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

First real attempt at a shop ride...fun day

Rolling along on a beautiful morning. All I see in this picture is the white bibshorts...so Euro Cool!!!!

Jess, Wilmer, Kristen, Chris.
It was Chris's birthday that day...so at the Shell station 44 sweaty, smooth legged, Lycra clad men serenaded him with a song. There were 6 girls there too...

Above
Its a tough job but someone has to do it.
And YES those are white bib shorts Helen is wearing....quit possibly the single hottest pair of shorts I have EVER seen.
Below
The roll out...just a little late...

With the help of my friend Chris Lockwood putting out emails and a great map. Shama Cycles had its first real organized ride from the shop. Open to all...even triathletes and their tri bikes. We did the Lake Houston route and rolled out about 40 strong at 7am. More joined us along the way creeping our number to 50. The group stayed together pretty well and the pace was rather quick for our normal group ride. In all a great ride...that was followed up by Le Tour playing on the TV and food and drinks out for some post ride recovery. A very fun day and I can't wait to do it again. Look for weekly postings on rides to come soon.

The weekend. Rides and Races

The crew post race at some place in New Braunfels. Andrew's meal was wrong but none of us cared cause we were too hungry...he has great team mates! Our ritualistic Buc-ee's stop. Luling at 7:00 am. Two Rice Treats, 1 bag of Beaver Nuggets, 1 cinnamon roll, 1 gallon of water, 2 cookies, 1 apple lattice, 1 blueberry scone. ALL gone by 3pm.
Above is some friends on a ride Saturday morning, 60miles was not in my "pre race schedule" but whatever. Beautiful day with great friends.


What a weekend! Great longish ride on Saturday, great day at the shop with some business and race prep for the team. Relaxing evening. Then 4:00am wake up Sunday morning for a team trip to New Braunfels for a road race/races. Some of us raced twice...or started two races at least. We roll out of Houston at 5am 8 deep for some fun on the road. My first race and the majority of the guys as well, was the Cat4 race which was 45 miles. Not too cold and 80 guys starting. I have been rolling ok lately and wanted to see how I really was doing, plus its my first race in the Shama Cycles kit on a brand new custom Guru Geneo tricked out to the max with Edge rims. Just a totally nuts bike that got lots of looks. So the pressure was on to do something. If nothing else....a REALLY good photo!!! haha No seriously...
4miles into the race two guys jump off the front into the wind. The field does not react and I am in the back looking at this and realizing on these crappy roads and wind the back is NOT the place to hide. So I jump around the field bridge up to the two guys infront. A three man break. We roll for two miles and hit the last hill that is kinda steep and with a photographer at the top. Time to suck it up and pull out my Zoolander "Blue Steel" pose. With that done I am feeling pretty good. The other two guys start fading and the pack is closing. I look back and here comes two guys charging up and as they get to me I see my friend Andrew Ennis from Team Bikesport. Excited (cause this little Scottsman is strong) to see my friend I jump on with the two and the break of three is rolling again. The wind was brutal and the road surface made a carbon bike worthless. I lasted with these two guys for about 20 miles before I kinda blew up and fell back to the chase group. The Guru was floating flawlessly, just those two sub 150lbs guys hit those hills like I can't...which broke me down. So I am back in and not a minute later I seem to have recovered and on the front of that group taking turns with some team mates and others chasing down the two who I just couldn't stay with. Not that I was bitter or anything. LOL Just racing.
We caught them and then it was on again. More work in to the wind and just plain pain. In that last lap I lost the lead group and fell back to a chase group. Thankfully my team mates stuck up in the lead group. I pushed myself pretty hard and realized how far I can go. It was awesome to have this kinda day. Oh wait...then I had to finish and reload and get re pinned for the second race. To keep it short....everything hurt from the first one and I only completed one 15mile lap. Still happy with my performance and test in the first race. I sat in to watch the finish of my team mates in that race and the Cat3 race that was going on. Very happy overall. Now, then I left New Braunfels and made a trip into Austin...to Kirklee. My frame was finished and ready to be picked up. Wow...just beautiful! Better than I would have thought! I can't believe it. Its 1400grams with the headset, fork and Seat clamp. I just can't wait to build it and more importantly ride it. Now I am tired and time to retire for the night. Or at least log off for now.
I would like to thank my team mates who raced today.
Andrew Strong, Trent Stephens, John Cascio, Jason VanLoo, Jose Caballero, Ahmed King, and Jeff Gardner.
Your support for me and Shama Cycles is humbling and very appreciated.

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.

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. ;-)

Guru Geneo Blood Red/Black

I am fortunate enough to have great friends and some of them are even fast. One happens to be a former State Crit Champ (P,1,2) and Time Trial Champ and just all around bad ass on a bike. I am honored to have her racing for the Shama Cycles race team and of course she wanted a new bike to support the shop and have a new secret weapon for the 2009 season. So began the challenge. How to build a bike with "pimp" parts that are race day strong. First we picked the Guru Geneo. All carbon, fully customizable, super smooth ride while maintaining incredible power transfer. Next...well picking the colors of course. haha
Part selection was key. She has ridden Shimano Dura Ace for a couple years and wanted to stick with what she knows. No worries there. Shimano DA shifters, Front D, Rear D. The rest is up for grabs. We chose Zipp SL handlebars with the Ergo Short and Shallow reach. They weighed in at 158grams. Then for seat post and stem we went with a 96gram New Ultimate 90mm stem that is CNC machined for lightness while maintaining strength. New Ultimate also was used for the seat post...at 130grams for a carbon post its plenty stiff. I even did a seated effort on this bike and the post was solid. Both are simple and elegant. For the brakes we chose the KCNC road brakes, they are CNC machined and weigh exactly HALF what DA brakes weigh. 15ograms for the pair. The saddle is a Specialized Toupe...it matches too good to care if it feels good or not. Just kidding, it does happen to work for her since she had this on a previous bike and liked it. The power is taken from her shoes and put into the KMC chain via the Rotor crank set up. Agilis 516 gram cranks, Compact 50/36 Qrings, and the bb is the SABB Ceramic. The cranks are VERY stiff and light due to CNC machining of the arms and having the arm hollowed out as well. The red anodizing ont the BB and cranks gave a great play into the KCNC bolts, ceramic Pulley wheels, and other bolts on the bike and rear D. Not to mention the Nokon cables. Those are black eyelets with red ones every 5th black one. Doing that on a Guru with internally routed cables requires about 2 hours of time to get it right...can you say NetFlix?
She has a power tap wheel set for training and a Zipp 303 tubular set for race day. The bike with the Zipps comes in at 14.3lbs. Look out for posts on results from the rider/rig combo in 2009.