I found this today while looking for something else on xtranormal
Thursday, February 11, 2010
I Need a Mulligan
Today started off by me being awake. At midnight I was still wide awake despite having to get up at 6am to ride to work. At 1am I am still awake and stressing about not being able to sleep. At 3 am Colin, the 17 month old woke up and I patted him back to sleep. I stayed in his room and slept on the small couch that we have in there. At 4:30 I woke up to see if it was time to get ready to ride. At 5:10 I woke up again. At 5:30, again. And at 5:50 I called it a night and got up. I had a little alarm set so why I kept waking up is beyond me.
I was feeling nauseated from the lack of sleep, or at least any deep sleep. I got ready, grumpily and then headed off in the dark. At least it wasn't raining. I listened to music as I pedalled at a much slower than usual pace. I just wasn't feeling it. At noon I headed off to the post office to ship off something that I sold on Ebay. I really didn't feel like riding, but it was a short enough ride that I couldn't be too bugged.
On the way back I was debating where to eat. Should I do Subway or something better at the Sushi/Teriaki restaurant nearby. As I was thinking this I also started to think about death. Seriously. How would the family fair if I just suddenly kicked the bucket. The cause of this thinking was a truck that passed by a little too close for comfort. At first I was ticked off, and then the other thoughts come in. Anyway, while I am in this black revelry, I came near a set of train tracks with a bad reputation.
These particular tracks do not cross the road in a perpendicular fashion. Nope that come at about a 45 degree angle. They have a horrible transition that is very bumpy. The bike I am riding has the usual narrow road tires. Have I mentioned that the roads are wet today? Well, they were. This time of year it seems they are wet for about 4 months straight. I don't mind this, except for today.
This is what I think happened: I have slowed down somewhat--I was probably going about 12 to 15 mph. The front tire hits the deformed asphalt that parallels the track. At the speed I am going the tire pops up a bit and then lands on the rail. I believe it did not hit square and so because I am coming in at an angle because of the weird road to rail angle the front tire slides to the left. I immediately go down. In straight down. More like I am doing a cyclist bad imitation of Mr. Hustle, Pete Rose. My right side hits first. The bike slides a bit into traffic. Luckily no cars were beside me. I hop up to first check my pearl Izumi jacket. Yeah, it is a little screwed up and very dirty. Bike looks OK and I pick it up. It is fine. However, the right side of my legs is a little shredded. My right hip really hurts, as does my right arm. I get on the bike and ride back. No significant blood loss.
I sit for a bit after changing. I get up. Oh oh. Although I landed on my right side, my left side is messed up. I had, and still do, a hard time moving my left leg forward to walk. I am physically able to do it, but I have a sharp pain that shoots from my spine all the way through to the front side near my hip bone. Yeah, that's not going to do.
I called the wife. She is nice and clears her schedule a bit so that she can come and get me. I certainly feel like I need a do over today. I wonder if I had just gotten a little more sleep I would have probably have paid a bit more attention to the approaching railroad tracks. I would have approached them in a little more perpendicular fashion. And I would not be so flipping grumpy right now. Time for a nap.
I was feeling nauseated from the lack of sleep, or at least any deep sleep. I got ready, grumpily and then headed off in the dark. At least it wasn't raining. I listened to music as I pedalled at a much slower than usual pace. I just wasn't feeling it. At noon I headed off to the post office to ship off something that I sold on Ebay. I really didn't feel like riding, but it was a short enough ride that I couldn't be too bugged.
On the way back I was debating where to eat. Should I do Subway or something better at the Sushi/Teriaki restaurant nearby. As I was thinking this I also started to think about death. Seriously. How would the family fair if I just suddenly kicked the bucket. The cause of this thinking was a truck that passed by a little too close for comfort. At first I was ticked off, and then the other thoughts come in. Anyway, while I am in this black revelry, I came near a set of train tracks with a bad reputation.
