Back in October I started teaching a couple of days a week at Meio University. It’s about 40 kilometers from my house to university and using the toll road expressway it takes 45-50 minutes door to door. The drive isn’t bad, but it’s a lot of time to be spending in the car, and quite an expensive commute. I decided that it might be possible to do the commute at least once a week by bicycle. I would save the money I normally spend on fuel and toll charges and I would get fit at the same time. So one sunny day, my friend Ken and I decided to ride from my house to Meio and back. I road on my beat up old mountain bike.

The old bike - a 12kg Australian Apollo Himalaya ladies mountain bike

We peddled at a slow but steady pace and took several brief stops at convenience stores along the way. It took 3 hours 15 minutes to get to Meio and 2 hours 45 minutes to get home. At this point it looked like the commute would be unfeasible.

The idea of doing triathlons, however,  was still in the back of my mind, particularly the bike stage.  A road or triathlon bike would reduce my commute time to a realistic amount, improve my fitness and just as importantly give me experience riding a bicycle unlike the mountain bikes I have ridden previously. I started to browse the internet looking at possible bikes. Most modern road bikes and nearly all triathlon bikes seem to be made of carbon fiber which makes them light and strong. The only problem is that the science behind carbon fiber structures is still advancing rapidly, while the criteria for determining the quality of carbon fiber frames is decidedly fuzzy. In the end I went with the old fashioned option of a metal frame but chose a very modern material – titanium. There are only a few companies that make titanium bike frames, but one company Litespeed and two of their bikes the Blade and the Saber seemed to appear again and again with fantastic reviews. ( In 1999,  Lance Armstrong, although a Trek sponsored rider, rode a Litespeed Blade re-decaled as a Trek bike for the Tour de France time trial stages – all of which he won.) Eventually I decided on the exact bike and frame size I wanted and then patiently waited for a used bike to appear on Ebay. In the end I bought a ex-demo model from the Cycle Smithy bike shop in Chicago and had it shipped over to Okinawa.

The new bike - an 8kg 55cm 2007 Litespeed Saber

Last thursday was my first ride to work on the new bike. I got up at 6.00 left the house at 6.15 arrived at work at 8.15 took a shower and was teaching classes at 9.00. The ride home was even faster taking only 1 hour 45 minutes. (Meio University is situated at the top of a hill) 

Riding the bike is great although I am not comfortable / competent enough to spend much time in the aero position yet. Slowly my fitness will improve and my legs will begin to push the larger gears. The annual Tour de Okinawa takes place next November which gives me a first goal. Beyond that who knows, but maybe in three or four years time it will be me standing on the beach in Miyako about take part in my first ever Ironman.