Made the leap
Posted by Savage Henry @ 11:17 AM
So, last night I finally broke down and bought myself a road bike. I'd been on the fence for a while, figuring, you know, it's two wheels and a crank, so riding the old GT mountain bike for tens of miles works just fine. But with an MS ride coming up, I figured it would end up making a big difference.
So I went to the local purveyor of fine riding implements, and walked out with this:
Fuji Roubaix Pro, 2006. Specs:
WHEELSET: New Alex (A-Class) ALX-220
FRAMESET: Fuji Altair 2 custom butted aluminum with Power Diamond downtube
FORK: FC-770 Fuji Bonded Carbon, integrated 1 1/8" alloy steerer
DRIVETRAIN: New TruVativ Elita GXP Compact 36/50 w/ integrated spindle, New Shimano 105 & Ultegra mix
WEIGHT: 18.8 lbs / 8.53 kg
And did it for well less than half the asking price in '06, which, even with the markdowns for being last year's model, seems like a decent deal to me. I'll ride it a bit and take it around VA for the MS ride, but I'm already thinking about swapping out the wheels for something a little...more stable.
Comments
Fan-fucking-tastic.
That ride is in three weeks? Holy crap. Are you planning on cramming for the full hondo? Even if you plan on the 75-mile option, I strongly recommend interval training. Here. This schedule is nearly impossible to complete for those of us who are employed on a full-time basis. Still, it should make the first 40 miles painless, even if you put in half the time.
As for the ride, ditto on the wheels. I've got a set of even-lower spoke count Shimano 540's that are suspect. I'm not that heavy a rider and I still get a bit of squish around the hard turns. When you are in the market for an upgrade take a look at Mavic wheels sets. They offer a few sets that won't break the bank, and have trickle-down technology from their flagship models.
Posted by: seed | May 9, 2007 12:27 PM
No, I'm not trying for the full shot just yet. Like you a few years ago, I'm still in recovery from hauling a MTB around town. I've got no idea how I'm gonna do on things like sustaining a tempo since even in exercise rides on the MTB I've gotta deal with a lot of roads breaking up the path, people in the way, and general annoyances every mile or more. I'm taking the shorter option since it's so close. I plan to get in more rides this summer, and then move up to centuries by next summer. To help with the short term I've been going to spinning classes a few times a week. More on that in the next post.
Posted by: Savage Henry | May 9, 2007 1:16 PM
Well, there's still room on the Illinois ride in late June--if you can find the time.
Posted by: seed | May 9, 2007 4:29 PM
That looks like you can go damned fast, Henry. And you got an awesome deal. I will still resist a roadie bike but there's something awesome about the speed you can carry on these things.
Posted by: Erik | May 10, 2007 1:16 AM
Damn. That looks waaaaaaay too much like actual excercise.
Posted by: ~Easy | May 11, 2007 5:42 AM