Well hello all, I recieved a very good phonecall the other day with somebody who was interested in my room! Didn't quite think it was possible at this point but I think I might get lucky. Anywho, I got a lot of good feedback from my review of my road bike the other day. To answer everybody's question about the orange tape, time for a change maybe it will come out when road season starts. I'm coming to greeley tomorrow to fix the shock on my mountain bike and have this kid come look at my house. But for right now its time for another episode of the office. As soon as the mountain bike is fixed there will be a review on it. Thanks for checking in.
PS Planning a trip to Moab on March 19th, anybody interested?
Monday, January 29, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Road Bike Review
So finally doing a bike review that I have been talking about for so long, so here is bike review #1.
This is my Giant OCR 1 road bike, I have had it now for just over a year and I love it.
I'll start with wheels and tires, The wheels are 700c Xero Lite XSR-3 wheels. They were the wheels that came on the bike and I have yet to replace them. So far they have worked pretty well, they are very light, but the issue that I have had with them is duribility. I plan on getting some Mavic Askiums here before the race season starts. Right now I am running Vittoria Zaffiro tires that Mark Cooper gave me for all of my training. They have been really good with the flat protection, and they are very tough, the only problem I have had is that they are a wire beaded tire so they are not easy to get on and off.
Next is my 9 Speed Ultegra Rear Derallieur(probably can't see it), this is the one that came on the bike. It is actually a long cage derallieur but it hasn't given me any problems.
My cassette is a 12-26 SRAM and my chain is a 9 speed SRAM with a quick link.
This is my Fizik Aliante Saddle that is on top of a Giant Carbon seatpost. I'm actually the second owner of the saddle, I got it from Scott for nice and cheap. I ran an Aliante on my mountain bike and for cross season, my previous saddle was my Serfas Stinger, and after a full season of mountain and cross, my ass no longer liked the stinger.
This next shot is of my Easton EA30 stem which came on the bike, along with the giant integrated headset that came stock on the bike.
This next shot shows my Ultegra 9 speed shifters, and my front brake. Not sure what kind of brake it is, but it looks identical to Tektro road brakes, so I'm going to say that they are Tektros. The handlebar is a name that I have not heard of but I like them so far and no problems with them. It says Ergo Anatomic on them? Those are wrapped up in White Cinelli cork bar tape.
Next are my Speedplay Zero Stainless pedals. These are one of the first really big upgrades I put on my bike and I can't say enough about them. I would highly reccomend them to anybody who wants a great pedal.
This last shot is of my crank that I picked up this summer. It is a FSA Energy 53-39 with a FSA bottom bracket. The glare is pretty bad but you can sort of see my Ultegra Front Derallieur in the picture.
Well I plan on doing a lot more upgrades on this bike, but this will have to do for now. I hope to have a really good race season this year and this is the rig that I am going to do it on. Hopefully I will have the motor to make it go fast.
Thanks for checking in.
This is my Giant OCR 1 road bike, I have had it now for just over a year and I love it.
I'll start with wheels and tires, The wheels are 700c Xero Lite XSR-3 wheels. They were the wheels that came on the bike and I have yet to replace them. So far they have worked pretty well, they are very light, but the issue that I have had with them is duribility. I plan on getting some Mavic Askiums here before the race season starts. Right now I am running Vittoria Zaffiro tires that Mark Cooper gave me for all of my training. They have been really good with the flat protection, and they are very tough, the only problem I have had is that they are a wire beaded tire so they are not easy to get on and off.
Next is my 9 Speed Ultegra Rear Derallieur(probably can't see it), this is the one that came on the bike. It is actually a long cage derallieur but it hasn't given me any problems.
My cassette is a 12-26 SRAM and my chain is a 9 speed SRAM with a quick link.
