My old Geneo has found a new home

WG Crono
Originally uploaded by shamacycles

So upon opening Shama Cycles I had Guru build me the ultimate Geneo. Custom for me for road racing and climbing (I am NOT a climber) in those races. Not only was it a custom in the geometry it was custom in the carbon lay up for BB stiffness and power transfer with out a real weight penalty. I had it built up with a mix of Rotor, Sram Red, Edge and TRP parts. It weighed 14lbs on race day. carbon tubulars help alot! I had my best road racing season on this frame.
But alas I can't keep these frames forever...guys who are 5'7 to 5'9" are in luck when I move off of one frame and onto another. Wilmer is one such guy. A friend of mine who I ride with often on the weekends needed a new road bike. By needed I mean he was on a Giant road bike that was 7 years old with the original saddle. It was nearly painful just to watch him ride...haha. So now...after 7 years he is on a new rig...FINALLY! The funny thing is...my Geneo part 2...I think it looks better now than when I had it. Seriously...this build is WAY TOO CLEAN! With the HED Bastogne wheelset...it looks perfect!!!
The best part is...after 5 months of hard riding and racing the Geneo frame polished up better than new...giving Wilmer a new bike...that will last him another 7 years.

Guru Crono, Johnny Cash Style

Coy Connelly 005
Originally uploaded by shamacycles

By far the most popular custom tri bike is the Guru Crono. I get to do these frames in all kinds of colors...here I am doing one in plain black with white letters. While it might sound plain to some...there is still a certain look to it that still most bikes just don't have. We did what was smart and light here. Not to mention the HED Jet 6 FR wheelset.
Syntace CX base bar, Vision carbon aero bars, KCNC stem, KCNC brakes, Nokon cables, Sram Force front and rear D, shifters, carbon brake levers. Selle SMP saddle. A serious machine for a guy who LOVES to ride and race at his best...not to mention look good for the pics! haha!

Sometimes the color surprises me

TRP 029
Originally uploaded by shamacycles

With all the paint options Guru has and the paint box I have at the shop to help decide some times you just don't know how its going to look when it comes in. This frame showed up and I ripped it out of the bike and was amazed. What brilliance and color. The pictures do not do it justice. From here we built it up with a basic build and HED wheels. The important thing to Mike was that he got the custom frame and as we upgrade this frame with high end components we get to kick these parts down to his old road bike which is 8speed. Yes...8 speed. But that can come later. For now...we are super happy with the set up and he can't wait to kill it at the next race. More importantly finally have his father's respect at a race....since his dad has had a Guru titanium tri bike for 4 years now. HAHAHA

The Rule Breaking Magis!

Steve Quick was at the shop for a fitting on his TT bike and helped to unload her bike. I think most women would enjoy his help with their frame...haha

KW Magis
Originally uploaded by shamacycles

So here is one that I am super proud of. Kathleen is a triathlete who I have known for a couple years and as long as I have known her she has worn pink and tried to "pink out" her QR which unfortunately (not for me though) did not fit her at all. I think she first thought custom was out of her range but after looking at it all we figured out a way to make it work...as in showing her how she can live off of no food or gas for a month. haha No seriously.
So we picked out the frame, a Guru Magis which is a carbon frame that can work with the paint color she wants...PINK! But not ALL pink. We had to throw in some white to go with it. We choose the ultra reliable Ultegra SL components and went all out on the aero set up. Also of course we did out little ceramic bits with some little pink tricks.
The best part of this story is we broke the BIGGEST RULE in triathlon racing. NEVER EVER EVER NEVER EVER NEVER NEVER EVER EVER race something new on race day...let alone a whole new bike! I LOVE IT! I have done it before and will do it again. Custom works and when its right its right. Kathleen's frame came in from Guru at 1:45 pm on Thursday...as in the Thursday before Redman Half Ironman on Saturday. My friend and team mate Steve Quick pulls it out of the box and of course we start in on it right away. Just after 2pm Jon and Kathleen show up wondering if she will race on the Magis or on her old 2 gear working QR. By 5pm this was built and by 6pm she was fitted and loaded up in the car and off to OK for Redman. I triple checked every bolt on that thing as I knew the risk involved here but I have done it before and it has worked every time and with the condition of her old bike we did not have much choice. So Friday's ride report was pretty good, nice ride and nothing hurt or alerted anything. All systems go for Saturday. Saturday came and from another friend there I was getting info that they might cancel or start late due to weather and flooding. The race went on with a mandatory bike dismount in the flooded areas. WOW! Later that day while I was working in the shop with some friends I get this text message saying that the bike was awesome and that she had a 21 minute PR. OH YEAH!!!! TAKE THAT NAY SAYERS! Now, lets just be real here, her bike split was slower than before, the Cyclo Cross style tri did not make for fast splits but her run was very fast. Which if you have ever read this blog or followed my tri bike fitting philosophy you would know that while I know you will be faster on the bike...I look for faster run splits on race day before I say I have "delivered" to my clients what they came to me for. She was excited and loved it and also happy to be able to shift all her gears. haha
Look for her to get used to the new position and dialed in and start to realize her full potential. She trains hard and puts in the work...she may have bought some speed but she earns her AG placings!
Rock On Kathleen!