These particular tracks do not cross the road in a perpendicular fashion. Nope that come at about a 45 degree angle. They have a horrible transition that is very bumpy. The bike I am riding has the usual narrow road tires. Have I mentioned that the roads are wet today? Well, they were. This time of year it seems they are wet for about 4 months straight. I don't mind this, except for today.
This is what I think happened: I have slowed down somewhat--I was probably going about 12 to 15 mph. The front tire hits the deformed asphalt that parallels the track. At the speed I am going the tire pops up a bit and then lands on the rail. I believe it did not hit square and so because I am coming in at an angle because of the weird road to rail angle the front tire slides to the left. I immediately go down. In straight down. More like I am doing a cyclist bad imitation of Mr. Hustle, Pete Rose. My right side hits first. The bike slides a bit into traffic. Luckily no cars were beside me. I hop up to first check my pearl Izumi jacket. Yeah, it is a little screwed up and very dirty. Bike looks OK and I pick it up. It is fine. However, the right side of my legs is a little shredded. My right hip really hurts, as does my right arm. I get on the bike and ride back. No significant blood loss.
I sit for a bit after changing. I get up. Oh oh. Although I landed on my right side, my left side is messed up. I had, and still do, a hard time moving my left leg forward to walk. I am physically able to do it, but I have a sharp pain that shoots from my spine all the way through to the front side near my hip bone. Yeah, that's not going to do.
I called the wife. She is nice and clears her schedule a bit so that she can come and get me. I certainly feel like I need a do over today. I wonder if I had just gotten a little more sleep I would have probably have paid a bit more attention to the approaching railroad tracks. I would have approached them in a little more perpendicular fashion. And I would not be so flipping grumpy right now. Time for a nap.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Tuesday Lunch Time Ride #2
Today's riders were Brianero, his brother Ward, Marcello (aka Speedy, as Jimbo calls him) and myself bringing up the rear.
Brian and his brother are both great riders. Brianero is a Master A cyclocross racer, and his brother is at least on the road his equal. Marcelo is the #1 ranked sprint distance triathlete in the Northwest. He is tall and lanky. He just seems to glide up hills. He seemed to be able to pick it up and put some distance on us at will. It was kind of amazing actually. I would be struggling to keep touch with the rest and it looked Marcelo looked effortless. sigh...
I brought along my Garmin 500. Near the end of the ride, Brian would ask what our elevation gain was. I would tell him, he would doubt the accurracy of both the elevation gain and the distance ridden. And then he would guide us to the nearest hill that he could torture us with to up the elevation total some more. Thankfully, it is a lunchtime ride and there is only about an hour that we can ride.
Here are some snips of the data from the Garmin:
These rides ought to make a difference come fall I think. They hurt.
Brian and his brother are both great riders. Brianero is a Master A cyclocross racer, and his brother is at least on the road his equal. Marcelo is the #1 ranked sprint distance triathlete in the Northwest. He is tall and lanky. He just seems to glide up hills. He seemed to be able to pick it up and put some distance on us at will. It was kind of amazing actually. I would be struggling to keep touch with the rest and it looked Marcelo looked effortless. sigh...
I brought along my Garmin 500. Near the end of the ride, Brian would ask what our elevation gain was. I would tell him, he would doubt the accurracy of both the elevation gain and the distance ridden. And then he would guide us to the nearest hill that he could torture us with to up the elevation total some more. Thankfully, it is a lunchtime ride and there is only about an hour that we can ride.
Here are some snips of the data from the Garmin:
These rides ought to make a difference come fall I think. They hurt.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Equipment Malfunctions
I wrote a couple of days ago about my FSA K Force crank failure. This failure has cause a host of other problems that nearly spiraled out of control.
Here is the string of events that the FSA failure has led to:
1. Upon braking my crank could not ride home. Missed 12.5 miles of riding.
2. On monday I didn't ride to work because I had to drive other pieces to make it possible for me to use The Mule, my commuter bike, while FSA figures out what to do with the broken crank. Missed miles, 25.