This is my Fizik Aliante Saddle that is on top of a Giant Carbon seatpost. I'm actually the second owner of the saddle, I got it from Scott for nice and cheap. I ran an Aliante on my mountain bike and for cross season, my previous saddle was my Serfas Stinger, and after a full season of mountain and cross, my ass no longer liked the stinger.
This next shot is of my Easton EA30 stem which came on the bike, along with the giant integrated headset that came stock on the bike.
This next shot shows my Ultegra 9 speed shifters, and my front brake. Not sure what kind of brake it is, but it looks identical to Tektro road brakes, so I'm going to say that they are Tektros. The handlebar is a name that I have not heard of but I like them so far and no problems with them. It says Ergo Anatomic on them? Those are wrapped up in White Cinelli cork bar tape.
Next are my Speedplay Zero Stainless pedals. These are one of the first really big upgrades I put on my bike and I can't say enough about them. I would highly reccomend them to anybody who wants a great pedal.
This last shot is of my crank that I picked up this summer. It is a FSA Energy 53-39 with a FSA bottom bracket. The glare is pretty bad but you can sort of see my Ultegra Front Derallieur in the picture.
Well I plan on doing a lot more upgrades on this bike, but this will have to do for now. I hope to have a really good race season this year and this is the rig that I am going to do it on. Hopefully I will have the motor to make it go fast.
Thanks for checking in.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Busy!
Hello all,
Sorry about the lack of updates. Well I have had a busy couple of weeks. School started last week, and I have been having to go back and forth from Greeley because of the alcohol classes/community service. Finally got my new room set up here in Littleton. (pics up soon) Other than that I have been riding the trainer a lot and doing homework. Finally it is warming up a bit, the roads are drying up slowly, so we will see about maybe getting outside this weekend. As most of you know, I have yet to get out since the first blizzard hit us, so I'm crossing my fingers. Thanks for checking in!
Sorry about the lack of updates. Well I have had a busy couple of weeks. School started last week, and I have been having to go back and forth from Greeley because of the alcohol classes/community service. Finally got my new room set up here in Littleton. (pics up soon) Other than that I have been riding the trainer a lot and doing homework. Finally it is warming up a bit, the roads are drying up slowly, so we will see about maybe getting outside this weekend. As most of you know, I have yet to get out since the first blizzard hit us, so I'm crossing my fingers. Thanks for checking in!
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Recap of 2006
Well its 2007 and I am in a completely different place then I thought I would be last year. This year went really well, there were ups and downs for sure. But I made a lot of great friends through it, and I found out who my real friends were throughout the year.
School last semester started out great with me finally having a roommate that didn't smoke himself stupid all the time and eat all my food. That was a definate plus, and finally the dorm room wasn't quite so lonely. Over the Christmas break I finally got myself my first road bike. My Giant OCR 1 was definately one of my best friends of 2006.
A
As soon as I got it I started riding all the time, at first I rode solo then I started getting some groups together with Nick Morgan and a few people weather permitting and kind of just got out when I could.
My season started off with my first crit ever at our home race in Greeley. Definately and eye opener, and just pretty much struggled to hang on to the pace of everybody at the race. After my first race I knew I was hooked and that I really wanted to take it seriously. The very next day we had the race at the CSU oval. There was a large crash in the second lap that a few of my teammates were involved in, which made the race interesting, and near the end I passed Koch in the sprint. Which he wasn't too thrilled about because Dana passed him in the race the day before.
My next race was the Mines race located in Golden, with a time trial up lookout mountain, and a crit in nearby Golden. I have never been confident on hills anyway so going up lookout mountain was a humbling experience. Especially with Tommy D passing me on the switchback like I was standing still. The crit was fairly uneventful, didn't feel great all day but our team did well with Albert King taking second place for the team.
