last night i was able to put 20+ miles in on the sienna. my co-worker anthony had all of his cycling wear with him, so we set out after work for a shakedown.
seat too high. stem too high. stem too long. even so, i felt "new bike power" in spades. i just had a lot of energy, and anthony sort of paid for that. i was busting right out of the lot, which is stupid, i know, but it was a blast.
this was not only a first ride for the litespeed, but a first for me, using the new sram force group. it was a little slow in assembling, because the double tap shifter and the rear derailluer have some peculiarities. i called dan s up and asked him some set-up questions and all was good.
we took some familiar west county roads, with a bit of good climbing, a bit of descending, and some more climbing. there was a little flat ground as well.
my first impressions: titanium has a great ride. it's smooth as silk, and quiet. anyone who has ridden a carbon frame would appreciate the sound quality of a ti bike on the road. it's a little more flexible than aluminum bikes like the cdale, but feels like it responds quicker. the force group levers feel a lot like campy with better braking and better lever ergonomics. the carbon cranks look really cool going around in circles. with a borrowed set of training wheels and tires (my wheels will arrive on friday) the complete bike with cages weighed 17.9lbs. i expect the wheels to lop off at least a pound, maybe more, so the raceday bike will be at sub 17.
i got up this morning and took off in the chill for another ride. i corrected the stem and seat height, although i'm waiting on another stem to acheive prefection. i rode about 45 miles, taking some cool routes in upper jeffco. i saw dirk meister on the way home and rode with him for a bit to catch up. i told him i was extremely happy with my new job. he was taking a stroll towards marshall hill on his bitchin' camaro parlee. ooooooh, that parlee is sexy.
i'll get pics up tomorrow after i put on the new wheels, and hopefully get a weight.
2 comments:
How does the front derallier shift compared to Shimano? One review I read said that Shimano leaves all the others behind when it comes to shifting the front.
nothing is as good as shimano front shifting, period. but, this one is completely adequate. it's smoother than any other non-shimano i've had, including record. it really is a nice group, and it has an expensive feel about it. you should try one on for size, as it seems a lot of bikes are going to be coming with this stuff soon.
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