2005 Sworks Tarmac....Shama Style

JC Sworks
Originally uploaded by shamacycles

I met Juan Carlos at the first bike shop I worked at. He came in wanting the best and being the Specialized fan that I was at the time I sold him this Sworks Tarmac. It had full DuraAce and I spent about 10 minutes fitting it to him on a trainer.
WOW! I have learned so much since then and have even kept in touch with Juan Carlos. Unfortunately for him I opened Shama Cycles directly across from his work. I can look at my front door and see his building. He thought it was great at first but is now cursing me for being so close. HAHA! I stripped this frame down to nothing and compounded and polished the frame to restore its brilliance. Then the build, new headset, ceramic bottom bracket from Rotor the SABB, Rotor Agilis cranks, QRings. Sram Red shifters, front D, rear D. Tiso ceramic pulley wheels. TRP 960SL brakes. Nokon cables. Thompson seatpost. Deda Zero 100 handlebars and stem. Lizard Skinz bar tape. New Ultimate carbon cages and KCNC skewers.
Over all we dropped this frame down 3lbs and after the Retul fitting he is finally riding with power and comfort and loving the bike.
The next upgrade. Wheels...and then a custom Guru frame.

Independat Fabrication Crown Jewel...PIMPED

First Pics 011
Originally uploaded by shamacycles

So I got this frame in and immediately got excited. It was a plain old Shimano DuraAce set up with some pretty plain parts. It was 4 years old and had not been loved on. I stripped the frame down to nothing and serviced the headset and began picking out what to do. With in a week I had a Tiso bolt kit in blue shipped in from Italy and some matching Deda parts which also happen to be made in Italy. How ever the Nokon cables are German. One thing that took some time to decide on was the crank, finally I settled on function over pure aesthetics. A titanium spindle, ceramic bearings in the bottom bracket, and a 110bcd with a Rotor Qring 53/39 chain ring set. This way if we like we can go compact later with out having to change the cranks. Needless to say this frame polished up like new and with the build and new fitting this bike rides better than ever and looks better than ever.

Video from the show

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.

First ride, and some Shama marathon watching and placing.

Watching the marathon finish...that guy makes it look too easy!

Ok you might not be able to tell in this pic but Richard came over to ride his bike with unshaved legs. This detail almost killed me riding with him...but I let it slide this time. ;-)

Sunday morning...after working some seriously crazy hours the past week and actually loving it...Richard Amaya pulls up to my house for a morning ride. First ride on his new Guru Crono and second ride for me on my new Guru Geneo. Not only are we both on Gurus, but mine is red/white and his is red/black...and we both were rolling the new Garmin computers hooked up to our Quarq Power meters. I must say we were rolling pretty tough. We left the house and headed towards downtown to watch the marathon for a little bit. Besides, Shama Cycles had some tri team members out there racing and I wanted to yell at them...to HTFU! haha
Richard kept wanting to take off and after my last "first ride" with Euan, I wanted to take it easy. I was not in the mood for a hammer fest and I know Rich was itchin to open up that bike. The streets were clear for the marathon and we were able to cruise on down to the finish line with ease. Seeing everyone racing and cheering and supporting was great! At the end of the day, Trent Stephens helped pace Andrew Strong to 3rd place in his AG in the half with Brett Cole right behind him for 4th...then back in 14th place but only 6min behind was Walt Yarrow. Good on guys! Then there were plenty of other FOPs out there who had great races and maybe some with not so great races. We all have those days and hearing the post race stories was great! Its good to feel the race buzz again.
Basically we had a pretty easy ride...me falling in love with my Geneo and him his Crono. We both were all smiles on our rockets and can't wait for another great day to put them through the paces. It was a blast and a fun ride having some self admiration on the bike.

