Assume the Position!

When I refer to the position in the title, I refer of course to the aero position, elbows on the pads, rocketing along. Shame on you if you thought otherwise.

I took the full TT getup to Prospect Park this morning for a test ride. I wore tights, of course, and the aero helmet. I wasn't pushing as hard as I could, but I did manage to average 22.0 MPH for an hour (7 laps), blazing by a group ride going about 18 MPH. My climbing performance was disappointing, but I was going 38 MPH down the hill.

I still feel like I'm in such bad shape. I've ridden 2250 miles so far this year, which sounds like a lot, but really isn't that much compared to what serious racers are putting in. I'm gaining weight, too. Strength to weight! Strength to weight! Now that the weather is warm, I'll resume my Saturday regimen of riding a century.

Hooray for expensive toys!

Bicycle Number Seven: Photos

First, I'd like to thank the kind parishioners and community of St. Brendan Church in Brooklyn, NY. These wonderful folks welcomed me into their community today, let me tell them about Bike & Build, and helped me raise over $1,000 for the cause. Thank you!

Well , as you already know, I finally have a TT bike! The bicycle itself is a 2007 model year Fuji Aloha CF2. It has two major upgrades: I changed the stock chainrings to an old set of FSA 42/55 rings that I got via Craigslist, and I changed the wheels to FlashPoint FP60s. I spent much of this afternoon tweaking it: getting the wheels on, getting the gearing settled, putting the computer on, and generally starting to do the million little things that make a bicycle mine. I'm still debating if I want to keep the 12-25 that the bike came with, or put the 11-25 on there. (I would gain the 11T at the expense of the 16T, which is a shame, since I really like the 16T. I'll run a gearing chart for a definitive answer.)

When I was searching the Internets for information about the Fuji prior to buying it, I found that there were shockingly few good photos of this excellent bicycle. At work, we have a saying: storage is cheap, so take twice as many pictures as you think you need.

All of the pictures are on my photos site, with useful captions: http://picasaweb.google.com/jsoltren/Bicycle7FujiAlohaCF2. Go take a look!

#7 Rising

So, tomorrow I'm off to Ithaca, NY to visit Glenn Swan of Swan Cycles. When I return, I'll have #7, my shiny new time trial / triathlon bike.

Why am I making the 11-hour round trip just to get a bicycle? I think that, since I'm getting a TT bike, buying one from a world champion TT cyclist is somehow a good idea. That way, if he says it fits, it fits!

Cycling is such an esoteric field. You often have to look long and hard to find quality people, and when you do, you make every effort to keep in touch with them. (Don't worry, if you're reading this blog, you're a quality person, too.)