Our next race was in Durango, which I was very nervous about because of the reputation that all of the Durango kids have. The drive out was just as fun as all of the races, with Dana suffering from food poisoning, and me still being hungry after his throw up session. There was a TTT, an ITT and a road race all in 2 days. The TTT was very wet because of the rainstorm the night before. We were down a guy because Dana was not feeling well. It was our first TTT as a team, so our communication wasn't very good and we didn't know what we were doing. The ITT didn't go well for me seeing as I am so confident on the hills. The road race was very humbling with a lot of climbing, roughly 800 feet of climbing per lap of the road race. I finished somewhere near the back, I still don't know where, but it was a lot of fun. The drive home was very interesting, with having transmission problems with the van to blowing a tire all in the same day.
Next race was Grand Junction, which is where I had my best race of the year. There was a road race, a TTT, and a crit. The road race did not go well for me due to 2 mechanicals, and riding by myself the entire race. The TTT went way better with the UNC team winning the TTT. Communication was good, and we all worked together very well which was a huge step for our team. The next day was the Crit, which was very flat with lots of turns and very fast. The race went well for all and we were all in the top 12. I can't wait for that race this year. Afterwords we watched Corey tear it up and take 3rd in the A group. That weekend Corey made me love the song, "Soul Meets Body"
Last race of the year was in Wyoming which wasn't exactly fun. When we went to the road race it was 20 degrees and snowing, I ended up spending just short of 4 hours on my bike not so fun.
For my first season of collegiate road biking I felt I did pretty well, for not training a ton I improved every race and this year promises to be much better.
After school ended I moved into Corey's house for a couple of weeks, and started work at the International Bike. I loved the job right away and kept very busy with it. I got a new mountain bike, (Cannondale Rush 1000) and some new parts for my road bike. After living in Corey's bike Room for a couple weeks, I moved into my house on 11th Ave in Greeley. I really liked it at first but later not so much. The rest of my summer was spent working, riding my bike, and drinking.
School started and all of my other roommates moved in and I new that it would be a very long semester. The place started getting very dirty, and well...you get the picture.
I did a couple of collegiate mountain bike races, and had pretty good results with my highlight of the year taking 8th at the CU race. Not long after mountain biking Corey and Scott thought that I should test my legs on the cross bike. I spent the rest of the fall focused on that with Corey lending me his old Surly. Cross turned out to be more fun than I could have expected and I found myself every weekend going to races around Colorado. Never felt great in the races, but then again you probably shouldn't feel good when your on a cross bike. But we made a new tradition of the wednesday morning cross rides at a nearby park. That turned out to be a lot of fun, even if the weather was bad. I'd like to thank corey for making my cross season possible by letting me use the squirly surly!
This December I picked up Scott Wenzel as my new personal coach for all the cycling that I am doing now. I started my base training last month, and I know that this season is going to be way different than last season.
I came home for christmas to take back my seasonal job at St. Nicks selling trees and outdoor lighting to our local community here in Littleton. A big decision was made at this time though. I won't be coming back to UNC next semester. I am now going to attend Metro State College of Denver. I did this because of my wonderful living situation in Greeley, my grades, and the friends that I lost this fall living in that house.
However I did think that I made some great friends who made me realize who my real friends are.
So, As for 2007 I think it looks brighter than 2006 already and I plan to do better in school, hopefully win some bike races.
well I just did a fair bit of rambling...
thanks for checking in
School last semester started out great with me finally having a roommate that didn't smoke himself stupid all the time and eat all my food. That was a definate plus, and finally the dorm room wasn't quite so lonely. Over the Christmas break I finally got myself my first road bike. My Giant OCR 1 was definately one of my best friends of 2006.
AAs soon as I got it I started riding all the time, at first I rode solo then I started getting some groups together with Nick Morgan and a few people weather permitting and kind of just got out when I could.
My season started off with my first crit ever at our home race in Greeley. Definately and eye opener, and just pretty much struggled to hang on to the pace of everybody at the race. After my first race I knew I was hooked and that I really wanted to take it seriously. The very next day we had the race at the CSU oval. There was a large crash in the second lap that a few of my teammates were involved in, which made the race interesting, and near the end I passed Koch in the sprint. Which he wasn't too thrilled about because Dana passed him in the race the day before.