3. Tuesday, I rode my new Lapierre into work without any fenders because I figured that I could get The Mule ready to ride home that night. I had understood that rain was on the way. All I needed to do was install my old square taper Campy Record crankset and then the Forte shifters and derailleurs. I had been riding The Mule as a singlespeed. I have had this Forte 10 speed groupo since before Christmas. As an employee of Performance bike I get a swell deal on anything that says "Forte" on it. There were some initial positive review for this new product and I decided to give it a try. I took a long lunch and installed everything. It was not going on too smoothly though. In fact, I could not get the rear derailleur to shift well at all. I never even got to the left shifter. I rode home on the Lapierre after a 12 hour day at the shop, pissed. The Lapierre still had no fenders and it was raining.
4. While riding home, slowly I might add so that the water spray didn't shoot directly up into my face or that I might not become so soaked that my phone also got wet, I noticed that the shifting was not shifting to the smaller cogs on my cassette very well. I stopped a couple of times, in the rain still, to perform minor adjustments, thinking that cables must of stretched or that something else cable related had happenend. I didn't put too much thought into it. Then about 2/3 the way home the rear derailleur just stopped shifting at all. I checked a couple of things and discovered the the housing section at the rear of the bike had somehow gotten all boogered up and was not allowing the cable to pass through freely--or at all. SOAB....so I pedaled home even more pissed off. I was mad enough that I told Bridget not to talk to me until I had gotten some food in me. It was around 9:45 when I arrived home and I had not eaten any food since 1pm. When you include walking all over the place in the shop and then the ride home, that is just too long.
5. Today I get to work and with Neil help discover and affirm that it is true, the Forte shifters are total crap. In the rear, it shifts fine going up to larger cogs, but about halfway back down, it starts to lag in shifting. Sometimes it won't shift at all. We try different cassettes, but no dice. Plus the levers combined with the Avid BB7 road disc brakes feel ultra mushy. A very very poor feel at the lever, even though power was good. Basically that crap had to come off. More work to do.
6. Realizing last night that the Forte drivetrain might be crap, I rummaged though my old parts boxes. I had my fingers cross that I could find one particular piece of treasure...Finally, a bit of luck! For the first 2 or 3 years of cross racing I used a 9 speed dura ace barend shifter mounted to a Kelly TakeOff. If you don't know what this is, do a google search. Here is a pic from the Kelly website
I put the Kelly with the 9 speed shifter then a 9 speed ultegra cassette and then it immediately started to shift better....but not perfect. I let it sit for a bit and came back to it later to dial it in. Umm, no. wouldn't dial at all beyond an unsatisfactory point. Time to ditch the Forte derailleur and toss them along side the Forte Shifters. I put on a Shimano Ultegra and immediately--Perfect shifting.
7. I didn't get to ride into work or home today because I had to bring the original boxes and packaging of the Forte drivetrain as well as different cassettes, shifters. I wouldn't not have had room to bring them all. Plus I really didn't want to ride a Lapierre back to work with no fenders and no shifting capability. Nor did I want to ride a clean Specialized S-Works. Miles missed today, 25.
BUT...The Mule now works stellar. It is set up with a 42 tooth single chainring up front with a 12-27 cassette in the back. Wheels were swapped out from the White Bros. Eno and Velocity wheelset I had to a simple generic, but probably very durable, Shimano XT with Mavic rims. It looks good. It shifts good. It brakes good. It is still the perfect commuter. But man what a journey the past few days have been with it after breaking the crankset. None of the drivetrain swaps would have happened at this point were it not for the breakage. I was going to wait until the weather dried out. Oh well...at least I know now not to recommend the Forte stuff to others.
Here is the string of events that the FSA failure has led to:
1. Upon braking my crank could not ride home. Missed 12.5 miles of riding.
2. On monday I didn't ride to work because I had to drive other pieces to make it possible for me to use The Mule, my commuter bike, while FSA figures out what to do with the broken crank. Missed miles, 25.
