Edinburgh Cross Race 2014

My first (and only so far) cyclocross race this season. Ironic what happens when you work at a bike shop you don't get to race as much! For some reason the sand pit owned me that day.....I didn't get through it clean once. The bunny hop over the log at 18-20 mph was my redemption! This was my first race on the Wilier and the bike is fantastic! I'm not getting rid of the Ritchey Ti Cross but this Wilier is sweet! I'm only a couple of months away from racing in the 55+ class instead of the stacked 45+ class. I came in 7th I believe; about in the middle of the age group. I'm hoping to get 1-3 more racings in before the season ends. I hope everyone is having a great season out there! Ciao, Rick

My first Wilier!

Damn, what a nice surprise!

I bought a Wilier Cross bike (we are a Wilier Dealer) and built it out from the parts off my beloved Ritchey Ti Cross bike. To say that the ride qualities are sweet would be a big f'ing understatement! I put the OMG Enve 6.7s on it and with SRAM Force 10 spd on it it was just a stupid 16 lbs! I use it on any rough road rides that I do and don't feel I'm giving much up from riding the S-Works Venge believe it or not. It makes me want to get a Zero 7 or 9 now! More later! Ciao! Rick

Some sweet shoes for the Venge!

I've been testing some different wheels to buy to replace my FSA tubies that have been breaking spokes too frequently. I was torn to get a set of new tubies but I wanted to play around with different tire sizes and clincher was the only way to do that so for the most part I check out different clincher wheelsets. No science behind my testing but more of a feel on how they felt.

The FSA tubies are light and didn't feel pushed around in the wind but were not easy to relace. Together with my bike the overall weight was only 14.12 lbs!

The Shimano Dura-Ace C50 tubies felt great and were fast and light but I wanted to go with clinchers so they didn't make the cut. They felt like they were effected by the wind more than the others also.

The Enve SES 6.7 were the deepest that I tested but felt like the fastest that I tried; I could feel them in windy conditions in a negative way when it got in the 17+mph windy days. I had also tried the SES 3.4s; they were great but I didn't feel that they were as noticeable as the 6.7s The 5 year warranty, the choice of three different hubs and being made in America were big pluses for them. Oh, thanks for my buddy Beck helping to model the Enves in this picture!

The Zipp 404s have always been my favourites; they felt fast and didn't seem to get blown around for the depth. A great wheel set and a close 2nd only to the Enves.

I ended up going with the SES 6.7s, Chris King ceramic hubs....the weight difference between the 3.4s and 6.7s were only around 120 grams but the "perceived difference" in overall speed of the 6.7s and the way they felt made them my choice.