Today, I pulled the trigger on a Trek Madone 5.1, an early birthday gift for myself. It’s been over 7 years since I bought my last bike, also a Trek. I headed out to Livermore Cyclery to pick it up just before lunch. What a great bike shop! The owner, Steve, and the rest of his staff are fantastic. Steve’s daughter helped me to pick out a new pair of shoes, Sidi Genius.

This afternoon I met up with Scott to break in the new Trek. I rode about 30 miles, taking a typical route past his house and through Danville and Blackhawk. What I noticed the most was how comfortable the Madone is. I heard about how carbon frames absorb road noise, but until I felt it I didn’t fully understand the difference. This bike is at least 5 pounds lighter than my last, so it also accelerates much easier when I step hard on the pedals. I upgraded from SPD pedals to Look Keo Classic,

It turns out that MotionBased, the site where I analyze and map the GPS data from my bike computer, is testing out a new player. It’s pretty great. They mashed up Flash controls and a Google Map onto one screen so as you hit “play” you can watch the route, the elevation, the time and the speed.