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.

MTB with AJ

AJ is claiming that none of my wipe outs are done in slow mo.....:-)
We had a great time getting out and I want to do so again (and maybe re-edit the movie!)

Ciao,
Rick

Damn Time Flies!

Is Blogging dying in this day of 30 second attention span....ie. Facebook? I do admit I keep the FB page more up to date than my Blogger. After saying that but not updating my blog for this long is nutz! I'll do a better job with more details. My job as Sales Manager at Chainwheel Drive has been a great experience and has help make the year fly by! One of the first things I did was to design and get a new shop kit out....

Other updates: Hmmmm, a "new" used Honda 2010 Element

Sadie is doing great....

After MUCHO research I got a Suunto Ambit2 HR "watch" to replace the old & tired Garmin 405cx

Finally got some road & cyclocross racing in this year

And Missy & I are still dating each other

Sooooo, I'll do more but wanted to try to keep on top of this.....it's easy to do the FB thing, but blogging is a bit more involved, or should be! Ciao, Rick

Update long over due

This is crazy late but let's just say I've been pretty busy!

I left my job at Finn Marketing for the Sales Manager position at Chainwheel Drive bike shop in September, traded in my beat company minivan that I bought cheap for a used 2009 Mini Cooper,

retired the Ellsworth Scant and am riding a 2012 Specialized S-Works Venge

I did the Horrible 100 also (more on that later) with folks from Gearlink & the MCC crew.

....and Melissa & I are still seeing each other

and are going to move into a house

(that's right a rental house) together.

Things are not easy but definitely worth it and much better than before. I have much to be happy about and not due to processions but how life is going in general.

I'll do a break down on the above as time allows.....I hope everyone is having a great Holiday season!

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