Well this weekend marks the beginning of the collegiate season with the Rutgers race weekend. However, I won't be able to make the first weekend of racing, which at first I was sort of upset about (and still am to some extent) but I think I'll be doing some cooler things instead....
On Wednesday after work I will be driving to Philly and staying at my friend Jimmy Devlin's place in Valley Forge. Thursday morning I'll be flying out of Philly to Sacramento California. Thursday night and Friday I will be visiting UCDavis, and likely falling in love with the city and the west coast in general. I'm not sure if I'll be able to turn down such a sweet location, but I'll talk about grad school options later.
Instead of flying home redeye to come do the Rutgers weekend, I'll be flying down to SanDiego to visit my brother Nick, and do a TT and a long training ride on Saturday, then The Deluge Sport Crit on Sunday. Even though I'm disappointed to be missing Rutgers, I'm excited to visit my brother in SanDiego, and race in NICE weather.
My goal for the collegiate season is the Men's B Overall. I don't think missing Rutgers is really going to kill me there. Last year my roomate Spohn won it, and I don't think he scored anything at Rutgers. Though I will be missing the UNH weekend in April too, so other than those two weekends, I'm looking to be on my game....
Monday, February 26, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
CAAD9
Well this will be quick because I'm headed to bed so I can lift da Iron tomorrow, but here are some pics of the CAAD9. I think the only thing I have left to change is swapping the odd shaped carbon bar out for the aluminum "crank the bolts on down" bar instead.
Take that Osama.
The carbon Aerus bar has these odd bumps right before the levers, and a weird shape in the drops that I haven't been able to get used to. I'm going to switch it out for a new aluminum bar I have that has a more familiar shape, and then I won't have to torque the bolts on. I'm pretty lazy.
I'll be gluing up the tubies soon, and will post the final weight. I'm hoping for sub 18, but I doubt it. My guess is 18.2lb.
Take that Osama.
The carbon Aerus bar has these odd bumps right before the levers, and a weird shape in the drops that I haven't been able to get used to. I'm going to switch it out for a new aluminum bar I have that has a more familiar shape, and then I won't have to torque the bolts on. I'm pretty lazy.I'll be gluing up the tubies soon, and will post the final weight. I'm hoping for sub 18, but I doubt it. My guess is 18.2lb.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Two in one day!? at least I don't play World of Warcraft
Well I'm actually pretty busy at work, but unfortunately my desire to be lazy and put off work scales directly with the amount of work I have in front of me, hence the unprecedented second blog entry of the day. PSU payroll is for suckers.
I was at the gym this morning doing a pretty light lifting workout. I go to the new RecHall facility which is really nice, and relatively uncrowded at 6:30 in the morning (That's 0630). The only problem is that on the large TVs they have there, they constantly have FoxNews on. Even without hearing the idealogical physcobable bullshit the hosts are spewing out of their mouths, I can tell that they are evil incarnate. The one male host looks like the actor who played in Thank you for Smoking just looks like he is an asshole. I can tell these things over TV. Oprah is an asshole too, you can easily tell.
What I was really thinking about is this though: Do I think these people look like hate mongers because of their appearance somehow, or is it that I've seen the channel before, and I recognize the graphics and the whole message behind their "fair and balanced" newscasts. I guess it's more of the later- really shouldn't judge the book by the cover. But by all means, once you've read the book and it makes you want to gag, please don't display it in Rec Hall.
I was at the gym this morning doing a pretty light lifting workout. I go to the new RecHall facility which is really nice, and relatively uncrowded at 6:30 in the morning (That's 0630). The only problem is that on the large TVs they have there, they constantly have FoxNews on. Even without hearing the idealogical physcobable bullshit the hosts are spewing out of their mouths, I can tell that they are evil incarnate. The one male host looks like the actor who played in Thank you for Smoking just looks like he is an asshole. I can tell these things over TV. Oprah is an asshole too, you can easily tell.
What I was really thinking about is this though: Do I think these people look like hate mongers because of their appearance somehow, or is it that I've seen the channel before, and I recognize the graphics and the whole message behind their "fair and balanced" newscasts. I guess it's more of the later- really shouldn't judge the book by the cover. But by all means, once you've read the book and it makes you want to gag, please don't display it in Rec Hall.
Training Camp
Well the CAAD9, after needing to fix a stiff link in the chain numerous times, is nearly complete. Just need to add a non-annonying barrel adjuster to the frame. I'll post some pictures tonight, and also get the weight with the box section tubie wheels on board at some point. Not sure what it will come in at, but I know it's a heck of a lot lighter than my old bike, and stiffer!
Anyway, this weekend was the training camp, to help get larger groups out training, and to break in some new racers to riding close together. We definitely didn't pick the weekend based upon the weather. Saturday was 22 degrees when we started what was supposed to be a 2.5 hour ride. Probably the one enjoying the weather the least was Rodney, a freshman from Lehigh Valley campus who hails from Puerto Rico! Shouldn't have come to ride your bike in Central Pa boss. We were pretty warm while we were moving, but a stubborn flat tire had us sitting along Route 192 for about 30 minutes. We couldn't get it fixed because the kid's tire was so beat, so we ended up putting the kid in some random person's car who was headed in the right direction. We were way too cold to continue on, though, so we just rode a few minutes back to Centre Hall and got a whole pizza and hot chocolate, thanks to Rodney who had the foresight to bring along a 20-spot. Respect.