3. Tuesday, I rode my new Lapierre into work without any fenders because I figured that I could get The Mule ready to ride home that night. I had understood that rain was on the way. All I needed to do was install my old square taper Campy Record crankset and then the Forte shifters and derailleurs. I had been riding The Mule as a singlespeed. I have had this Forte 10 speed groupo since before Christmas. As an employee of Performance bike I get a swell deal on anything that says "Forte" on it. There were some initial positive review for this new product and I decided to give it a try. I took a long lunch and installed everything. It was not going on too smoothly though. In fact, I could not get the rear derailleur to shift well at all. I never even got to the left shifter. I rode home on the Lapierre after a 12 hour day at the shop, pissed. The Lapierre still had no fenders and it was raining.
4. While riding home, slowly I might add so that the water spray didn't shoot directly up into my face or that I might not become so soaked that my phone also got wet, I noticed that the shifting was not shifting to the smaller cogs on my cassette very well. I stopped a couple of times, in the rain still, to perform minor adjustments, thinking that cables must of stretched or that something else cable related had happenend. I didn't put too much thought into it. Then about 2/3 the way home the rear derailleur just stopped shifting at all. I checked a couple of things and discovered the the housing section at the rear of the bike had somehow gotten all boogered up and was not allowing the cable to pass through freely--or at all. SOAB....so I pedaled home even more pissed off. I was mad enough that I told Bridget not to talk to me until I had gotten some food in me. It was around 9:45 when I arrived home and I had not eaten any food since 1pm. When you include walking all over the place in the shop and then the ride home, that is just too long.
5. Today I get to work and with Neil help discover and affirm that it is true, the Forte shifters are total crap. In the rear, it shifts fine going up to larger cogs, but about halfway back down, it starts to lag in shifting. Sometimes it won't shift at all. We try different cassettes, but no dice. Plus the levers combined with the Avid BB7 road disc brakes feel ultra mushy. A very very poor feel at the lever, even though power was good. Basically that crap had to come off. More work to do.
6. Realizing last night that the Forte drivetrain might be crap, I rummaged though my old parts boxes. I had my fingers cross that I could find one particular piece of treasure...Finally, a bit of luck! For the first 2 or 3 years of cross racing I used a 9 speed dura ace barend shifter mounted to a Kelly TakeOff. If you don't know what this is, do a google search. Here is a pic from the Kelly website
I put the Kelly with the 9 speed shifter then a 9 speed ultegra cassette and then it immediately started to shift better....but not perfect. I let it sit for a bit and came back to it later to dial it in. Umm, no. wouldn't dial at all beyond an unsatisfactory point. Time to ditch the Forte derailleur and toss them along side the Forte Shifters. I put on a Shimano Ultegra and immediately--Perfect shifting.
7. I didn't get to ride into work or home today because I had to bring the original boxes and packaging of the Forte drivetrain as well as different cassettes, shifters. I wouldn't not have had room to bring them all. Plus I really didn't want to ride a Lapierre back to work with no fenders and no shifting capability. Nor did I want to ride a clean Specialized S-Works. Miles missed today, 25.
BUT...The Mule now works stellar. It is set up with a 42 tooth single chainring up front with a 12-27 cassette in the back. Wheels were swapped out from the White Bros. Eno and Velocity wheelset I had to a simple generic, but probably very durable, Shimano XT with Mavic rims. It looks good. It shifts good. It brakes good. It is still the perfect commuter. But man what a journey the past few days have been with it after breaking the crankset. None of the drivetrain swaps would have happened at this point were it not for the breakage. I was going to wait until the weather dried out. Oh well...at least I know now not to recommend the Forte stuff to others.
Monday, February 1, 2010
A little riding here, a little riding there...and I broke another crankset
I talked briefly to Fish today. Fish and Dave (formerly DTP) are training for an Ironman in St. George, Utah. I am so glad that I am not forced to train right now. Basically, right now I ride if I want to, and if I don't...I don't. This is the first time in about 3 years that I have not had to train for something. I don't have much of anything on the horizon, and that suits me just fine.