Brett Cole's baby

After lunch I had to run home and grab a box that was delivered there by mistake and come on back, and on my way back I get a call from Brett Cole who is waiting at the shop with the UPS guy asking if he can sign for the packages so the UPS guy can go and he can check out his rig. I roll up to the shop and there is Brett with some boxes that he should have ran with...but fortunately for me his bike is worth more than my goodies that showed up today. ;-)

This is the first time I have seen the Platinum and Black together and its stunning. While I fight with the colors and exact components on my own bike I look at this and the parts we are going to build it up with and am just amazed (and a bit jealous) with how good this is going to come out. In the sun light its just....WOW. I can't wait to hit this one up next week. Tuesday will be a pre fitting to know where to cut the steerer tube and the aero bars and make sure everything is on track so when its built its just some minor tweaks. We are using a Syntace carbon base bar and Vision Tech R bend carbon aero bars...so there is little room for adjustments after the build. Measure twice and cut once. ;-)

On to the rest...Richard Amaya is pickin up his Crono in a little bit and I have to finish the Quarq install...which is like the EASIEST install ever! Love these things!

A tale of 4 Gurus...

Richard C holding up his own personal dream machine...
I think I heard angels sing when I opened each box...

So today started off as a good day as any day should when your job is to work on pimp bikes and ride a little too. But be careful what you ask for. I sold quite a few bikes in November. One already came in, then another is coming...but today I received 3 Guru Cronos and 1 Geneo. Mind you its Thursday and I have three clients who have been "patiently" waiting for these rigs to come in. THANK GOD these are triathletes and two of them are racing the Houston Marathon this weekend. Now I only have to build one by tomorrow night...as well as my own...the Geneo is for me! The first one in the rack is for Richard Amaya and he is lucky I like him otherwise my bike would be in the rack right now. ;-)
Richard C. was so pumped about his bike coming in he took time off from work to run down and look at his frame and drool a little. Cool little deal on his bike...the frame is White and Orion (silver) and we were able to find a white headset cap and white spacers to match up to his white Ritchey stem. The pics of this and more on his bike should be pretty awesome!
Still with all I do...I looked at these four gorgeous frames and parts laying in these boxes and felt like a dog who discovered his tail for the first time. I was looking at each frame and parts and just wondering what to do first and how cool this one would look with this and got pretty excited.
I might be here well past midnight tonight and the same tomorrow night...but with having to call this "work" I can't really complain.
And as usual...each bike will get a post on here as it gets built.
Build time....

Just a fun Sunday evening with some friends at Shama Cycles

Look for this Crono build coming soon.

A closer shot...notice the Pink frame on the floor...look small? It is for a woman under 5ft.

A Geneo I sold in my previous life before Shama Cycles. Less than a year old and we think its time for an update... You think its nice now...just wait till you see what we got planned...

(All that I could fit in my camera phone...All Gurus, Zipp, Fulcrum, or Edge wheels. The heaviest bike here...17.3lbs)

So far everyday has been a fun day and I am totally spoiled with being surrounded by just fine bikes all the time. Machines that 4 years ago I was only dreaming about seeing on the road, let alone owning, working on, and selling. I have not forgotten where I have come from and how I got here. That is why sometimes I look around me and just say "wow" and I get all excited like that first time I saw the dream bike section of a magazine or looked at the Tour Edition where they show the bike for each team.
Tonight we had a road race team meeting and I had some bikes here and put them out to show off the latest and to talk upgrades for everyone that is looking at upgrading. Plus it was an excuse to eat and drink with some friends. First year just opening I have 18 men and women flying the colors at Texas road races this season and the best part is I am friends with each of them so its easy to support and sponsor them all cause I would want to anyway. I love it!
So at the end after some empty pizza boxes and a trash can full of empty glass bottles (Helen and Aimee are "trailer" and took their wine back home) I had to take a shot of some of the rigs. Man I can't wait to get the rest of the bikes in for the Grand Opening party. More on that in February. ;-)

Carima Cranks...Quarq to come.

The signature of a Shama build. Laser etched stem caps with matching bolt that takes off the standard 26gram combo and puts on a 6gram cap and bolt is color matched for each bike and looks way better than a sticker on the frame. Just another example of that little extra touch that goes into each bike that rolls out the door here.
And YES, that is a diamond crusted headset spacer. BIKE BLING!
Carima crank arms with a Phil Wood bottom bracket and TA Specialties chain rings...why? Its a 165crank arm that will take a Quarq power meter. Which is on the way.
The bike overall. More to come in future posts and on the website when it gets launched. But yeah, there is alot of little goodies on this one. Its evolved quite a bit over the past year.

