Biking Palm Beach

Here we are in Palm Beach! Dreadful time of year: high humidity, temps regularly into triple digits, frequent thunder storms. But who cares? It's Florida!

Every time we come down, I see the cyclists riding up and down the beautiful roads of Palm Beach and wish I were among them. So this time, I thought ahead and called Top Cycle and arranged a rental for the duration of our stay. I dealt directly with Patrick, the owner, so that's who I sought out when we arrived yesterday.

After I arrived at the small (but high-end.... lotsa Colnagos, Pinarellos, etc.) shop, Patrick went into the back and emerged with a yellow Specialized S-Works M4. Not bad! We adjusted the saddle (he gave me a lecture about why I should know my saddle hight "It never changes!", made me think about all the clients I speak to regularly about this topic), put on my pedals, and I was good to go.

The bike is a slightly unattractive yellow, with an oversized downtube and teardrop seat tube (it was probably intended to be a tri bike originally). It's aluminum with prominent welds but otherwise nice finish. Time carbon fork. Traditional spoked wheels by Wheelsmith, and Campy Daytona 10-speed transmission.

This morning, then, I set off on my first ride down here. I rode all the way down to the Boynton inlet, then turned around and headed back up. The roads in Palm Beach are lovely, of course, beautiful surfaces kept very clean, not much traffic on a weekday morning except for the service vehicles heading off to groom the expansive lawns of the mansions. Details of the ride are on Mapmyride (it's my first try!)

There was a brutal headwind for the initial leg of the ride, whipping straight at me at a consistent 15mph or so. On my way back north, I stopped at John G's in Lake Worth for a bit of breakfast, which turned into a gigantic breakfast sandwich. What I really needed was some coffee since our condo isn't stocked yet, I got a big one there.

Of course, that was entirely too much heavy food for the 25% point in my 33 mile ride, and I was really sluggish for the rest of the ride to the inlet at the northernmost tip of Palm Beach. When I reached that point, I took a little break and watched the boats and some sweet stripey fish, then cruised back to the condo. I expect I'll do something similar tomorrow morning, but eating properly before I go will be a good move.

Here's some video about the bike.