Catching Up

Hello again! it's been a while since I've made a post of substance, but I'll get back on track now. I've always got things that I can talk about cycling related somehow! I decided to put up a picture that Carolyn took of me and Bubba taking our neighbors trike out for a spin after doing a bit of maintenance. It really shows my serious side. Serious. No really, serious. Seriously, how many times do I have to say it? Serious!

I'll tell you what, those three wheelers aren't build to stop. With the freewheel, the only brake you have is the front drum, which is pretty much useless at anything above 3mph.

I've finally finished the Masi, and have managed to put about 300 miles on it in the past six weeks or so. It isn't a lot of miles, but it is enough to know that the Masi rides sweet! The responsiveness, and shock absorbing qualities is amazing! It soaks up impacts so nice, and weighs in full up under 16lbs. I can deal with that! I think if weight was a priority a sub 15lb bike built on this frame would be easily doable. Of course at that level it's probably somewhere around a hundred bucks an ounce to trim weight.

I'm really happy with the sensible build, giving thought to performance, cost, weight and by pure luck, comfort. My two favorite parts are the Easton EA90 SLX wheelset, and Sram Force shifting components. The Eastons, are very light weight, but strong and using good non exotic parts for easy servicing. Another thing is these wheels are straight as an arrow and hand built right here in the good old US of A! Very sensible wheelset. My race wheels are Older Lew racing wheels with deep carbon tubular rims and hidden nipples. I spent 700 bucks, used for those puppies, and maybe saved 300-400 grams over the Eastons. I picked up the Eastons new from Nashbar on clearance for $425.00 plus shipping! Smart use of discounts offered randomly netted me a 20% off on those puppies. As for the Sram Force shifters and deuraillers they work perfectly! I love the Carbon and magnesium construction on the shifters, and the carbon cage of the rear deurailler. The double tap shifting is very precise and intuitive. Plus weight compared to even Dura Ace is favorable, as is the price. I really would like to try Sram's next step up the Red Group, I really think they are giving some serious competition to Shimano. I would take the Force any day over Dura Ace!

I've got a million things to catch up on, but The Country Road Bob has racked up over 1100 miles since March, and 300 For the Masi. Including the Giant which went to "Chucky" a few months back, I'm easily at 1700 miles for the year. I plan on riding at least 400 miles a month from here on out though. I think I can make 5000 miles a year pretty easily. I've been tracking my rides on Mapmyride.com and have almost hit 400 miles last month without really trying. I'm working on getting a gadget working that will show everybody my daily ride and stats. I hope it works because that will be cool!!! That's enough for now I think sooooo Peace out Napoleon!

Back in action!

Okay, that's a silly title, but I couldn't come up with anything witty as a reason for staying away so long. In all honesty, it seemed silly writing all of these posts for people that I see and talk to regularly. I'm still not sure why I decided to do this, but someone talked me into continuing, even if it seems like a self centered thing to do.

Well I know I left off in suspense, but it really wasn't intended to be so long, although I really was waiting for something. In hindsight it isn't such a big deal, but I'll try to pick up where I left off. I will try to catch up as close to cronologically as possible. So, first off! I went to Paso Robles on Memorial day weekend for the Great Western Bicycle Rally. I was scheduled to run a ten mile time trial, which I ran rather successfully!

If you look closely at exhibit A you can see that is a first place award! Yes, I got first place in my class! Of course that was the 36-50 year old class. My time wasn't really any different than usual, but I guess since they took out the classified racers was why I placed so well. In all of the other races, I've been grouped in together with the categoried racers and that was keeping my placing down.

So, I was waiting for the medal in the mail. I had to leave the rally the day before the awards were presented, so I had to wait for them to mail this to me. Of course that was about a month ago when I received the package, so everything since has been because of my trying to figure out if I would continue writing my blog.

As for the rally itself, it was fun, but not really as organized or interesting as I expected. I don't think that I will attend next year. I also participated in the hill clinb. This was about a quarter mile climb for time up a grade ranging from 12% to 22%. I thought I would try it on the singlespeed Country Road Bob. I had a lot of poeple look at me like I was insane for riding with the singlespeed, and I in hindsight I was. I had to really work and after a lot of weaving back and forth at some points even turning back downhill for momentum, I was able to finish, and with a respectable time! It was a lot of work but it is always fun to prove naysayers wrong!

I think I will leave this blog at that for now, but I really do have a lot of catching up to do, so check back frequently!

Thanks for sticking with me!

Darren