And the bonus part is that I am not even gaining much weight. I was sitting at 192 this morning, a little over 4 pounds off my cyclocross season low. Meh. That feels good enough right now. I have more things to stress over than training for something or losing weight.
This is not to say that I haven't been riding. I didn't ride much the beginning of January, because of illness or schedule, but wound up doing about 140 miles the last half of January. I have been doing commuting and I went on a couple of rides with friends/teammates.
Last week I was invited by Brianero to go on a lunch time ride. I took my new Lapierre out with road tires instead of cyclocross rubber to just get the cables stretched. Riiight. Really what the deal was is that I really like riding it. The position on the bike feels great. I haven't spent much time off road on it yet, so no final review is close yet. Nevertheless, on the road it feels exceptional with regard to fit.
His teammate Craig was also on the ride. We rode around Lake Oswego and managed to find most of the steepest roads to climb. Why? They said something about wanting to know about the elevation gain on some of the roads. So away we went. For a ride that lasted about one hour and 15 minutes it was full of suffering. Within about 5 or 6 miles during the 15 mile ride we climbed about 1600 vertical feet. Much of that in stretches that had a grades between 13% to 20%. Ouch.
I thought we were finally done at one point as we were descending and near the bottom the jerks pulled a U-turn on me and headed right back up again. I was toasted by the time we got back up to the top.
On the way back there is one decent that is pretty much a straight shot down. I wanted to see how fast I could go. I hit 53.7 mph and that felt pretty good.
I hope that these rides can find a way to occur on a regular basis. They hurt, but that must mean that they are good for me. It is also good to note that I didn't get dropped too far back. All is well really at this point of the year.
FSA K Force crankset bites the dust
I broke my 4th crankset within the past 4 years. All of them have been carbon. 2 of them FSA. One was an older Ritchey WCS carbon with an ISIS bottom bracket interface. One was an Easton EC90 that had a manufacturing defect. On both of the FSA's, I broke the aluminum spline near where the pedal threads. On this break, I also cracked the carbon as well.
Frankly, not many things make me feel as manly or tough as breaking a crank. It makes me feel like I am Arnold Schwarzenegger or something. I just have too much POWER....or perhaps I am just too much of a fat ass. Regardless, it is cool to break crankarms.
FSA seems like it will be nice enough to warranty it. The new replacement for the K Force that they no longer make is a SLK Light crankset. I hope the third time if the charm. I may not even keep it though. FSA only has a 2 year warranty, while I believe that Easton has a limited lifetime warranty. Since I seem to only be able to make a carbon crankset last about 2 years it seems like going with a crankset with a better warranty might be a good idea. The Easton warranty is limited to the original purchaser--a good reason not to use Ebay in this instance.
Anyway, The Mule will be getting my trusty Campy Record carbon-armed square taper crankset regardless of FSA warrantying the broken one. The Campy arms seem to be bomb-proof after a year and a half of hard use. I know, I know, it hasn't hit the 2 year mark yet, but I think it will be fine. I am also going to put the Forte groupo on the Mule in short order. It will be interesting to see how the Forte group works. I am not expecting perfection, I just expect it to work. Either that or group is all going back to Circle P in short order.
And the bonus part is that I am not even gaining much weight. I was sitting at 192 this morning, a little over 4 pounds off my cyclocross season low. Meh. That feels good enough right now. I have more things to stress over than training for something or losing weight.
This is not to say that I haven't been riding. I didn't ride much the beginning of January, because of illness or schedule, but wound up doing about 140 miles the last half of January. I have been doing commuting and I went on a couple of rides with friends/teammates.
Last week I was invited by Brianero to go on a lunch time ride. I took my new Lapierre out with road tires instead of cyclocross rubber to just get the cables stretched. Riiight. Really what the deal was is that I really like riding it. The position on the bike feels great. I haven't spent much time off road on it yet, so no final review is close yet. Nevertheless, on the road it feels exceptional with regard to fit.
