Okay, so what is a "hairshirt?"

I guess I better call J.C Whitney for their latest catalog. Ain't shaved my legs. Might try it one day. I'd only do it for looks.

Breaking news. I just bought another bike "for the wife". She has a mountain bike already (bought when I got mine) and is doing "have a go" women's triathlon's here (first one in 2.5 weeks). Obviously, she needed (my words - see comment at the bottom) a road bike.

So I just bought her a second-hand Schwinn Peloton - I think it is a 1999, and has mostly Ultegra with a Dura Ace rear derailleur (good) and crappy Mavic CXP21 rims (bad). Bike is steel (Reynolds 853) and thus looks old-school :D, but with upgraded carbon fork. It appears to be pretty low km, but stored somewhere slightly damp so there are a few minor areas of surface corrosion (but not on the frame). I'll spend tonight cleaning it up :D Everything works, needs new tyres though.

The best bit is that I am only an inch taller than her - 6' vs 5'11", and we have the same length leg, so the bike fits me just fine ;)

Why didn't you "urge" her to go with something she can grow into.... like say a Giant TCR Composite. Comon. You know you, I mean she, wants one.

Don't place too much emphasis on the bike. I thought my new bike would be a revolution. It isn't much better than my old Trek, to be honest. It is ALL about the engine. :D

Haha, I know about "the engine" bit. I'm only somewhat faster on my road bike than on my mtb with slicks. But I am faster...

The TCR is pretty light - I keep thinking naughty thoughts about stealing the superior components (only really the shifting and brakes) off the Peloton and pimping out the TCR.

Biggest shock for the wife will be going from an MTB with 3 front rings and 26" tyres to an easiest gear of 39/25 (could have been 39/23 like my bike!) and 700c tyres. She'll have to learn fast about standing on the pedals...

Every bike shop where I went on holiday last week seemed to have a 2004 TCR 1 Composite (Ultegra, with FSA carbon cranks and Ksyrium wheels). Something like NZ$5000 (US$3500 or so) though - more than 2x what I have spent on two second-hand road bikes and accessories!!!

Your TCR is stinky light. It should be lots of fun.

Does the wife know how to use the gears well? Most women are clueless about bikes. At least she's trying. That's saying a lot.

I tried to buy a TCR Composite 2 ($2300US) in November, but Giant was backordered until Feb 2004. I wasn't prepared to wait 4 months. I ended up buying a semi-custom build on an off-the-shelf frameset with nice Campagnolo components. The components are worth the bucks, but the frame and wheels were overkill. On the other hand, I got exactly what I wanted, and I have absolutely no urge to upgrade a single part. I will keep this bike for 4-5 years, perhaps longer, so $2200 isn't so bad for something so valuable in my life. I didn't really need those fiberglass bumpers and SSIs anyway. ;)

ride on,
jürgen

Your heart thanks you!

I hesitate to say this, but the Giant actually seems "reasonable" value --> as distinct from some of the bikes out there!

RIDE Cycling Review (www.ridemedia.com.au) has just put out a new issue (it is quarterly) with a review of the TCR1 and three other carbon bikes. They thought it was great.

Yo, Cam, you still riding.

It hit 74 degrees (23 C) here today. I nearly sweat my balls off. :)

I'm only riding about 80 miles a week, due to weather and not much daylight, but the riding season is about to start bigtime.

Still pondering the leg shaving event. I still have my doubts about that kind of stuff, ya know. :)
Jürgen

Legs still hairy here too ;)

I have managed nearly 200km in a couple of weeks on the Schwinn (gotta check it is ok for the wife ;)). Plus about 100km on the Giant. Lots of hills too.

After that "too much too soon" effort, I have done about 50km a week of very very gentle spinning, as I have a wee bit of tendonitis. Bummer.

Will go out in a few minutes (finished work). Maybe 30-60 mins, gentle stuff. It sucks having to take it so easy.

80 miles a week is pretty decent! Especially in winter.

I didn't ride at all last weekend, as I was down in Taupo (holiday town next to a very large lake). My wife was entered in a womens' triathlon - an easy event (300m swim, 10km ride, 3 km run) designed to get lots of women involved. There were almost 1,000 of them!

