Thursday, May 7, 2009

GulfCoast Half Ironman and buying time!

The new Rotor Agilis cranks, Aero QRings, SABB ceramic BB. I like the new red spider.
Silver Tiso ceramic pulley wheels spin so much better than stock wheels, Campy, Shimano and Sram should be ashamed of themselves....
Below, we also put on some new Elite Custom white/red bottle cages.
btw, Zipp 999 will be the race wheel of choice on Saturday...not the ones below.

Gulf Coast Half Ironman is over in Florida and well, its prettier than racing in Galveston I guess. (snickering) Plenty of Texas athletes make the trip over every year to do this race. This weekend happens to be Mother's Day weekend so I am not sure how some guys are pulling it off, though I do know that Trent Stephens and Fred Johnson are leaving Friday morning, EARLY, to get there, race, and then as soon as transition is open to get bikes out, they are packing up to haul butt back to Houston to celebrate Mother's Day with their uber understanding wives who just had the kids most of the weekend by themselves. But I am sure it will all be worth it. HA!
Trent came in finally for some upgrades I have been dying to get him to do. He is a Campy man and has been as long as I have known him. Now that I have been having my way with his Crono race bike the only things left that are Campy is the rear D, cassette, and cranks. Until yesterday...now its just the rear D and cassette. I believe the Rotor SABB ceramic bottom bracket spins way smoother than nearly any other bottom bracket out there, let alone a stock Campy BB. To change this requires a Shimano style crank. Since no true Campy man would ever own anything from that Japanese rod and reel manufacturer...the obvious choice for a crank was the Rotor Agilis crank who also makes the SABB bb and the QRings that we all ride and love. A perfect combo from a company based in Spain...which borders Italy where Campy is based...so its as good as one can get with out being Campy. ;-) Next to come will be a Quarg power meter to replace the spider in that crank.
While we were at this craze of lightening up the bike with lighter cranks, using an aero chain ring set, and freeing up some watts with the ceramic bb, we also installed a set of Tiso ceramic pulley wheels in the rear D. Tiso is made in Italy which really just means that its nice...but you are gonna pay for the privilege. With it all installed and set up and shifting dialed in I could notice right away his drive train had way less drag in it. Lets see what translates to the race this Saturday....
Oh by the way, this bike has TRP 960SL brakes, Sram Red front D, Sram TT900 bar end shifters, and now the Rotor cranks. This bike is now more of a mutt bike than anything else. But don't we all love mutts just a little bit more than pure breeds?
Have fun and check back for the updates on Greg, Fred, and Trent's race weekend.

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