My next race was the Mines race located in Golden, with a time trial up lookout mountain, and a crit in nearby Golden. I have never been confident on hills anyway so going up lookout mountain was a humbling experience. Especially with Tommy D passing me on the switchback like I was standing still. The crit was fairly uneventful, didn't feel great all day but our team did well with Albert King taking second place for the team.
Our next race was in Durango, which I was very nervous about because of the reputation that all of the Durango kids have. The drive out was just as fun as all of the races, with Dana suffering from food poisoning, and me still being hungry after his throw up session. There was a TTT, an ITT and a road race all in 2 days. The TTT was very wet because of the rainstorm the night before. We were down a guy because Dana was not feeling well. It was our first TTT as a team, so our communication wasn't very good and we didn't know what we were doing. The ITT didn't go well for me seeing as I am so confident on the hills. The road race was very humbling with a lot of climbing, roughly 800 feet of climbing per lap of the road race. I finished somewhere near the back, I still don't know where, but it was a lot of fun. The drive home was very interesting, with having transmission problems with the van to blowing a tire all in the same day.
Next race was Grand Junction, which is where I had my best race of the year. There was a road race, a TTT, and a crit. The road race did not go well for me due to 2 mechanicals, and riding by myself the entire race. The TTT went way better with the UNC team winning the TTT. Communication was good, and we all worked together very well which was a huge step for our team. The next day was the Crit, which was very flat with lots of turns and very fast. The race went well for all and we were all in the top 12. I can't wait for that race this year. Afterwords we watched Corey tear it up and take 3rd in the A group. That weekend Corey made me love the song, "Soul Meets Body"
Last race of the year was in Wyoming which wasn't exactly fun. When we went to the road race it was 20 degrees and snowing, I ended up spending just short of 4 hours on my bike not so fun.
For my first season of collegiate road biking I felt I did pretty well, for not training a ton I improved every race and this year promises to be much better.
After school ended I moved into Corey's house for a couple of weeks, and started work at the International Bike. I loved the job right away and kept very busy with it. I got a new mountain bike, (Cannondale Rush 1000) and some new parts for my road bike. After living in Corey's bike Room for a couple weeks, I moved into my house on 11th Ave in Greeley. I really liked it at first but later not so much. The rest of my summer was spent working, riding my bike, and drinking.
School started and all of my other roommates moved in and I new that it would be a very long semester. The place started getting very dirty, and well...you get the picture.
I did a couple of collegiate mountain bike races, and had pretty good results with my highlight of the year taking 8th at the CU race. Not long after mountain biking Corey and Scott thought that I should test my legs on the cross bike. I spent the rest of the fall focused on that with Corey lending me his old Surly. Cross turned out to be more fun than I could have expected and I found myself every weekend going to races around Colorado. Never felt great in the races, but then again you probably shouldn't feel good when your on a cross bike. But we made a new tradition of the wednesday morning cross rides at a nearby park. That turned out to be a lot of fun, even if the weather was bad. I'd like to thank corey for making my cross season possible by letting me use the squirly surly!
This December I picked up Scott Wenzel as my new personal coach for all the cycling that I am doing now. I started my base training last month, and I know that this season is going to be way different than last season.
I came home for christmas to take back my seasonal job at St. Nicks selling trees and outdoor lighting to our local community here in Littleton. A big decision was made at this time though. I won't be coming back to UNC next semester. I am now going to attend Metro State College of Denver. I did this because of my wonderful living situation in Greeley, my grades, and the friends that I lost this fall living in that house.
However I did think that I made some great friends who made me realize who my real friends are.
So, As for 2007 I think it looks brighter than 2006 already and I plan to do better in school, hopefully win some bike races.
well I just did a fair bit of rambling...
thanks for checking in
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