Cycling Coast to Coast

Finally, about a week late, the promised post (and photos) of my new bike.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was out of town two weeks ago from Wednesday to Sunday for a fencing tournament. Thanks to UPS, I was able to track my bike made its way from Zane’s in Connecticut to my dorm in Cambridge, MA…

…where it arrived on Thursday, when I wasn’t in town to pick it up.

When I got back to campus early on Sunday morning, I traipsed down to the front desk and picked up my package…

The unopened bike box, in front of my dorm room.

As you can see from the box label, it’s a Specialized Allez Elite Compact.

The opened box, with my bike inside.

My bike came almost fully assembled. All I had to do was re-attach the seatpost, handlebars, front wheel, and pedals.

Here, I’m adjusting the tension for the front wheel’s quick-release.

Unlike any other bike I’ve ridden, this bike will have clipless pedals. My friend Omari had an extra pair of Time ATAC pedals that he’s letting me use, so I installed those instead of the platform pedals the bike came with. Omari (on the left), is fitting my cycling shoes with cleats.

I also outfitted my bike with a cycling computer. In addition to measuring speed and distance traveled, this computer also has a cadence function to measure the speed at which you pedal (measured in revolutions per minute, rpm).

The cadence sensor is attached on the outside of the left chain stay, near the cranks. It works by detecting a small magnet that is attached to the inside of the left crank arm. With each revolution that I pedal, the magnet passes by the sensor, and it uses the time elapsed between each event to calculate my cadence in rpm.

My fully-assembled bike, ready to ride.