New Season; New Sport!

[HeluvaSkier]

Normally I wouldn't distract the forum with something non-skiing related, but a year-round fitness program is probably something that many participants here are interested in. In order to perform at high levels I try to never let my fitness slide from season to season. My off-season past time and fitness program (since we have such short seasons here in WNY) is road cycling. This my newly built road-race machine.

[jbotti]

Nice. There is nothing like a new bike!! Mine need some serious cleaning after a rainy winter in the SF Bay Area. I am going up to ski what will most likely be my last dayy in Tahoe tomorrow. It is dumping big time there and it looks like they may get 12-18 inches. I will do in indoor trainer ride today, ski tomorrow and then look to start cranking myself back into true cycling form starting on Thursday. Should be fun. Enjoy!!

[h.harb]

Nice, I'll have to put my babies up here as well.

[meput]

Nice looking ride.

No new bike for me this year. Saving money for next winter HSS ski camp.

Enjoy the miles!

[DonDenver]

Wonderful. Nice looking machine but could you please describe the specific build. Full Force? Crank? When you say “road-race” the bike geo appears more on the plush side to me…but not sure what you’re describing as race. Seat tube looks a bit slack, seat stays look flexy and the chainstay’s appear a bit longer in proportion to the frame. All good if you’re in that saddle well past CRIT times. Have you had a professional fitting for that rig? Seat mast looks set. What is your HIP ROM in degrees if you don’t mind sharing as that seat to drops is a big fall. BTW, say hi to HeluvaDADSkier for me. Hope he is doing well and still cycling…perhaps kicking your butt at it

[HeluvaSkier]

Wonderful. Nice looking machine but could you please describe the specific build. Full Force? Crank? When you say “road-race” the bike geo appears more on the plush side to me…but not sure what you’re describing as race. Seat tube looks a bit slack, seat stays look flexy and the chainstay’s appear a bit longer in proportion to the frame. All good if you’re in that saddle well past CRIT times. Have you had a professional fitting for that rig? Seat mast looks set. What is your HIP ROM in degrees if you don’t mind sharing as that seat to drops is a big fall. BTW, say hi to HeluvaDADSkier for me. Hope he is doing well and still cycling…perhaps kicking your butt at it

Build is full '10 Force with BB30 on a pretty generic frame so if I crash it, it won't be the end of the world... 15.2lbs as pictured. I say it's a road-race setup because that it likely what I'll be doing with it (no crits though, I'm building the same frame with Rival and no ISP for potential crits and rain riding.). The chainstays are long-ish at 405mm (so not as aggressive as say an R3 or anything, but more aggressive than my KTM), but it is plenty stiff. Not a plush ride at all. It's more aggressive than my KTM Strada LC frame - and WAY stiffer throughout (loving the tapered headtube, makes the bike handle great). The seat stays are pretty thin, but the chain stays are 2x what the stays on my KTM are (nearly as deep as my 46mm wheels for reference). It's a deceivingly beefy frame. I wish those seat stays were as flexy as they look! I kept the setup the same as one of my bikes that has been fitted. I had to slide the saddle as far back as it would go since these pics though (other bikes have slight setback). I'm not sold on ISP's yet (btw I have 3cm of adjustment on that one). I'm not sure on my ROM since I just copied my other fit, but it feels great... not sure if that means anything though.

I'm just getting into the racing thing (blame HeluvaDad). I got hit up to join several teams last year because when I was on training rides or group rides with them I was usually as fast as the mid-pack CAT3's. ...So I'm still slow compared to "real" cyclists. I get completely doored by guys who are actually fast. My Dad is still riding and faster than ever. He's getting more serious into racing and is pretty fast now. Usually in the early season he is much stronger than I am because he rides most of the winter. I play catchup [read: get my butt kicked] until about June; especially on climbs. It's still really fun to be able to ride and ski with him though. Last year I logged over 4000 miles and I'm on track for potentially hitting 5000 this year. He's probably higher by ~600-1000 miles.

[h.harb]

I have the same problem in reverse, Harrison is a Cat 1 & 2 and he already has more then 1000 miles starting in March, Nordic skiing before that. I have 100 miles now. I can't ride his wheel on the flats until July. He kills me on the mountains and that used to be my strength.

[4ster]

Proud Papa!
JF

[h.harb]

JF, as hard as I try he is out of my league any more or I'm out of his league. How's that new carbon rig of yours? I've got my Orbea down to 14lbs. I need every ounce out here. It's well under 13lbs with my Zipp wheels, anyone want to climb?
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=37282964&id=10511273
Harrison at an early race this season.

[Mac]

Harald, have you decided to try a compact crank yet? I have been holding out on getting one, part of that may be the macho side of my brain. But a lot of the guys I ride with that are younger and stronger than I am have switched over to them. And I really suffered on some of those long climbs in NH last seaon. This may be the year that I give in and get one.

[h.harb]

Not yet I like that big chain ring too much.

[polecat]

You can always get a triple.

[HeluvaSkier]

This new ride has a 52/36 and 12-23 which is growing on me a lot. I also have an 11-28 in the basement just in case the climbs get really steep (Highlander tour, Google it). I now have one bike with a compact, one bike with standard 53/39, and this bike with still compact gearing, but bigger rings. I think the most versatile is the 53/39... but I haven't ridden the 52/36 enough to form a strong opinion... and I can ride the 50/34 compact with 12-23 cassette pretty much anywhere. I need to see how the 36 handles rollers... I do wish that SRAM still had trim on the little ring like in the first generation though.

[Mac]

I'd be interested to know how you like the 52/36. My bike is set up with a 53/39 w/a 12-27 cassette. That will get me to about 95% of where I need to go. It's the other 5% that I'm starting to worry about. There are some brutal climbs in NH, Harald knows what I'm talking about. And I'm not getting any younger.

[Mac]

You can always get a triple.

Don't laugh, there are a handful of hardcore riders in NH that still use them, mostly older guys that where brought up on them. But believe me, there are some climbs up there that I wish I had one, too.