Shama at Interbike 2009

My Kirklee shown off at Interbike 2009 at the Rotor booth!!!!

Selle SMP Forma and Carbon Lite. Brand new for 2010 and I already have them in the shop.
Yup, the latest greatest!

Dan B from Kelly Benefits on one of his countless attacks during the Pro crit. He could have won
from his breakaway of 6 but slid out in the last lap...he rolled though last to a cheer and
applause from the crowd honoring how hard he worked during the race.

The GURU Dynamic Fit Unit. Fully motorized bike fitting and more.
Guru shows why they are the largest custom bike company in the game.
Below
Guru Crono 2.0. WOW

Well its here, the biggest bike show this side of the pond. Shama Cycles is here to check out the latest greatest and get new tips and see what works and what doesn't. Especially since I am always trying to push the limits with my bike builds. I would have updated sooner but my feet hurt so bad after the first day all I want to do is lay down by the end of the night...something about walking miles and standing up (even while eating lunch) just kills in this city...not to mention how much of a rip off certain things are here. Like $8 for a tooth brush...or $5 for OJ from the Starbucks at the airport. Might as well gamble and REALLY throw your money away. Ok...enough of my rant. ;-) Bikes...and more bikes and parts! Being in custom bikes there was not alot for me to really drool over. Every manufacturer comes out here to show off the lightest, stiffest, aeroest (just made that one up) latest version of last years bike. We all look at them and go WOW if I only had that bike. Well...not any more. Now, to me, its about can you make that fit me...not can I fit that? Rotor and Kirklee was my one stop where my bike that I race (and wrecked on) was chosen to be in the Rotor booth to show off the new Rotor 3D cranks, S2 stem, and S1 seat post. I was very honored and happy to have my bike that I built as a show bike at Interbike....that is HUGE! Watching people stare, take pictures, comment on my components, pick it up and freak out on a race worthy 13lbs bike. AWESOME!!!! Last year I couldn't get some manufactures to take me seriously and this year I had a bike in a booth, and the top dealer for some of my manufactures that I sell. What a change....that came with alot of 18 our days and not much play. Now over the the Guru booth....yes that was one of the most talked about booths there. Why? Three things...Dynamic Fit Unit, Photon, Crono2.0. The DFU is a fit bike that is fully automated to allow changes in position to be made by millimeters while the rider is on the unit and pedaling. Allowing for the perfect position to be found in really time and position. Guru was the first to try to get this going, its take three years but its finally here. Funny how others came to the show with something similar, even saw a demo of one, the thing looked shaky and not quite ready yet. Guru's demos that ran all day were exact, strong, and the DFU feels like you're on a weight machine at the gym....SUPER STRONG. What an amazing break through. Oh yeah...Shama Cycles will have the first one in the country and exclusively in Houston. So for the latest in bike fitting and custom frame design Shama Cycles is where its at as well as where it will be at. ;-) I love my job! Guru also brought to new bikes to the show. The Photon is a road bike made for the serious enthusiast or racer or anyone who wants a road bike that is in the 700 gram range that performs like a dream. The Crono 2.0 is a tt/tri bike that represents the push for an aerodynamic design that is still customizable. Very tough to get both. More to come on all of these....time to get some food and hit the final day. All exciting stuff. Some though I will not blog about as these are tricks saved for my athletes and clients...sorry. ;-)

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.

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.

Kirklee, demo frame, my parts

Rotor Agilis Cranks, ceramic SABB bottome bracket...spins forever too, Q-Ring is on ALL my bikes. New Ultimate bottle cages might not be the best option in a crit, but they only weigh 11grams a peice.
So here is the rear D, red kit from Tiso on thier rear D (156grams as its seen here)that is CNC machined...also thier ceramic pulley wheels are not only color matched for the bling affect but spin FOREVER! Red Nokon cables for the tight turn for the cable, red KCNC skewers.
The 75gr rear brake red anodized. KCNC seatpost clamp
14.7lbs of some seriously nice carbon work. Full carbon frame. Fulcrum Racing Zeros. Rotor stem, cranks, SABB ceramic, Ritchey WCS Evolution carbon bars, Easton fork and seat post. Dura Ace shifters, KCNC Brakes, TISO front and rear D with ceramic pulles. New Ultimate bottle cages.