The joy of summer coming.

It has been very cold here in the D.C. BUT this last weekend it got warm, it got really warm into the 80’s. What is even nicer is that I get half days at work because of how our hours workout. So this Friday in the wonderful and spectacular weather I went down to my local triathlon shop and shot the shit with the owner for a while.

I went in to spend my birthday money and get my birthday present from my dad. My triathlon gear has been in the “work with what you got” stages ever sense I got into this sport. I have no complaints it makes me work harder and train harder because I know I don’t have the gear to fall back on. It also makes it all that much more special when you pass someone who has spent more money on one piece of equipment then you have on your entire setup. Well this birthday that was all going to change.

I am finally riding my bike with road bike specific shoes and clips instead of mountain bike clips, I also was finally able to replace my 8 year old helmet that had more cracks and dings in it then any helmet should (I like to hit my head on the ground). I have only gotten to ride once with my new equipment and it is spectacular!

While I was at Trienergy talking to the owner and buying my new toys we started talking about bikes and overhauling. I told him how I decided to just overhaul my bike instead of buying a new one this year. I had made a comment about getting fitted and he told me that they do them in house, that a general fit is 40 bucks and the big computrainer fancy fit was 75. I immediately went home and got my bike and brought it back. I put my look peddles on and placed my bike in the regular trainer and started riding.

He wet around and measured several things and took angles and all that fancy stuff that a bike fitter should do, we went over my bike and for the most part it is a good bike (as I had already known but was good to get a second opinion) he moved my seat around and was going to raise my handle bars until he realized that my Cannondale R400 was so old that you could not swap the stem out!

He also noticed that I am still riding on a steel front fork which if you don’t know gives you absolutely no shock absorption. The change he was going to make to the front end was minor and was only for comfort on long long rides. After the fitting he helped me price out the overhaul I will be doing to my bike

New carbon front fork

New long horn handle bars

New aero bars

New stem

New breaks

New shifters

Rewire the entire bike

All in all about 350-500 dollars worth of work, that I will be doing around July, on a bike I spent 300 dollars for originally. In fact I have spent more money taking apart and shipping my baby across the country then I did to originally buy it.

Things are looking up as the nice weather rolls in, now the biggest hurdle is finding the time to play golf and train. Life is so rough!

Bobby