Today saw the return of my old and trusty Litespeed Obed. After a long while of trying to spec the correct size of bottom bracket,  Filip Sport finally found one and I got the bike back today. I decided to check it out on the trails of the Meerdael Bloso's. Doing the same ride as last tuesday, but in the opposite direction, would also be a good way to find out if a front suspension bike is faster than a non-suspended bike on those trails. While it is difficult to compare bikes in exact the same conditions from the first meters the Obed feels more comfortable. The front suspension and the slightly fatter tyres are credit to that. The tyres were inflated to 3 bars and the bike was fast. Too fast because I hit a queer stone that protruded from the soil. I hit it hard and even though at first I thought I got away with it, after a couple of 100 metres I felt the air leak out of my rear tyre. Damn, snakebite. Stopped and started replacing the inner tyre, pumping it up and got under way in a little under 10 minutes. Of course, my rhythm was broken and I needed to find the good pace again during the first couple of kilometers.

But then I got rolling again, stopping one more time to add a little more pressure to the tyre at the Mollendaal cabin. The trails were fast and even the wind in my face on the Valduc fields did not bother me. The big ring only came off during the 3 long climbs in Nethen, at the Kluis and in Sint Joris Weert. Before long I was back at the new parallel road  to the Weertse Dreef, straight through the Military compound . With 15 degrees C and a little bit of sun from time to time the conditions were excellent. My average heartrate was higher than last tuesday but so was my average. The bike gets the thumbs up, and so does Filip for delivering a well-prepared bike. I need to have the rear wheel straightened though because the hit caused a little deflection.

Endomondo track


Ride Stats : 33.5K and 370 heightmeters (Garmin) in 1h25mins

9319/80010