It felt like winter. Raining, approx 13-14 deg C (<60 deg F), pretty stiff (and cold!) wind. Where did summer go?

I'm having these guys (http://www.xacd.com.cn) build me a titanium single speed MTB frame with an eccentric bottom bracket and disk tabs without the V-brake bosses. I've also ordered their rigid Ti fork. I have one of these forks on a Ti Mongoose Pro MTB frame that I built up to about 15.5 lbs (with full knobbies). People would pick this bike up and just laugh. I expect the single speed to be around 15 lbs. with disks.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1078391523.jpg

Here's my other single speed, a Surly 1x1. Low-tech, steel, and cheap. The head badge fits the bike's demeanor.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1078392066.jpg

CamB, take care of those knees. When I got my new bike, I pushed too hard and crudded up my right knee. Stupid me, I rode again the next day. It took 2 week off to get back to normal. If you need some hot air for your winter rides, let me know. I can bottle up some Tennessee hot air. Summertime temps reach 35+ degrees C with lots of humidity.

Nader, your single speed MTB weighs 3 pounds less than my road bike (with some carbon bits thrown in to make me look fast). :)
Jürgen

Not quite sure how you did that? Was your knee already suspect? Did you crash? Standing or seated? During the start of a season my lungs and heart would blow way way before any bones or joints - you must be really fit.

Maybe shaving would help :)

Simply pushing too hard. I hadn't ridden in 2 months and simply thought I could pound the gears hard to go fast. My knees are the weakest part, but stretching exercises helped a lot. An analogy one fellow stated,"You don't start benching 400 lbs the first day you hit the gym, and you don't pound a 53-11 on the first ride, either."

My heart and lungs are far from good. 2 months layoff absolutely destroyed my conditioning. I feel like a slug on wheels. Pre-accident (oct 2003) I rode just over 20 mph average speed on rolling/flat terrain. Now, I'm struggling to hit 18.5 mph average. It will come with more miles. Lance I am not.

For now, I prefer the JC Whitney add-ons to the 911 vs. shaving, but I MIGHT come around eventually. :)
jurgen

Here's some of my bikes:

50's Columbia 3-star deluxe
pre-war Schwinn Cycle Truck
early 60's Columbia tandem

http://vintagebus.com/bikes/3star2.jpg
http://vintagebus.com/bikes/cycletruck-02.jpg
http://vintagebus.com/bikes/tandem1.jpg

Thom, that tandem rocks! :D

I'll post a pic of my bike over the weekend.

I think you guys are covering all my favorite hobbies at one point or another. I love this place...

titanium single speed MTB frame with an eccentric bottom bracket and disk tabs

That is so cool that you can do that! I was reading about eccentric bottom brackets the other day and they fix the "singlespeed with disc brakes" problem in a flash. 15lb is unbelievable. I guess my bike is about 18lb too.

A couple of the guys I've been mountain biking with are singlespeeders (some of the time). One of them actually won last years World SS Champs in Australia (major feature of the race - you could do a very technical and long downhill, or skull a beer and take a shortcut). Needless to say, with 27 speeds I'm still 1,000 miles behind.

I did basically what Jurgen did - I wasn't pushing big gears on the flat but I rode up a LOT of hills. Now, my legs and lungs still feel fabulous, but when I have to actually push the pedals (eg up a hill, into the wind) rather than just spinning, it hurts along the top of the patella. It's really frustrating, because every part of me EXCEPT my knee wants to go out for a hard two hour ride right NOW.

I'm going to get my bike setup checked again, I think.

I just remembered, I took photos of the bikes (mostly for insurance reasons, so excuse the crap pics) this week:

My Giant:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1078534814.jpg

Anna's Schwinn (she's yet to ride it!):

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1078534859.jpg

Cam: judging from the top tube, it looks like Anna's a fairly tall girl. The Giant's great, isn't it? I test rode one. The sloping tube isn't quite for me though - I'm more of a "classic" person. The giant seemed to oversteer a lot for me.

I found the only way to combat knee strain while on the cranks, particularly uphill, is to shift into a lower gear. If your leg is all but fully extended at the six o'clock position on either left or right crank, you're adjustments are fine.