So my last ride, as we know, took me through Callahan State Park and down a big ass hill, which caused me to break my back brake (say that 5 times fast!).

The cost of the repair, plus a tune up to fix some issue I was having with the gearing on my old bike was about 40% the cost of a new (road) bike, so I bit the bullet yesterday and bought a new bike, even though the Schwinn mountain bike is less than a year old. It’s my fault, really. I bought the wrong bike for the type of riding I ended up doing.

Here’s the old bike, a Schwinn Protocol 1.0 (stock photo):

Here’s the new bike, a Trek Domane ALR 4 (stock photo):

The ride was a little rougher on the new bike, which is expected since it doesn’t have as many shocks on it as the mountain bike (for obvious reasons). The seat is a little harder than I’d like (I think I just need some better bike shorts). But man the ride is so much better, so much faster, so much smoother. The gears are making a little bit of a grinding sound when I go into a lower gear, so I’ll bring it back into the shop for them to take a look.

The thing I’m happiest about – aside from my improved times – is that there’s no numbness in my hands or fingers. With the Schwinn, my right hand – specifically the tip of my right ring finger – would fall asleep when riding. Presumably, because I was postured funny or hitting a nerve in some weird way. Though I did a shorter ride that I have been doing to test it out, there’s no numbness at all.

Here’s the activity feed from Strava for my ride this morning:

And here’s the same route the last time I rode it on my Schwinn:

Comparing just the overall times, I shaved 20% on the total time.

And, according to Strava’s in-depth analysis, I set a PR (Personal Record) for every segment (a small part of the overall route) on this ride:

I’m so beyond thrilled with my test ride this morning and can’t wait for the next ride!