So after warming up we rode back.... in a truck driven out to Centre Hall by Asa, an employee of The Bicycle Shop. Again, respect. We owe Asa a case of beer. We got back and hit up the trainer, which we ended up being stuck on for Sunday's training too.
Oh yeah, we also had a pretty bomb-ass party with live music on Saturday night, but I'll let my roomate Andy talk about that. But just a quick preview, evidently our party was so off the hook that two of our roomates are moving out. What the balls?
Anyway, this weekend was the training camp, to help get larger groups out training, and to break in some new racers to riding close together. We definitely didn't pick the weekend based upon the weather. Saturday was 22 degrees when we started what was supposed to be a 2.5 hour ride. Probably the one enjoying the weather the least was Rodney, a freshman from Lehigh Valley campus who hails from Puerto Rico! Shouldn't have come to ride your bike in Central Pa boss. We were pretty warm while we were moving, but a stubborn flat tire had us sitting along Route 192 for about 30 minutes. We couldn't get it fixed because the kid's tire was so beat, so we ended up putting the kid in some random person's car who was headed in the right direction. We were way too cold to continue on, though, so we just rode a few minutes back to Centre Hall and got a whole pizza and hot chocolate, thanks to Rodney who had the foresight to bring along a 20-spot. Respect.
So after warming up we rode back.... in a truck driven out to Centre Hall by Asa, an employee of The Bicycle Shop. Again, respect. We owe Asa a case of beer. We got back and hit up the trainer, which we ended up being stuck on for Sunday's training too.
Oh yeah, we also had a pretty bomb-ass party with live music on Saturday night, but I'll let my roomate Andy talk about that. But just a quick preview, evidently our party was so off the hook that two of our roomates are moving out. What the balls?
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
PSU CAAD9
Haven't written here in a while, been too busy recently. The J-O-B is taking up about 40 hours, and when I'm not working, I'm riding, eating or sleeping.
Anyway, I'll start writing here more often when race season fires up again...first weekend in March. If you don't like hearing race reports and stories about roadtrips with 5 dudes in a car, then I wouldn't bother coming back.
To the subject at hand though, I recently got my new frameset (CAAD9), and have it partially built up. I'll have complete pictures of both my bikes once they're 100% done, but there have been many requests to see what the CAAD9 looks like, so here it is:
Little overall shot. Pretty sweet paint scheme. I'll have the compact R700 cranks you see there, plus an Aerus carbon bar with some D/A 10sp shifters on board. Also switch to a Flite saddle... I had it working on the Zeppelin, so I'm hopeful I can get it working over here.
Top Tube graphics. Carbon steerer with carbon spacers... ummmm. Do not enter sign in the background.
CAAD9 on the seattube. Worst place ever for "The Bicycle Shop" logo. Seriously. Were you drunk Erik?
Better spot for some Bicycle Shop advertising. CAAD9 seatstays are the same as the CAAD8 I believe... just the shape of the toptube near the headtube is different. The vertical dimension increases as you get closer to the front...
And the headbadge.
Anyway, I'll start writing here more often when race season fires up again...first weekend in March. If you don't like hearing race reports and stories about roadtrips with 5 dudes in a car, then I wouldn't bother coming back.
To the subject at hand though, I recently got my new frameset (CAAD9), and have it partially built up. I'll have complete pictures of both my bikes once they're 100% done, but there have been many requests to see what the CAAD9 looks like, so here it is:
Little overall shot. Pretty sweet paint scheme. I'll have the compact R700 cranks you see there, plus an Aerus carbon bar with some D/A 10sp shifters on board. Also switch to a Flite saddle... I had it working on the Zeppelin, so I'm hopeful I can get it working over here.
Top Tube graphics. Carbon steerer with carbon spacers... ummmm. Do not enter sign in the background.
CAAD9 on the seattube. Worst place ever for "The Bicycle Shop" logo. Seriously. Were you drunk Erik?
Better spot for some Bicycle Shop advertising. CAAD9 seatstays are the same as the CAAD8 I believe... just the shape of the toptube near the headtube is different. The vertical dimension increases as you get closer to the front...
And the headbadge.I'll post some more pictures of the completed CAAD9, and the Zeppelin TT machine.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Zeppelin is now in TT mode
Well I've been busy as heck recently, so the blog is the first thing to get the hit. Putting in close to 40 hour weeks, trying to train as much as I can, and visiting folks on the weekend adds up to not much free time at all. I'm thinking about asking if I can do 30 hours per week, but I'll talk more about that later.
So I finally got the Zeppelin rocking out in TT mode. Finished putting the Nokon cables in last night, which are a bitch to install by the way. I didn't even do the whole thing with weatherproofing over the whole length. I just used the links to allow the housing to bend much more than normal stuff would. Looks pretty sweet I think. Worked on the position a bit last night, and will try it out for a short ride this afternoon in the bitter cold of Central, Pa. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get it all dialed in.
Hoping to get the CAAD9 in next week and have that built up ASAP as well.... can't wait for Rutgers...
So I finally got the Zeppelin rocking out in TT mode. Finished putting the Nokon cables in last night, which are a bitch to install by the way. I didn't even do the whole thing with weatherproofing over the whole length. I just used the links to allow the housing to bend much more than normal stuff would. Looks pretty sweet I think. Worked on the position a bit last night, and will try it out for a short ride this afternoon in the bitter cold of Central, Pa. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get it all dialed in.
Hoping to get the CAAD9 in next week and have that built up ASAP as well.... can't wait for Rutgers...
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