mike_bikes from Columbus GA on 1/5/2023 10:36:30 PM:
I ride a good bit, around 500 miles a month, mostly on a asphalt paved bike trail and asphalt surface streets.....not exactly well maintained, but whenever I get up there and ride the silver comet, wow, on the Georgia side, the concrete is so harsh to me, it beats me up pretty good, neck, shoulders, wrist, even after only 10-20 miles.....it's kind of starting taking the fun out of the silver comet for me.
For example, on the GA side, west of cedartown, there are a 2 short sections where an asphalt road parallels the trail, I take the road...and it's such a physical relief, the roads are not in pristine shape or anything, but relative to the concrete SC trail, it just feels like I'm floating when I'm on the road...Is this just me, I've never really heard anyone else talking about this....
I ride an older 2005-ish specialized allez aluminum frame with carbon forks and seatpost, 25mm tires around 90 psi, but I see you guys and gals out there with your fancy carbon fiber future shock ISOspeed decoupled bikes...do those rigs do a decent job of taking the edge off that concrete ? Anyone switched from an older bike like mine to a domane\roubaix\synapse\defy modern "endurance" bike ?
Also those long slight grades kind of get in my head at times, i'm used to more of a rolling ride with some pretty level sections in between...guess no carbon fiber in the world can help with that...but going down those long grades is great, makes me feel like I'm a real cyclists...i really like the run from around the state line going east back to cedartown.
No shade on the SC, it's absolutely beautiful, i really like it in the winter in the on-grade sections during leaf-off. You can see the terrain, it's really neat to ride across those valley fills when your way up high and the peak cuts are cool riding in between those walls of rocks...