(Now be warned everyone, this could get a bit gushing and melodramatic. I hope not, but read with caution, if at all...)
I fell off my bike (not Thorn) seven weeks ago and couldn't ride for five weeks. I'm ashamed to say that it has taken me a further fortnight to get my Raven Nomad back out of the garage and riding again. This was due to me riding other bikes, not least a lovely old Kona Explosif I've recently bodged into a cheapo-commuting/shopping-hubgeared bike involving a Shimano Alfine hub AND front derailer (best not to ask...!)
Anyway, I was back on my Thorn today, amusingly enough to head to Brighton for final check-ups and X-rays of the result of my troubles.
What a dream, what a fantasy, what a sheer and boundless thrill it was to cruise along beneath the white cliffs at about three hundred miles per hour/~480km/h. Well, maybe not quite, but it sure FELT like that. Everytime I get back on that bike I wonder why I ever ride any other bike. Yeah, it's not the lightest, and those I work with may scoff at my 50mm tyres for road use, but it just floats over everything, accelerates like a cheetah and handles just perfectly. I hadn't done anything 'extreme' since getting back on a bike, but the Nomad had me flying off every speedbump and leaving the cycle path regularly just to use a dropped kerb to jump back onto it. I don't reckon the bone doctor (orthopaedic consultant is a bit of a mouthful) would've approved...
The journey home was slightly less fast, mainly as I'd popped to the supermarket are loaded the bike with more than its weight in shopping. Could it handle it? Well, that's what it was designed for!
Sorry to ramble on, but today was a right royal reaffirming revelationary ride for me.
I hope everyone on here is enjoying their cycling and feeling the joy of self-powered speed.
