cleats like no tomorrow. Yeah. And I think, I think it's because we really do enjoy the towns that we go into.

Like if I, you know, mentioned RAG by the Register's annual Great Bike right across Iowa. You know, when you and I go to those towns, it's not a race for us. We like to enjoy it. We like to see, you know, One of the, one of the exhibits I can remember last year was the big tractor, and its its sister and its sister and its sister, and it kept getting smaller and smaller until they had the one, which was just the matchbox car.

But what was really cool is, and just to give everybody an image, They had a bar connecting each one of these tractors, so I think it was about 15 tractors. Mm-hmm. , it went from a large to just the next size, down to the next size, down to a riding tractor, to an RC tractor, uh, to a toys tractor, um, to uh, you know, like a small one 10 scale.

And, and then all the way down to the matchbox car and, uh, or match. Tractor, um, and they were all connected. So I thought, I thought that was pretty cool. So you and I enjoy doing that, and so we stop and take pictures and of course my, my cleats get a lot of wear and tear, so, uh, they actually become so sharp on the bottom that, um, when I'm going up some of the hills, it gets so thin that I, I have pulled out, I have, while pulling up, it just pulled right out of the pedal.

So I think it's definitely time for, definitely time for a change. So, um, So you got your bike, you got your pedal. Um, so that's pretty much it for me for equipment. But let me ask you something just for, just for funsies, if you will. If money wasn't an object and you could buy any bike you want, have you ever, have you ever like kinda looked in the store and was like, wow, I would love to have that.

Oh, absolutely. I think everybody does. Um, I think the first one, uh, Would be, uh, I would just get an RV and become the SAG driver and, uh, not cycle at all. Um, of course you'll call me names, so then I'd have to start cycling. So then I think I'd just invest in a good e-bike. . All right. Uh, no, no. I joke, I joke.

Um, no, I have thought about it and. I don't know. There's a lot of, of really good bikes out there. I think the one that would most interest me right now, based upon what I've seen, what I've tried out is, uh, canyon, nice Canyon Ultimate, uh, CF two 18 disc arrow, um, really solid bike. It seems to match the type of cycling that I do, and so I think that would be a, would be a good, a good choice.

It's, and it is not super expensive. I mean, it's, uh, around one five and a half million dollars. , not quite, it's around five five, uh, 5,500, somewhere in that area. So  all carbon. As, as a joke to my wife, every time that we have a disagreement, which is not that often, but if we ever have a disagreement, I always tell her, well, I'm going to the bike store, I'm buying a new bike.

And she always says, well, you better not. So what I did one time was, is as I've mentioned before, my friends own a bike shop and I. By the way, they weren't my friends before they became my friends after I bought the bike, but they were actually came to my wedding and they're just wonderful people. Um, and so we went there and on display they had, uh, a Trek Damani, s SLR nine eap.

Um, and this is like a $13,000 bike. So, um, Unless something happened like tonight, uh, the day this is being recorded, the Mega millions is like $420 million. So if I won four 20 million, okay, maybe I would do that, but I would never spend 14, 13, $14,000 on a bicycle. But what I do is I'll always joke, With my wife and I'll say, that's it.

I'm going to go buy that bicycle. You better not So  this, this is the damani that's, um, I do look at, when I go to the store, when I look, go over there, um, inside the, the main tube, they have a compartment, um, that literally holds your tube and tire changing. And um, it's the water bottle cage and all. So you just kind of turn this style and it opens up and it has everything in.

Like a pouch, um, etap, it has electronic shifting. Um, and now that's another story because I've always wondered with electronic shifting, you have to charge that and is that something else I wanna charge? And, you know, I'm not, I have no idea how long those charges last, but you and I have both heard times of guys who, who've been on some of these longer rides and saying they got stuck in one gear cuz it wouldn't shift.

Um, mm-hmm. . So, but that if I had, uh,  a, uh, indispensable amount of money, that would be, that would be a bike that I would, I would love to, to own. But, you know, honestly, when, when I always think about getting a new bicycle, truthfully, I go back and. I'm so comfortable with mine and I know what to expect. That I'm not sure.

I'd eventually, someday I'm gonna have to, but right now I'm, I'm perfectly fine with not doing that, so, oh, I know, I know how you feel. When I had my lemon, I was perfectly happy with that, and I had had it for 15 years and it was just to the point, once the components were worn out, I was just, eh, I might as well give me something new.

