Andy Laub

First, a confession: I haven’t picked up Wii Fit since April, if that. Instead, I’ve been biking. Riding. Cycling. I think I like that last term the most; it sounds so official. I never felt comfortable calling it that when I just rode my mountain bike(s) around town; you need drop bars and skinny tires first.

I’m pretty much smitten with the LeMond in spite of the combined efforts of the weather and mechanical gremlins trying to make me hate riding. I mentioned after picking it up that my goal was to reach 1100 miles on it this season – equal to the cost of the bike. I figured it was doable, but what I didn’t know was how quickly that milestone would be reached.

Not quite three months later, I had my answer – I reached that goal on June 11th. Then came 1500 miles, and yesterday I hit 2000. I’m finding that 500 miles or more a month is pretty easily attained, especially now that I don’t have constant after-work commitments.

Furthermore, weather this year has been awfully strange; it seriously feels like everything is delayed by 1-2 months. If this trend keeps up, the great biking weather could continue well into November. In the meantime, I’ll ride outside as much as I can until the snow falls, and then I have to figure out what kind of routine I want to use to keep the exercise up – Wii Fit again? Rollers? Some other ridiculous Wii game?

Time will tell. For now, I bike.

My friend Gary bought a cyclocross bike. This is not news, because it happened nearly two years ago. It’s a Bianchi Roger, a single-speed road frame with beefed up components (and disc brakes!) perfect for traversing muddy trails and grassy knolls. But equipped with a set of slicks it became a formidable commuter bike – light, strong, and fast. But while there was a lot to like, certain bits left me wanting. Most of what it did (albeit with less weight) was matched by my own single speed; the two were simply too similar to ever logically share a garage.

It was last summer that I started to be more and more enticed by road riding. I looked at plenty of road bikes, but none really stood out as “the one”. These would be ideal for commuting but also for longer ventures that just weren’t practical on my Bianchi. Or at least, that’s what I told myself. At the same time, I’m not denying that I’m rough on my bikes, and I feared for the safety of a road bike under my ownership – which is why I started looking at cyclocross bikes again. Then I found the Trek Portland – basically the Roger with gears. But I wasn’t a fan of the Shimano Tiagra components on paper, and the price was higher than I was comfortable with. Still though, it was about 90% there, and I was tempted.

At first sight…

One day I wandered over to LeMond’s site (a subsidiary of Trek, focused solely on road bikes) to admire them as I often do. It was then that I discovered the LeMond Poprad, and I was smitten. While the Portland is billed as a commuter bike, the Poprad is a CX bike through and through. Many of the components are similar (Avid BB7’s, again!), but the Poprad uses Shimano 105 throughout the drivetrain (with the exception of the Bontrager crank). Instead of aluminum, the frame is steel, which means the tubes are skinnier and the whole frame is more classically proportioned than the Portland and Roger. And the graphics were timeless.

So the Poprad became my dream bike (which is not doing too badly considering it’s not the same price as a car), but alas, the price was similar to the Portland’s, and still more than I was willing to part with for a bike I wasn’t sure I needed. And then the colder weather set in, and my love of all things two-wheeled went into its annual hibernation.

Now spring is (almost) here and I’m in better shape than I ever have been, and I’m itching for some longer rides. The first ride out on the Bianchi, while nice, wasn’t as satisfying as it could’ve been. I just had that nagging feeling that I was using the wrong tool for the job. After obsessing over the new offerings for 2009 on the various manufacturer sites, I was left wanting. Some were close, but nobody – not even LeMond – was making the bike that I wanted.

Google delivers

So it was purely happenstance, then, that I was searching for the Poprad on Google, with very low expectations. The odds of finding one seemed relatively hopeless – there are no local LeMond dealers, and Trek/LeMond have an agreement with resellers that while the bikes may be purchased online, they may not be shipped; only picked up at the store. Plus it would have to be a good price, and most importantly, it would have to be my size.

But somehow the stars aligned, and I found a shop selling a brand new 2007 Poprad (which actually is slightly more attractive than the ’08 in that it only has a 9-speed cassette instead of a 10-speed and can accommodate a wider, more durable chain) for a great price. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw they were located in Minneapolis. Okay, maybe not – but I’m pretty sure I swore. A barrage of emails later, and they were holding the bike for me so I could make the trip over and check it out.

Less than a day later I was driving home from Minneapolis, my new Poprad tucked safely in the back of the car (on top of the dining table from IKEA – I love hatchbacks, by the way). The shop I bought from, Freewheel Bike, was nothing but helpful, and I highly recommend them for anyone in the area.

How is it?

I think it’s great. Unfortunately Wisconsin has felt the need to assert that it’s not spring just yet and given my aversion to cold, I am off to a slow start in terms of mileage. But the rule of thumb I’ve adopted is that I need to put at least a mile on for every dollar that was spent, and I’m committed to that. In the meantime, I’ll sit and stare at my bike on Flickr (or glare at weather.com); it will have to do.