New pieces and parts....

I have replaced several parts on the rig while in my blogging hiatus and will summarize those for your reading pleasure.

As I approach my first major race (test) this year, I have decided to get down to my "race weight" of 162.  I have wieghed significantly more than this in my life but had leveled off at 173.  I can pretty much eat what I want (within reason) and exercise and maintain this weight.  So, I figure if I am going to go down to race weight, I might need to focus some attention on the weight of my bike :).

I am not a weight weeny that is going to go for the lighting possible setup but a few pounds here and there could make a big difference.

The first things I changed were my handlebars and seatpost.  I went with bontrager race light carbon bars and race light carbon seatpost (xxx).  I also changed out the stem to make my position on the bike more aggressive.  While at the bike shop for this change, Andy changed my grips and yelled at me for leaving the old ones on for so long.  I guess he doesnt like the rubber to come off in his hands when he grabs the grips like I do....Believe it or not, this reduced the wieght by over a pound (thats a lot).

I have also replaced my wheelset with Stans notubes Crest wheels with hutchison python tubeless tires.  This reduced the weight by almost 2 pounds!

The bike comes in at 24 pounds now and that is good enough for me.... The only thing to upgrade on this rig in the future is the brakes, I have mechanical disk brakes and NEED hydraulic disk brakes at some point....But for now, when I squeeze, it stops.  So, the money flow has to stop before my wife kills me!




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Catching Up

Well, as it turns out, I am terrible at keeping up with a blog.  I WILL do better going forward!

From March 27th,
We went to Chicago for a family get away and I had some training to do over that weekend.  I took a video of the Lifetime Fitness Facility I went to for the ride.  Wow, what a gym.

From May 13th,

The Paschals, Wyatts and Browns went to Paducah, KY for the weekend and the boys rode both days.  We rode in the Shawnee National Forest in southern IL.  The first day we took the path less traveled to get back to the start and lets just say it was less traveled for a reason.... Brad was ready to get out of the woods.....The storm rolling in did not help either...NO we were not lost!

The second day we rode about 3 hours did get lost but it was better.....That is what planted the seed for upgrading my garmin 305 to a 705!

Mud makes a good ride!  And on the right we have the support vehicle!

I am not sure if I would ride in boat shoes like Brad but it works for him.  Grant had to one up Brad with flip flops, these guys are animals!

From June 19th,

Well a race I went to today out west of St. Louis was cancelled due to weather....should have checked the website (that I did not know existed).  So, I went and rode a couple of hours at Castlewood State Park.  This is some of the best riding in the St. Louis Metro area IMHO.

 This was also the inaugural ride with my new Stans no tube Crest wheels.....these took 2 lbs off of my bike.

I have been goin hard but these are the rides I had pics for on my phone....Again, I will be doing better with the updates!

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