His teammate Craig was also on the ride. We rode around Lake Oswego and managed to find most of the steepest roads to climb. Why? They said something about wanting to know about the elevation gain on some of the roads. So away we went. For a ride that lasted about one hour and 15 minutes it was full of suffering. Within about 5 or 6 miles during the 15 mile ride we climbed about 1600 vertical feet. Much of that in stretches that had a grades between 13% to 20%. Ouch.
I thought we were finally done at one point as we were descending and near the bottom the jerks pulled a U-turn on me and headed right back up again. I was toasted by the time we got back up to the top.
On the way back there is one decent that is pretty much a straight shot down. I wanted to see how fast I could go. I hit 53.7 mph and that felt pretty good.
I hope that these rides can find a way to occur on a regular basis. They hurt, but that must mean that they are good for me. It is also good to note that I didn't get dropped too far back. All is well really at this point of the year.
FSA K Force crankset bites the dust
I broke my 4th crankset within the past 4 years. All of them have been carbon. 2 of them FSA. One was an older Ritchey WCS carbon with an ISIS bottom bracket interface. One was an Easton EC90 that had a manufacturing defect. On both of the FSA's, I broke the aluminum spline near where the pedal threads. On this break, I also cracked the carbon as well.
Frankly, not many things make me feel as manly or tough as breaking a crank. It makes me feel like I am Arnold Schwarzenegger or something. I just have too much POWER....or perhaps I am just too much of a fat ass. Regardless, it is cool to break crankarms.
FSA seems like it will be nice enough to warranty it. The new replacement for the K Force that they no longer make is a SLK Light crankset. I hope the third time if the charm. I may not even keep it though. FSA only has a 2 year warranty, while I believe that Easton has a limited lifetime warranty. Since I seem to only be able to make a carbon crankset last about 2 years it seems like going with a crankset with a better warranty might be a good idea. The Easton warranty is limited to the original purchaser--a good reason not to use Ebay in this instance.
Anyway, The Mule will be getting my trusty Campy Record carbon-armed square taper crankset regardless of FSA warrantying the broken one. The Campy arms seem to be bomb-proof after a year and a half of hard use. I know, I know, it hasn't hit the 2 year mark yet, but I think it will be fine. I am also going to put the Forte groupo on the Mule in short order. It will be interesting to see how the Forte group works. I am not expecting perfection, I just expect it to work. Either that or group is all going back to Circle P in short order.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Rambling...
I don't have a bunch to say here. I am currently waiting on my iPhone to see if doing a "restore" will restore the function of the sleep/power button at the top of the phone. There are only two buttons on the phone and if one of the two goes on the fritz that sort of becomes frustrating. At least it is the lesser important of the two buttons. I rarely turn my phone off, but still...it would be a pain in the butt occassionally and I would probably take it in to get it fixed (if possible) at my earliest convienence. I also have about 2000+ songs and various applications so it will take awhile to complete the restoration.
Anyway...
I have been enjoying my Garmin Edge 500. I don't have the cadence/HR bundle, which is just fine. I like the GPS features, especially the elevation gain/loss info. Very cool. I have only used it on my commute, but the information in interesting and will be useful when I start to train more in earnest. One day last week I rode to work pissed. I mean I was just freaking steamed. I won't get into why, but I was pretty tired and really if someone looked at me sideways I would have bit their heads off. Without even thinking about it I was riding pretty hard into work on the Cernitz Mule, which is still set up singlespeed. Man I was just mashing those pedals. Sure enough I made it to work about 1 mph faster than I ever had on the Mule, which is about 10 trips to work so far. It is amazing what a little bit of anger will do. I should try and be a little pissed off at the start of a cross race. I wonder what would happen...When I got to work just about all of the frustration was gone. Cycling is great for venting. I was much more civil than I would have been otherwise.
