Thursday, July 17, 2008

News and Notes 7/17/2008

Wheelsets

I sold my American Classic Carbon 58 wheels this week. I will not be replacing them with another carbon wheelset. I figure at most I would need these wheels twice a year. I don't think I need them for anything less than an olympic distance triathlon. I figure that I will do at most one of those and then a sprint or two and then the 70.3 Ironman California next year. Wheels are freaking spendy for the kind that I would like to race on. So instead of owning something that even at a wholesale price would cost me at least $1,300, I will pay $140 for a week's use covering the time I race the 70.3 distance triathlon next year. I probably won't bother for an olympic.

Anyway the place is called Race Day Wheels. I have heard about them and the one person I know who used them had a good experience. I have a certain limit on amount of bike assets that I have at any giving time because, frankly, we are poor and I am spoiled enough already with 4 bikes. These wheels were just sucking up too many of the asset allotment for the amount of use I was getting out of them.

Instead the carbon wheels I am going to buy a set of Neuvation R28 SL5 to have on hand as a training/cross racing wheel. They weigh under 1500 grams and the deal I can get on them is even better than the prices they advertise on the web. A fellow at the shop has a set of the older R28 SL3 wheels and to his dismay when he got a set of Mavic R-Sys wheels a couple of months ago he couldn't tell the difference between the way they rode and the cheap neuvations. The R-Sys wheels were about 199 grams lighter and did look cooler, but he still decided to sell the R-Sys wheels already. The price we can get these things Neuvations is just silly. So for road/cyclocross wheelsets I will have the following: Mavic Ksyrium ES tubular wheels, DT 240s/DT rr1.1 wheels, Velocity hubs/Velocity aerohead wheels, and the Neuvations. All these wheelsets are sub 1500 grams but seem pretty durable to so far. I also have a Cane Creek Stados wheelset that will probably sit and collect dust for the time being. It weighs a ton (not really, about 1800 grams), but I should probably make it the rainy day commuter wheelset.


Commute/Creaky Crank

I am also proud that I commuted to work, both there and back via my bike everyday so far this week. And I did so despite my wife telling me I could have the car everyday. And I did it all on the Curtlo with the larger gearing. I have found that there is some creaking going on. I believe the Token bottom bracket is the culprit. I am using the older square taper technology on the Curtlo, by the way. I have a carbon Campy Record crankset on it with the crappy Token bb. I should have just bought the more spendy Campy one, but I was trying to save a little money at the time. The thing is only 300 miles old. Maybe 500 tops. It hasn't seen hardly any bad weather either. It only pops with larger efforts when I am climbing. I am going to check the chainring bolts first before I get too wound up. I did check the torque settings on the bb cups and the crankbolts and they are now all good. Still creaky though--just not as bad. The non-drive was about 1/3 lower than it should have been.

Curmudgeon Cycles

Curmudgeon is one of the leading candidates for the name of Neil's frames that he plans to build. He gave me a drawing today for my frame. Woohoo! There are still a few kinks to work out but things are ironed out enough that I can buy some lugs. I am thinking that the headtube lugs and seat tube lug may come from Richard Sachs. The bottom bracket lug will probably come from Pacenti, though I reserve the right to change my mind any number of times.

Here is a link to a pic of the lugs I am thinking of using. I will probably do a little customization to it regardless of which lugs I get.

Am I stoked to play around with the lugs and have a small part of creating something I will race on? You betcha! Stay tuned for occasional updates on the build process. I don't expect the frame to be done until early next year, maybe December at the earliest.

2 comments:

Brianero said...

Sweet! Awesome how an offhand comment can take on a life of its own. I just threw "curmudgeon" out there because Neil was grumbling about something, then it suddenly seemed a perfect name for a cross bike. I'd be right proud if Neil took that on as his moniker and claim rightful place ahead of you - Flynnster - in line.

Mr. Flynn said...

If you would like my spot in line you are welcome to it. If that is all it takes for you to get on board, it is cool with me.

Going to Browns Camp tomorrow morning--early. Interested?