Last Wednesday, I finally got the chance to really compare my Alterra Road with the Zenetik Pro. Together with a couple of collegues we drove down the the beautiful town of Aywaille in the Ardennes to ride
the Route des Légendes, a 100km tour. I did not have the chance to really ride the Alterra uphill before and although we have no mountains in Belgium, the Ardennes offer plenty of uphills.
The last time I rode in the Ardennes was with my Zenetik Pro and I remember having a hard time then. To prevent this with the Alterra Road, I changed my rear cassette to an 12-30, which would make it easier to get uphill (in comparison with the 11-27 I had on my Zenetik). Turned out I was wrong. I had to shift to the largest rear sprocekt to get on top of the first uphill, that was not how I planned to complete the ride ! Since there were steeper uphills to come, I did not feel very comfortable. I turned out that I had a harder time riding uphill with the Alterra then with the Zenetik. Riding uphill turned out to be really tough on the Alterra. And the fact that my fellow riders had to wait for me at the top of almost every uphill did not make me happy either ....
My weight and condition are still more or less the same, so I think it could be the bike. Besides the difference of frame geometry, there's also the difference of the handlebars. My Zenetik had straight bars, the Alterra has drop bars. So what's to blame ? On the Alterra Road, I ride on the brake lever hoods most of the time. When climbing, I switch to the straight part of the drop bars close to the stem. On the Zenetik Pro, I stayed at the ends of the handlebar all the time, whether I was riding uphill or not. I could keep my hands at that position for a couple of hours without any discomfort. On the Alterra, I have to change hand positions say every half hour, to prevent them from going numb. It's not a big deal, I see a lot of regular road bike riders have the same problem. But that's not how I want to ride my bike.
So what now ? For me, it's pretty obvious : the drop bars have to go. I will take the Alterra to my local bike shop and have the drop bars changed with the straight handlebar from my Zenetik. And see how the Alterra handles uphills with a straight bar.