I am pretty excited about the Lapierre. It seems like it will be a winner. It is odd how much it feels like a regular road bike though. I think that other than the bb being a bit higher and having more tire clearance it handles much like a road bike on the road. It is pretty nimble. Off road I think it will do fine. I am keeping the Curtlo frame, though I will probably sell the fork and so forth. I may have it repainted at some point this year. A custom made 3.6 lbs steel frame is hard to part with. I really wouldn't get the money out of it that it deserves. So, maybe with a fresh coat of paint, it will be resurrected at some point in the future. The fork has got to go. It is an old Alpha Q CX fork. $100--anyone interested? 1" steerer tube (I was using a Chris King DeEvolution headset which makes it possible to use a 1" steerer tube in a frame made for a 1 1/8" steerer tube) and lots of length...
Ahh, lets see here...the phone is still sync'ing...
I went to our Team ButterCup meeting today. It was good to finally all get together and discuss plans and so forth. A few things came out of the meeting. We extended 3 invitations to join the team from the masses of people that were clamouring for our attention. That gives us a total of 8 members if they do indeed join us. We have sponsors that have committed to give us cash, which is a huge blessing. After a bit of discussion we decided to use the money so that every member is given a jersey and bibs/shorts. Additional clothing will be paid for by the team members. The rest of the money will go toward banners and other things needed at races. At some point we would like to have a good size team tent, but we will probably just use the couple of 10'x10' units that a couple members have.
...hmmm sync is done but the sleep button still doesn't work. Looks like I should take it in and put the extended warranty I purchased to work.
Anyway...
I have been enjoying my Garmin Edge 500. I don't have the cadence/HR bundle, which is just fine. I like the GPS features, especially the elevation gain/loss info. Very cool. I have only used it on my commute, but the information in interesting and will be useful when I start to train more in earnest. One day last week I rode to work pissed. I mean I was just freaking steamed. I won't get into why, but I was pretty tired and really if someone looked at me sideways I would have bit their heads off. Without even thinking about it I was riding pretty hard into work on the Cernitz Mule, which is still set up singlespeed. Man I was just mashing those pedals. Sure enough I made it to work about 1 mph faster than I ever had on the Mule, which is about 10 trips to work so far. It is amazing what a little bit of anger will do. I should try and be a little pissed off at the start of a cross race. I wonder what would happen...When I got to work just about all of the frustration was gone. Cycling is great for venting. I was much more civil than I would have been otherwise.
I am pretty excited about the Lapierre. It seems like it will be a winner. It is odd how much it feels like a regular road bike though. I think that other than the bb being a bit higher and having more tire clearance it handles much like a road bike on the road. It is pretty nimble. Off road I think it will do fine. I am keeping the Curtlo frame, though I will probably sell the fork and so forth. I may have it repainted at some point this year. A custom made 3.6 lbs steel frame is hard to part with. I really wouldn't get the money out of it that it deserves. So, maybe with a fresh coat of paint, it will be resurrected at some point in the future. The fork has got to go. It is an old Alpha Q CX fork. $100--anyone interested? 1" steerer tube (I was using a Chris King DeEvolution headset which makes it possible to use a 1" steerer tube in a frame made for a 1 1/8" steerer tube) and lots of length...
Ahh, lets see here...the phone is still sync'ing...
I went to our Team ButterCup meeting today. It was good to finally all get together and discuss plans and so forth. A few things came out of the meeting. We extended 3 invitations to join the team from the masses of people that were clamouring for our attention. That gives us a total of 8 members if they do indeed join us. We have sponsors that have committed to give us cash, which is a huge blessing. After a bit of discussion we decided to use the money so that every member is given a jersey and bibs/shorts. Additional clothing will be paid for by the team members. The rest of the money will go toward banners and other things needed at races. At some point we would like to have a good size team tent, but we will probably just use the couple of 10'x10' units that a couple members have.
