I mean Damn!!!!!
It is like this light blue/green embodiment of utter awesomeness.
Please super relax and enjoy some pictures.
This is the result of living in Cambridge and buying too many bikes.
The little DuDad barrel adjuster...
Hampsten Mudpig. Complete, in Training Mode. For the races I will be using Mavic 32 hole Reflex rims laced to Dura ace 7850 hubs, Challenge Grifo Dry Tubulars.
I finally broke down and bought some Paul's Neo Retro brakes. They are not mind blowingly strong, definetly not as strong as the mini v-brakes, but they have so much more mud clearance.
The cockpit. The Thomson X-2 stem is pretty nice. one of the only silver stems out there.
Mint................Hint of Mint.
Some welding work by Co-motion. It is really good work, but it does not blow me away like Moots welds.
Kind of a cool rear brake bridge.
The superlight BBG chainring guard. This chainring guard allows me to use a 39 without the chain rubbing. Astute readers will notice that I have three of those damn connector links things in a row. Is that dangerous?
My cross bike from 2006. This thing was actually pretty incredible.I ended up getting the Iris Blue tape for the DeSalvo road bike as well(See picture 1 above). The Bontrager tape has a thin Gel backing to it so it is almost twice as thick as the Fizik Microtex tape. I hope that I will no longer have numb hands after a 4 hour ride...
My next big purchases will be the LUNAR ORANGE BUBBLE handlebar tape for the white DeSalvo cross/pit bike, as well as a salsa Lip Lock in Dark Blue.
13 comments:
yash my man.
ride up grades. don't buy up grades.
someone smart once said that.
;-)
Yes, a peasant once said that.
oh yea, that bashgaurd is pretty friggen sweet.
Yash likes to buy stuff for his bike. Josh, if you really like the bash guard, wait a few months, Yash will be selling it. Watch Craiglist for an add that reads something like "blue bash guard for sale. Totally sucks, I don't even know why anyone would buy this. I rode it all winter and crashed it twice. It never worked right anyway. Price-an espresso and some Madelaine's..."
Does Bontrager make tires that match that bartape?
The beauty and the intrigue of cycling is that you can fall in love with it at so many different levels.
I got into cycling with a group of friends who not only loved to race, but they were absolutely passionate about European racing. To this day, I still watch and follow almost all of the races.
They were also very strong advocates of being able to fix anything on your bike, and as a result, I have learned to fix almost anything I put on the bike, which makes me really appreciate things that are made really well. these parts tend to be easier to maintain, easier to install, and are often more reliable.
One could derive just as much enjoyment from learning and appreciating the aesthetic and mechanical aspect of the bicycle, as one would from concentrating solely on racing every weekend.
Although many have often placed a heavier importance on racing, I believe a life that consists only of training, spending vast amounts of money traveling and racing is in no way more noble than a "weekend warrior" who just likes to hammer on the weekends with his friends and return home to do "MMD's".
As my friend once said, and this quote really woke me up,..."Life is what happens when you are out training and racing."
BALANCE!
If you are a true racer, you should be able to handle mechanical situations. But a great mechanic who forgoes training to wrench will never win, while a mechanically inept racer who trains smart and consistently will finish well most of the time.
Have you purchased a headset press and the DT Swiss spoke tensometer yet?
The question then is, what would you consider a "True Racer"? One could base that on results alone, which could be a combination of genetics, luck, and mechanical aptitude(assuming you don't have a mechanic).
My renaissance-esque vision of a "True Racer" is someone like Bart Wellens, who spends hours and hours agonizing over different tread types, various pressures and tire widths for different conditions, trains insane hours, and who chooses every piece of equipment on his bike and builds up the bikes himself.
Obviously, results are not the only metric to measure a racer by. There is lifestyle and a commitment to the sport. All that I am saying is that an overcommitment to the mechanical aspects of cycling over training and racing, will not make you a successful racer, while committing in the opposite direction will allow many to achieve great success in bicycle racing.
I think it is inherently obvious that one cannot become a better racer by not training but only working on your bike.
This was more of a post about trying out different and potentially interesting equipment, and had no content about racing, or spending egregious amounts of time wrenching. It was only to show that I enjoy working on my bike from time to time.
cross is over. where are the bike-porn road bike shots
those are yash's road bikes.
If you look at the first picture you can see a blue bike that is sandwiched between my two white cross bikes.
That is some serious road bike porn right there.
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