Great ride with dad around our birthdays the other weekend after a kind customer agreed to swap his Kona Remote 160 for a gravel bike (Kona Libre AL, in case you’re wondering!). I had planned to surprise him, but after an injury forced the other participant out of the ride, I had to confess I’d got him to bring his bike to Kirkintilloch for nothing.
After a lifetime of riding bikes, my 74 year old dad isn’t as sprightly on the hills as he used to be – especially chasing someone on a bike that climbs and descends like the Process X! It turned out to be a lot of fun, and I got to take him up some climbs and descents he might not have tackled on a lesser bike.
Up the first hill on the way across to Barrhill, I could tell he was enjoying the fact he had a free 250w at his fingertips, as he put the power down climbing up the bing, a big effort was needed to keep him in sight. Good for the cardio, I guess.
If you know me, you’ll know how much I like a bit of a climbing challenge before getting into the descending, and with dad on the Remote, I could get my climbing in with less moans from my riding buddy! Unfortunately dad discovered that whilst he could keep the pedals turning up insane inclines, he wasn’t really used to pointing the bike in the right direction. Don’t tell mum but he might have had a bit of a roll down the hill when he discovered this.
After dusting himself off, we got up to the trig point and took in some of the forest trails down. I guess he doesn’t trust himself to bounce that well, he took it fairly easy on the way down, so I got some nice pictures of him, and he had a great time. His ebike ambitions are
Disclaimer – I got an extra little ride, when we got home we discovered his phone had left his pocket during the climb. I got another lap to go and collect it, hardly a hardship! If you find yourself a place lower on any of the ebike descending segments at Barhill, he perhaps didn’t manage to crop out my ride home with his phone in my pocket.
Marina Cycles 