New Bikes

That's right, plural. I'm now the proud owner (much to my wife's dismay) of three bikes. One of them is 90% built, the other is fully assembled and ready to rock.

I'll start with the road bike. As much as I was loving my CX bike as a road bike, and as much as it's cheaper to just change out wheels than it is to have a complete other bike, I couldn't turn down the chance to grab another road bike. It helped that I had an entire force group laying around and I got one hell of a deal on the frame. I really, really wanted a Cervelo, and I'm a still smarting a little over the lack of response from Specialized about the derailleur hanger, but I bought a 2012 Allez frame. Did I mention it was cheap? Like 1/6th the price of the R3 I wanted cheap? Yeah.

When ordering the frame, I'm guessing that the reason Specialized never got back to me is that I called during a switch over at Specialized with the shops Inside Sales Rep. My request probably got lost in the shuffle. Doesn't make it right, but leaves a bit better of a taste in my mouth.

Lets talk about the frame, shall we? It's alloy, a 56cm and has a carbon fork with carbon steerer as well as a BB30 bottom bracket. It's just as light and stiffer in every way than the Tarmac that I sold. The frame came with just about everything that you need to set your bike up with either a BB30 crank, or a Shimano style threaded crank, via adapters. The reason I said "just about everything" is because the bike didn't come with dust covers or marcel spring for the bottom bracket bearings. I had to steal some off a customers bike that was being converted from BB30 to threaded crank and the BB30 bits were being sent back to the bike manufacturer. Strangely, the BB30 Force crank didn't come with the shields or spring either. I find Specialized to be more at fault here, because they supplied the bearings.

At the moment, the bike is together with the exception of bartape. It needs to be dialed in as well. Isaac did a bit of adjustment and I have a feeling I'm going to be sending the front derailleur in to SRAM for warranty. I may have to send the rear in as well, because the chain keeps falling off the bottom pulley when I'm in the first three gears. Wonderful.

I am going to be running a 50/36T combo on the bike because I have long accepted that I can't push a 53 (I'm fine with that) but I find a 34 to be too easy with the 28T I have in the rear. I've been running a 38T small ring on my CX bike and been very comfortable climbing with that so I figure I'll be able to climb comfortably in my 36/25 and when I need a bailout gear, I'll have the 28.

Without bartape or pedals the bike comes in at 17lbs 15oz. It's about a half pound heavier than the Tarmac at the moment, but it also has an 1850g wheelset with training skewer on it. If I had kept the King wheelset road oriented, It would be identical in terms of weight. Not bad for alloy.

You know what else is alloy? My StumpJumper Comp Evo 29er. It's a 17.5" frame, which is small for me in every way but the one that matters most; top tube length. The effective top tube on the bike is 55cm which is perfect for me. The bike looks super aggressive because the seat post is raised to the limit and the stem is flipped down and looks like it's 8" lower than the saddle. The geometry for a MTB is so relaxed compared to a road bike that my position is much more upright than on the Allez. It's comfy and I like it.

The 29er wheel size is great. I'm running an S-Works Purgatory in the front and Ground Control in the rear, set up tubeless. The ride is nice and plush and I have plenty of grip, even in really muddy conditions. The bike is a 33T 1x10 with SRAM PF30BB and X0 shortcage rear derailleur. Custom Avid Elixir 7 brakes, an X-7 shifter, 11-36 cassette and Fox 29 Float RL fork round out the spec. It is awesome! At 26.5lbs, it's not light, but I don't really need it to be. I'm pretty new to trail riding and learning what I'm doing far outweighs anything else at the moment. I will admit to occasionally wanting a 2x10 in the front, but the amount of parts that would take would hurt my wallet more than the 33T hurts my legs, so it's staying that way for the moment. Though, I was looking at the all black X0 group...

Anywho, there we go. 3 bikes, 2 of them new, all of them awesome. For the moment, the MTB is going to be seeing a lot more action than the other bikes. The Allez will be mostly a trainer bike until the spring and the Guru will be seeing some middle of the week rides in the woods, were there is no wind. To add a cheery on top, I just signed up for Strava, so I'll be posting all of my rides up there and can keep better track of my training and fun rides. I'll even link some of the rides to here so you can see the data (if you care, only the Allez will have power numbers). Good times ahead ladies and gentlemen. Good times.