Getting The Carbon Out!

So I have ridden my vintage Colnago Saronni Super since last summer. Only once or twice has the carbon bike come out since I built the Colnago.

The Colnago is a thing of beauty. It was the pinnacle of technology when it was built, and its ride is very difficult to surpass even with today's technology.

I have to say however, that I really do appreciate technology however. We live in an environment of continuous improvement, and things do get better over time. Higher numbers of gears help find the right gear to make the most of my puny horsepower. Combination shifter brake levers make the ergonomics of the bike so much better. Carbon does make bikes lighter and more efficient.

So with that, I'm getting back on the Vellum for a bit. Its 16lbs or so, and has Dura Ace 7800 components mixed with a little Red. Easton wheels make it accellerate much faster than I should be able to accellerate.

I'm gonna enjoy some technology for a while.

Sunday Training Ride by cyklopath at Garmin Connect - Details

Sunday Training Ride by cyklopath at Garmin Connect - Details

So this past Christmas, my parent's asked what I'd like for a gift. Now, thanks to them, I have a new Garmin Edge 500.

Yesterday, my teammate Brad brought by a heart rate strap for the Garmin.

Today was the first ride with the strap. Pretty interesting data. I'm working harder than I thought.

The file above lays it out....

BTW, if you don't have one of these, you need one!

Beautiful Scenes....

I don't live in an area with beautiful vistas. No mountains here, no coastlines. We have the muddy Mississippi and a few rolling hills - none larger than an interstate overpass.

Thats not to say that there is no beauty in riding in the Mid-South.

Spring is probably the best example of that......

Spring Has Sprung!

Well, the move up 3 weeks of Daylight Savings Time is definitely a welcome change.

I love coming home and actually needing sunglasses on the drive. It makes all the difference in the world to see something besides darkness when you hit the driveway.

I've gotten out on a few rides, but not many.

The biggest new thing for me riding is my new Garmin 500. So far, I really like it. Small, portable, and great functions. My buddy Brad has also offered a heartrate monitor strap for it as well. I'm excited about that.

Hopefully tomorrow, I'll get out on the road bike and see how the legs feel!

10.25ozs!!!!!!!!

Yup, I'm still a weight weenie, even though I'm not lightweight, I like my bikes to be (I used to be a flyweight rider)

So, to add to my previous post....

The new (Old) wheelset saves a total of 10.25ozs over the clincher wheelset it replaced.

Really a pretty interesting difference given that I went backwards about 10 years in the vintage of the wheels, and up by 4 spokes per wheel. Finally, the tires on both sets were Vittorias - Rubino clinchers and Evo Tubulars!

The end result is that the Colnago is now 19.25 lbs without pedals! Not half bad for a bike older than half the pros I watch on Versus!

Magic Shoes......

So a few posts back, I mentioned that I got my hands on some new vintage wheels for my Colnago. Some internet search proved a provenance and date of Shimano 7200, approximately 85 vintage. Just right in era for my Colnago (if not in country of manufacture)

I also recently scored a pair of NOS Vittoria tubulars. Got 'em for less than the price of a pair of innertubes. No they did not fall of the back of a truck!

So after stretching the tires on the wheels all last week - they were very tight at first - I started building up a few layers of glue on both the wheels and the tires.

Finally last night, I was ready to glue them up. It all went fine, and the glue job did not get messy. Everything was/is very clean. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

As a bonus, the front wheel cut a quarter of a pound off the bike when compared with the old clincher. I can't wait to compare the rear as well.

I've ridden tubular CX tires, but never any tubular road tires/wheels. I'm definitely looking forward to it and will post a report of how it goes when the weather is good enough to try them!

So now my Colnago has new 'Magic Shoes'

Tour De Cross 2012 Race #2

Well, my wife surprised me this weekend. She asked if I had seen anything lately on Facebook.... My answer was that I was reading about my team members heading out to the Tour De Cross #2. She commented "You did not ask to go to it?" I replied that I hadn't because I thought I needed to be home with her and our new son.

My wife is a wonderful person, and not just because she told me, "Go ahead, we'll be here when you get here". A little cleaning around the house before I left ensured some good karma and put a small deposit in the domestic homefront bank.

So I headed out to the race. I decided to drive my Triumph to the race with the bike on the back. Unfortunately, it was cold (sub freezing) and so the car backfired a bit. I got there fine though and surprised my teammates (they thought I was in poopy diaper land)

The course was pretty doggone good. Aside from being somewhat poorly marked in a few areas, it really made the most of the land the organizer had to run the course on.

I started out great and got a substantial holeshot on everyone. Unfortunately that only lasted about half a lap and I blew a bit. I managed to hang in about 5th position for a while and then took a wrong turn on the course and literally got lost....

Two people passed me and I figured out where I was supposed to be. I decided to follow one of them for the rest of the lap to make sure I did not get lost again....

Finally, after figuring out the course, I made up a couple positions and held there until the end. I actually finished fairly strong considering how long I've been off the bike.