Soft Porn

Gotta Clean er' up first and
then I'll post some real bike Pr0n!

I was beginning to feel a bit guilty. Here I am in posession of my new bike and two days went by and I still didn't get a chance to ride it. Holiday Friday would be plagued by cold wet weather with a chance of snow but I couldn't bare to miss out on another day of training. After seeing that some other hardcore road weenies were committing to a scheduled ride rain or shine, I figured I might as well get a ride of my own in. I would like to join a group ride, but it wouldn't be fair to the others if I showed up on a new bike that required several stops to tweak my riding position or heaven forbid if I didn't build it correctly. I'll just ride on my own for the maiden voyage!

So if you remember, I scudded my road bike in order to build the wife a carbon bike. This left me with a sweet Tri bike and I still had my mountain bike. As luck would have it, I met a group of local riders that I could hook up with but roadies dont welcome TT bikes for group rides, its a safety thing. So after much deliberation I decided to get a cyclocross bike and mount one of my wheelsets with road tires so it could serve two purposes. As much as I wanted to buy a bike from the local bike stores, I couldn't resist a deal from Bikesdirect who is infamous for probably the best prices on bike anywhere you could find. The prices are so good that if you were going to build a frame up, its still cheaper to buy a complete bike from them and strip the parts off of it. I did my homework and there is alot of mixed reviews on the place. Reading between the lines I could tell that most of the bad reviews came from people that do not know how to wrench on a bike. They squabbled over little things that any capable mechanic could easily fix so that left with little to no genuine bad reviews. Also they would not ship to Canada so I had to use a receiving company just over the border to sign for it and then I could go pick it up. I have been meaning to use this company and finally I had a chance to try them out. They held my package and it only cost me $10, I think that is a pretty good price considering the size of the package. I got it over the border with no taxes either which makes this bike an absofrickinlutely steal of a price!!!

So the bike is an aluminum cross bike, carbon forks, carbon post & handlebar, Full 2011 ultegra group, and it even came with Mavic Krysium ELITE wheels. Basically the thing is fully loaded. $1500. Seriously, a comparable bike is well into $3500 Canadian so this is a steal. Initial thoughts on the bike is that the aluminum is seriously overbuilt, this thing is a tank but still has a decent light weight. After riding a steel road bike all last year this is a huge upgrade to me and weight wise it's signifcantly better. The welds are gorgeous! Assembling the bike I had to mess with the cantilever brakes alot, thats just my fault though. One of the cable guides had a small nick in the paint but thats nothing compared what I am going to do to it. The Ultegra STI shifter leave some mechanicals exposed on the inside under edge of the body which I think is of poor design but I guess they're trying to save weight? Dual cage mounts, rear rack mounts, all in all one solid looking bike.

The Ride. Immediately I could tell this thing is a beast. Extremely stiff, like no give whatsoever. This may not bode well for offroad use but that is for another day, today is a road ride with road tires. I left the bike stock, I just swapped in some Continental Ultra's that I had lieing around, 23c. I had Michelen Pro Race 3's but they are the wrong colour so I'll have to order some later. I just mounted an old aluminum bottle cage and off I went.
The stack on this thing is tall. I felt like I was riding a 2 storie building. Of course I left it stock so it has a ton of spacers on the stem but to be honest, I really enjoyed not being hunched over like I usually am. A welcome relief from the aero position of a TT bike. The stiffness is felt when you mash the pedals, no give whatsoever in the bottom bracket area. Now one nagging thought in the back of my mind is that it is way stiffer than my carbon TT bike but I didn't feel the power making it to the wheels necessarily. I think it was the 50km/h wind that was killing me but it could also be the slightly more weight to the over-built aluminum frame. I'll have to try again in non-hurricane winds. It was tough to tell. It didn't feel like it was coasting or carrying momentum like it should.
The handlebars had alot of flex in them. I'm a big guy so I could feel them bending like wet noodles under my power. I think this is a feature though, the carbon bars and carbon seatpost will deliberately flex to take the edge off the stiffness of the frame when smacking the bumps. Especially offroad. I hope.
While out on the first ride I seen more road riders in this single day than I did in all of last year combined. Considering the weather condidtions I am very surprised. It is getting late in the season and we are still having horrible weather so I think people are tired of waiting and are commiting to a ride regardless. It's been a late start for many.

Post Ride Jello-Legs

So I drafted a big group for a couple kilometers and then let them turn away from my direction of travel because I need to avoid the draft and get some serious workout in. Later in the ride I seen a group of three riders turn down the same road I was going for - you know what that means, HAMMERTIME! I mashed the pedals and put my head down to catch up to them. they were far off and I had doubts but I just concentrated on giving it my best shot and see what happens. I was slowly gaining on them, they were sharing the lead pull position and dividing the workload but I still gained with my solo crunch in to the wind! The bike was performing admirably! Then we came upon a huge downhill and they left me waaaay behind. Damn. Its a cross bike. 46 Tooth bigring just doesn't cut it on the road. I couldn't get anymore speed out of it on the downhill, I just spun the cranks to easily. I knew this would happen when I bought it, thats why I've been looking for a 50 Tooth. Its compact so I think 50 is as big as I can go. Regardless, what goes down must go up! We came up on the other side of the valley and I could see them slowing down a bit on the incline. I made good use of the bonus of a stiff frame and hammered up that hill. I closed a 2km gap in the blink of an eye. It climbs well. Again, back to the whole wind vs weight issue, something felt off. I should also note, my tires needed more air. Maybe I had too much rolling resistance from the tires. I'll admit, these Conti tires absolutely suck. I want my PR3's back.



Dirty Gurl



I had to draft the group of three for awhile. We were in rolling hills and everytime we came on a downhill I could barely keep up since I ran out of gears. I couldn't just take off in front because I knew they would just catch up to me on the next downhill. In the end I just waited for the biggest uphill of them all and bolted ahead. Drafting makes such a huge difference. I hate it. I like to work hard.

The return trip was miserable. 50km/h headwind from hell. I kid you not, the weatherman lied outright. Out here in the open countryside the winds were well above the alleged 35km/h they were advertising. It was a long 50rpm grind all the way back to town. I would shift down but I would just go slower and the pedalling never got easier. I just left it in the big gear and reefed on them cranks. Which made me seriously appreciate a TT bike because it cuts so well through the wind. Being high up and non-aero on this cross bike meant I was nothing short of a parachute. My legs were screaming the whole way home.

Overall I am very happy with this bike! I look forward to a non-windy day to get a true test of its abilities. Handling wise I didn't push it - first ride out and all.