Who says you can't buy speed???

Above is Euan aero. Below is the turn around where we met another client. Funny, her bike still gets more looks...

Well I started work today at 8am. When a client goes out on those first rides I like to ride with them to be there check the position and tweak anything that might need to be done that you just don't see on the stand or in the trainer. Yes...I had to ride as part of my job. AWESOME!!!!

Today was the first ride on the sickest Guru Crono that I know of. Euan (the owner of the rig) and one of my team members John met up with me this morning at 8am. I had a complete Allen set from 2-10 just in case there were some adjustments at all we would need to make on this first ride. So I figured since Euan is pretty strong (stronger than John and myself as well) but riding a TT bike for the first time ever, that there would be some pretty strong efforts that would be short lived as he got used to the position and new muscles used. Plus I am pretty trashed from my 95miles yesterday and looking for a fun ride with some stops for adjustments.

NEVER BRING A KNIFE TO A GUN FIGHT...

After rolling at 20-22 side by side for a little while chating about the bike and how awesome it is...we get to our first section of clear road (2miles into the ride) and Euan is in his aerobars at 26mph. Ok, so I just draft...John is behind me and I am checkin Euan's pedal stroke and hip movement...or lack there of. Our first light and he is just amazed and says he is feeling good on this so far. My spirits were dashed as I could then foresee the pain I was about to endure. Next section we were at 27-28 for 6 miles as Euan dragged John and I around. Then we started hitting 30....31...32. I would have yelled at Euan to cut that out and slow down but I could barely breathe let alone talk. This went on for the rest of the 75 mile ride. Every good section of road he was laying it down like a kid with his first video game...he would not stop! Mind you I am rolling on a 14lbs Kirklee and after about 50 miles John and I started taking turns...getting dropped.
I say all of that to say this. We did not make one adjustment to his bike the entire ride. He stayed aero the entire time and felt great at the end of the ride. Taking the time in the build and the fit of this custom rig really paid off. Sure we might try somethings but so far...he is faster than he could have thought and happier than he could have imagined. Which of course made me very happy.

Yes its rare to gain that comfort right away but it does show how fit and taking ones time in every detail is key...along with some ultra high quality parts that add to the go fast button.

Now on to an 11speed Campy upgrade on a Guru Praemio and my first installation of the Quarq power unit. I will keep you all posted on that one. Is it really fair to mention how bad my legs hurt and how good a nap sounds right now???

RIDE ON!!!

ALMOST DONE....HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well today was working on the Crono project some more. Last night before closing down shop we got Euan on the trainer to check over the position and fit before we cut the steerer and to start cutting down the HED aerobar extensions.
Figuring out a temp steerer compression bolt for the carbon steerer of the AlphaQ fork was fun. We are not bonding in the permanent insert that AlphaQ supplies just yet to play with the position just a bit.
After that came the Nokon cables on a bottom bracket of a frame that Guru has internally routed but modified to accept the BB30 of the Zipp Vuma Quad cranks. Which are temp cranks till the Vuma Cronos are shipping from Zipp...yeah I know. But you would to if you could. ;-)
I was able to run the Nokon supplied inner liner the entire length of the cable run, through the BB30 mod pop out and back through the frame again. This should offer a completely protected cable through out the entire bike. While it should aid in long term shifting smoothness, my real reason for wanting it to last is I don't really want to have to do it again anytime soon. Thank goodness its New Years and I will have an excuse to have a drink in a couple hours.

So now all that is left is some fine tuning of the shifting and taping the bar extensions.
What does this bad boy weigh??? 15.02lbs as it shows in this pic from my camera phone.
Better pics to come.

Euan MacKay's Crono...build so far...

Ok, so here is the Guru Crono with Diamond Black accents with a Pearl White base.
So we weighed everything piece by piece and its amazing!
HED Black Dog aero bars. Zipp Vuma Quad Cranks. Tiso front and rear Ds, Edge rims, Tune hubs, Prologo saddle, Nokon cables. KCNC brakes, Sram 900 Carbon Shifters. Ritchey WCS carbon Matrix stem. More to come, gotta get back to work on this thing...Euan is itchin to ride!