Lisa Tilton McCarthy's new Guru Praemio

above
Lisa's blue Praemio and Colleen's red Praemio...pre build.
below
Lisa is on the computrainer just for a quick check on the frame, fit, saddle, stem length, steerer tube height and such. We select everything when we design the bike. Before the build happens I check what determines fit of the bike to see if any changes need to be made now or if any select parts need to be ordered. But as usual with custom and careful design and planning...everything was perfect. Now with the build to follow the cabling and such will come out that much nicer and the Retul fit will be the cherry on top.

Lisa is a triathlete that upsets overall and Master's placings at the triathlons around town. She is wanting that Kona slot this year and is taking it pretty seriously. As in she is not racing double racing each weekend all over Texas with what ever she can pin a number on for and go when the gun goes off. She is choosing her races carefully and actually trying to peak for certain races and rest a little in between. (un heard of for this athlete) This goal calls for the best equipment. She already has a Guru Crono with Sram Force on it I sold to her 2 years ago so how do you get better? Buy a Guru Praemio made out of 6.4 titanium tubing to be able to train more in group rides where the paces can be higher to work on speed...also have the geometry designed as to compliment your tri position so the training translates between bikes. Lisa also went with the ti road bike to have something to travel with, ride on crazy courses and poor weather days. This way the gorgeous carbon Crono is saved for the races and specific training days. Along with this upgrade, we are putting Sram Red components on the Crono and her Force is going on the Praemio.
More to come as these bikes get built up and evolve into the works of art they are.

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.

Guru Crono with Quarq and Edge

Fred's Crono race ready for the Champions Tri in Austin. New Agilis cranks, QRings aero version, Quarq Saturn power meter, SABB ceramic bb, Tiso ceramic pulley wheels, Edge 68 rims, Tune hubs, DT Swiss aerolite wheels, and a couple other little tricks here and there.

Beautiful Italian made pulley wheels with ceramic bearings. Gold KMC chain.
We call this bike Goldmember...so of course it gets a gold Shama Cycles stem cap.

Agilis upgrade on a Merus

This past summer Walt Yarrow scored his AgeGroup crusher, the Guru Merus. We have tweaked things here and there, but today we just did a nice one. A swap from Ultegra crank arms to Rotor Agilis Crank arms. We had already installed the SABB ceramic bottom bracket and Qrings previously. We are just trying to get that Johnny Cash look on this one I think. I pulled out the scale for kicks for a before and after...and it dropped over half a pound just from the crank swap. The Agilis are very light yet very stiff crank arms. The guy is well over 6ft and to have this large of a Ti rig hitting under 20lbs with training wheels is pretty sweet.

Quarq Power Meter install

Quarq has been that company that has been teasing us for two years with another option for power that seemed to be great but never came out. Well finally it did and they are opening dealers now as well. Friday I got in the Quarq Cinqo Power Meter and Garmin 705 unit for my Kirklee and Rotor Agilis cranks. After taking care of some client's bikes I was able to look at my own.
The Kirklee was sitting at 14lbs 7oz. Post Install its only up to 14lbs 11oz. Not bad for a power meter upgrade! Mind you I only removed the Mavic Wintech ES computer with cadence.
Pretty straight forward to install and the Garmin is very user friendly. Plus I like the idea of being able to select your display screen format.
I have had a Power Tap and an SRM. Easy to use like the PT and almost as easy to install...when talking about the wireless one. The true staple has been the SRM and this was WAY easier to install than an SRM but with even more display info over the SRM and you still get to use any wheel you want. What a great little meter.
Oh yeah, and it has GPS positioning so you can map routes or see where you are at. I am gonna have some fun.