But it, it is a nice piece of wall. Yeah, I mean, um, did you, did Nebraska with that? I did. Nebraska, yeah. When I started riding across states, that is the bike I started on. That's cool. So that bike has been across Nebraska and Iowa. And what about Wisconsin? That bike has been across Nebraska twice. It's been across Kansas, it's been across Iowa.

And, uh, a couple of times. Rhode Island. Yeah. , , all 30 miles of it across Rhode Island. Uh, we, we joke about Rhode Island because I used to live in Rhode Island and it's a small state and most people don't have any idea about Rhode Island. Most people have never been there and that type of stuff. It's a beautiful state.

I love living there, but, uh, it is not very far across. No, no. Uh, my, my, my Noble Ste has been across Iowa four times, uh, Michigan, twice across and once, up and down. Not, not completely, to be fair. That started in Lansing and went to Mackinac, but, uh, across Georgia, Illinois, little bit of Kentucky. Um, so that's the other thing.

I think for me, that bike has been, you know, so many places with me that, um, I kind of take pride and every time I get to add a new new ride, I tell someone, oh yeah, you know, it's been here and been there. Um, Well, I mean, we can get you that e-bike. I was just, uh, I'm, I'm looking online right now and they've got the, uh, , the Trekk Damani E-series.

So I was thinking maybe that's , that's, that's what you could get yourself if you really wanted it. So, no, I'll wait till my knee blows out completely and then I'll think about that. But until that time, I think I'll stick with the straight, uh, non-electric bike. . So since this is the podcast called Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure, let me ask you, do you have a favorite adventure, uh, with your, with your new Blue Bianchi favorite adventure?

Um, we're talking cycling. Are we talking. A single incident or like an instance, or like a, a full ride or, I need some, uh, guardrails here. All right, well, don't hit the guardrail. First of all. Um, you always wanna stay away from those. I think that's a fair  fair question. Um, let's steer the question this way.

Have you been. Is there any time that you've been on your bianchi and you just had that freeing feeling of like, wow, this is really cool? Yes. Uh, most recently I would point to, uh, Kentucky, the Bourbon Country Burn. Uh, on the final day we did a ride and, and a lot of it, the weather was, or maybe it was a sec, maybe it was Saturday, the second to last day, the weather was kind of cloudy.

Uh, a little windy. We had some headwind, a big chunk of it, and we got to this probably four or five mile section, uh, where we turned off this main road, which was quite a bit of traffic, and we turned onto kind of this rolling, uh, blacktop road. And boy, let me tell you, all three of us that were in our little group, it was just one of those roads.

And the, the temperature was perfect. And boy, you just got on there and you. I mean, you weren't trying to go fast, but it just felt so good and so freeing. You're flying through the countryside, there's horse farms next to you, and it was just these ro, nice little rolling hills and some really nice curves.

And it was just, it was one of those times where you're just like, ah, this is just fun. So I know exactly what you're talking about. Um, I believe the reason why that little stretch was so nice is because it did have elevation, but the elevation to downhill back and forth allowed you to build up enough speed that you had enough inertia coming down, um, that you could just cross the top of the hill.

And it wasn't just that, I think it was the scenery and that creek off to the left. And that was, that was a pretty cool, cool spot. So, um, mine would've been, A month before that, uh, when we were on Lake Michigan and here we were, right, our bikes right on Lake Michigan. Oh, that was nice. And, um, I enjoyed Kentucky.

Don't get me wrong. That was definitely a, a nice stretch there. And, uh, Kentucky has a lot more elevation than I realized before we signed up for that ride. By the way, , um, But on, in our recent aven, one of our recent adventures when we were, uh, up north Michigan, um, we, we rode from Petoskey and we went to the top, um, of the lower, uh, lower peninsula to Mackinac, to the bridge, um, when we were riding, uh, um, right there up against Lake Michigan.

And it was just a beautiful. That was just one of those moments where it's like, yes, this is awesome. And you know, I always take a lot of pictures and so, um, that I have a lot of pictures from tho from those memories. I just, I think that's why I still enjoy cycling so much is, is the adventures that, that, um, I enjoy your company, sir, but, um, thank you.

The adventures and, and the things that we do and, and the things that we get to see and, um, This, this, this country is so vast and so many beautiful things to see. And it's, I think being on a bicycle doing it is one of the, still very passionate to me. Completely agree. Completely agree. Well, I think that for this segment that, uh, kind of completes it unless you have anything to add.

Of course. I think the only thing I have to say is what I always have to say, Adam, it's a great day for a bike ride. Thank you for coming along with Adam and Michael on Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure. If you have enjoyed this, please subscribe to the show on the podcast app of your choice.