A Guru Photon for Joe, a year long upgrade

JoeF Photon 012
Originally uploaded by shamacycles

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!