Joe came to me this time last year with his stock Fuji carbon frame road bike with 105 components. He was not all that comfortable and wanted a fit. We changed up the fit some and I mentioned some upgrades to enhance the fit further. See Joe was not the standard male body type at all...or the typical cyclist body type. Joe hits the gym hard and looks more like a football player than a roadie...throw in his long legs, short torso and long arms and you have a need for some changes in a big way.
We changes the cranks, then the bar and stem and with each change he loved the improvement in his weekend rides where he found more speed and comfort. Next came new shifters, brakes, and derailluers...being geeked out over the performace of the shifting, braking and the weight he has been dropping off his Fuji he decided to get some better wheels as well. By this time we have changed everything. Everything but the frame. Finally after months of change after change and increased riding enjoyment he upgraded the frame. Guru Photon...custom made to be as tall as he needed it to be while having the perfect reach he needed. The parts list included Deda bar and stem, Zero G GSL brakes, Selle SMP Carbon Lite saddle, Sram Force shifters and derailluers, Rotor 3D cranks, SABB, and Q-Rings, Arundel cages, Hed Stinger 4 FlameRouge wheels with Schwalbe Ultremo tubulars with Nokon cables. This brought his 21lbs Fuji stock bike to a 14lbs Guru Photon bad a$$ rocket ship.
Oh, and how does it ride? Well on his first outing on the new frame when he normally would have been dropped from the attacks at 26mph and up Joe chased down one of his friends at 31mph and stayed away with him till the rest stop. Which prompted from all his friends, questions as to what has he been doing differently in his training and such. His response was...its the frame.
I loved going through this journey with him and finally completing it with an amazing finished product. The only bummer is now we are done...
Time to ride!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Guru Crono Retro fitted for internal Di2
When this rig was ordered at the end of 2008 Di2 hadn't swept the scene yet...so it got the best of Sram and other parts of the time. Now its 2010 and while the owner would love a new rig...its kinda like why? What would be different? This bike fits perfectly and has taken him to podiums in nearly every race he has entered. How do you perfect perfection? Ahhh...I love a challenge. In sprints and Olys you often run through tight turns that on such a short bike count for time. You can't always carry speed through them so you slow down on your base bars only to try to accelerate in the wrong gear...costing you precious power and seconds. Bring in the Di2! So Rich wanted to get crazy low and rail corners like a pro! We used the Pro Missile drop aero bars with the full Di2 set up with the shifters on the brake levers as well. The install was great with the cables all running perfectly through the frame and set up was a breeze...just perfect. OMG I love this stuff! We also used the Zero Gravity Gravitas brakes for when he needs to slow down giong into T2. The crank set up is my fav....Rotor 3D cranks spinning a QRing set on a Quarq power meter. We also used a Rotor SABB ceramic bottom bracket and Tiso ceramic pulley wheels to have a friction free drivetrain. First race...I watch him come out of T1 going to a flying mount and he eats it. That's right...he biffed the running mount and hit the ground. My mouth dropped looking from afar at this catastrophy. I can't believe he ruined my flawless machine. No...I didn't care how he was...I didn't care what he did to his bike....I cared what happened to my creation and the results I was looking for him to get. haha He picked up his pride and his bike and remounted. Headed down the road and was on his way. Now I am worried that with uber tech this frame is I am worried that something is off and his race will be over shortly. But what is this? He finished the bike in good time and with a blood running down from his knee and all over his Guru he finished 2nd in his Age Group. Long story short, after 6 stitches and some blood loss...he LOVES the new set up and will work on his cyclocross skills some more before his next race.
See ya on the road!
See ya on the road!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
DANCING BEAR, MOONWALKING BEAR, CYCLIST AWARE
Pretty good, had to post. Its so true as one of my good friends was crashed off the road by a truck last night. Though we are pretty sure the truck saw him and was intentional.
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