In with the new (track bike) Felt TK4130

I sold the Pinarello (gasp!) and purchased a Felt TK4130. WHY??? Well, I have been working part time at Chainwheel Drive bike shop in Clearwater, FL since May 14th in sales there and they do not sell Pinarello, the Pin was/is a great bike but being aluminum and not spec'd as a true track bike I thought I'd be better off with a 4130 steel, true geometery track bike. I was able to sell the Pin on eBay and buy the Felt for close to the same money so the cash flow of the deal was good. I got it in right before the 12 Hours of St Pete "alleycat race" and wanted to use it for that (more on that race on a different post). I have it rigged up two ways; as a "pure track bike & for training/racing on the road fixed. More reviews on it later but I love it so far. Ciao, Rick

The Tampa Crit

Wow....this happened the 31sdt of March and I'm finally putting it down "on paper". Yes, I actually did a road race/Crit this year and this one is one of my all time favourites. I signed up in the 50+ Masters class....which is a lot tougher than it sounds....lot's of really fast "old guys" out there! The course is a great one in downtown Tampa....nothing like racing downtown in a "big city". Even though I was about 10 lbs over (race) weight, I really didn't want to miss this one, so I sucked it up and registered. I had just gotten the Ellsworth Scant back and set up...it felt pretty damn good and I was wearing the (new) Go Pro Hero2 video/camera to record the race. I did some warm ups with the Go Pro on and felt I was using the wrong mount (very shakey vids)so I took it off. I felt pretty good at the start but after 3-4 laps a split developed as 2 Gearlink and 2 FLVelo riders went up off of the front. That took some of the pressure off as I wasn't going to kill myself trying to close any gap down since we had two (good/fast) guys up in the break. After awhile the shifting was getting to the point that during and coming out of the turns, I'd drop or gain a gear without doing anything and it kept getting worse. I tried to adjust the cables myself but really didn't have the time to do so and was getting worried about causing a crash due to the yo-yoing of my bike due to the shifting so I decided to go into neutral support (SRAM/Specialized) to have it checked out and corrected. I thought I'd get a "free lap" but the official said it was a maintainance fault and not a mechanical one. The SRAM/Specialized tech said it nmay be a busted shifter and put me on a 54cm Specialized and got me back out in the ace and would try to fix/find the problem. I'm down a lap now. The Specialized felt pretty good and am glad I swapped bikes. I finished the race and due to confusion at the finish I sat up instead of finishing another lap hard and let two guys in front of me. I returned the Specialized bike and picked the Ellsworth back up that the tech had done a great job "fixing" the shifting so it's all good. I should have given more time to get the Ellsworth dialed in before racing but I just didn't have the time to do so. Still a great race and afterwards, Missy & I hung out at the VIP tent and had yummy food and Cigar City Beer to watch the rest of the rainy then perfect condition races. A bunch of folks I knew were there so it was great to hang out in non-racing gear with riding buddies from The Mid County (riders) Club. Race data is here and photos that I shot are here. Good times. Ciao, Rick