Hi all.
I have been lurking on the forums for a while availing myself of the myriad of knowledge that abounds. I have now decided to actually post, so thought the Welcome Mat would be the most appropriate place.
I am 55 years old, 5’ 9” tall and weigh 15 ½ stone. I played rugby for 35 of those years and picked up the usual knee, ankle, and back injuries. Over the past ten years my back problems have been getting steadily worse, largely due to sedentary work all week, then very active tree felling, fence building, hay carting etc...(for my wife's horses) at weekends. A little while ago this culminated in a successful back operation followed by four months of recuperation.
I want to start riding again to get fitter and lose about a stone to a stone and a half initially. I have dug out my mountain bike and fitted 1.50 inch slicks on it and started to ride about 45 minutes to an hour three times a week. I live half way up the North Downs in Kent, so I have hills either going out or coming back whichever routes I take. Other than a major road nearby, which I try to avoid, all the roads are village roads, mostly narrow and a lot of them with grass down the middle or small stones.
I wanted to get a new bike and having never had drop bars decided to try them out. I was worried about my back still, so narrowed my choice down to the Tricross and Secteur as they both seem to offer a fairly upright ride. I did consider a flat bar road bike but it did not seem to offer much more than the mountain bike with narrow slicks.
With a huge amount of help and advice from Norm (thank you so much) I decided on the Tricross and bought the Sport at the end of last week.
I have only been out for a couple of 30 minute rides so far, but I am loving it. It is completely different from what I am used to, but it sems so reponsive compared to the MTB.
I'm looking forward to playing around with it over the coming months.
Cheers
Richard
I have been lurking on the forums for a while availing myself of the myriad of knowledge that abounds. I have now decided to actually post, so thought the Welcome Mat would be the most appropriate place.
I am 55 years old, 5’ 9” tall and weigh 15 ½ stone. I played rugby for 35 of those years and picked up the usual knee, ankle, and back injuries. Over the past ten years my back problems have been getting steadily worse, largely due to sedentary work all week, then very active tree felling, fence building, hay carting etc...(for my wife's horses) at weekends. A little while ago this culminated in a successful back operation followed by four months of recuperation.
I want to start riding again to get fitter and lose about a stone to a stone and a half initially. I have dug out my mountain bike and fitted 1.50 inch slicks on it and started to ride about 45 minutes to an hour three times a week. I live half way up the North Downs in Kent, so I have hills either going out or coming back whichever routes I take. Other than a major road nearby, which I try to avoid, all the roads are village roads, mostly narrow and a lot of them with grass down the middle or small stones.
I wanted to get a new bike and having never had drop bars decided to try them out. I was worried about my back still, so narrowed my choice down to the Tricross and Secteur as they both seem to offer a fairly upright ride. I did consider a flat bar road bike but it did not seem to offer much more than the mountain bike with narrow slicks.
With a huge amount of help and advice from Norm (thank you so much) I decided on the Tricross and bought the Sport at the end of last week.
I have only been out for a couple of 30 minute rides so far, but I am loving it. It is completely different from what I am used to, but it sems so reponsive compared to the MTB.
I'm looking forward to playing around with it over the coming months.
Cheers
Richard
(Leave your wallet at home).