...hmmm sync is done but the sleep button still doesn't work. Looks like I should take it in and put the extended warranty I purchased to work.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Lapierre HM X-Lite: First ride
With a great deal of help from Neil, the Lapierre got out in the mud today. I took a quick trip out to Cooks Butte. First impression is that the head angle is pretty steep. It is going to take a bit of getting used to how quick the steering is generally. The geometry is definitely different that what I am used to. I don't think it is bad, just different. The Lapierre, aka Frenchie, aka the White Witch, is quite a ride. It really is made for a rider that knows what he is doing. It has a pretty aggressive feel to it. It is not a lazy man's sort of bike. It just feels like it reacts very quickly to what I do, more quickly and more rapidly than what I am used to. I tend to like stable bikes. When taking sharp turns it sometimes felt hard to stay on top of without dabbing. I mean these turns were pretty tight, and they were uphill too, even on the Curtlo I had a real hard time making them. nevertheless, it will take some time getting used to it.
I also switched out some parts. A set of Chorus shifters were put on. There are a couple of drivetrain kinks that need to be worked out, but other than that it is all good. The rear derailleur rides on the 28t cog. When I backpedal the chain won't stay on that cog. It gets hung up because of the interferance. I am not sure quite what to do, but I have some ideas on how to fix it. Other than that it is all good so far.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Some guys go into withdrawls...
at the end of cyclocross season. I get the flu and get new bikes. Or bike. No pics yet. It would be done except I got a case of the flu that tanked me for quite sometime. I stripped down the Curtlo and that will go into mothballs for a bit. I won't sell it too soon. But many of the parts have found their way on to the new "A" geared bike for next year...the Lapierre HM X-Lite cyclocross frame. The geometry is a little different. I will see how it goes, but the frame is pretty darn light. I think it will fit fine, but I won't know for sure until I take a few spins on it.
Some stuff is new, other things are used.
The Build:
Easton EC90X fork
Easton EC90SLX wheels
Tufo Cubus tires (for now, these are going bye-bye)
Easton EC90 crankset
TRP EuroX Magnesium brakes
Thomson Masterpiece seatpost (on order, using a Forte one until mine comes in)
Ritchey WCS bar
Ritchey WSC stem
Selle San Marco Aspide Ti railed saddle
Campy Chorus 10spd shifters
Campy Chorus rear derailleur
Campy Centaur front derailleur
Crank Brothers Eggbeater SL pedals
stock headset
The weight set up 1x10 was 15.71 with everything hung on it. I am setting it up 2x10 during the off season so it will gain a bit more weight. Not sure if it will still be sub-16lbs or not now.
Pics soon, ride report in the weeks to follow.
Some stuff is new, other things are used.
The Build:
Easton EC90X fork
Easton EC90SLX wheels
Tufo Cubus tires (for now, these are going bye-bye)
Easton EC90 crankset
TRP EuroX Magnesium brakes
Thomson Masterpiece seatpost (on order, using a Forte one until mine comes in)
Ritchey WCS bar
Ritchey WSC stem
Selle San Marco Aspide Ti railed saddle
Campy Chorus 10spd shifters
Campy Chorus rear derailleur
Campy Centaur front derailleur
Crank Brothers Eggbeater SL pedals
stock headset
The weight set up 1x10 was 15.71 with everything hung on it. I am setting it up 2x10 during the off season so it will gain a bit more weight. Not sure if it will still be sub-16lbs or not now.
Pics soon, ride report in the weeks to follow.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wow....
Last year's geared cyclocross ride:
This year's geared cyclocross ride:
Different frameset, different brakes, everything else the same between the two bikes.
More in the next day or so...
This year's geared cyclocross ride:
Different frameset, different brakes, everything else the same between the two bikes.
More in the next day or so...
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
The White Witch is Coming
Her twin sister has already found a home at Brianero's home. Here is a picture of her:
The down and top tubes are shaped and frankly the frame is better looking that I expected.
Mine should arrive tomorrow.
The down and top tubes are shaped and frankly the frame is better looking that I expected.
Mine should arrive tomorrow.
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