FW: new bike

And, a message from Garth:
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From: Garth Wilson
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 22:11:52 -0700
To: Glen Peterson
Subject: new bike

Saturday I bought a 58cm carbon-fiber Trek 5000 from Pat's 605 Cyclery. It's the same model of frame Lance rode to victory in the '99 Tour. I got $300 knocked off for trading the brifters (integrated brake levers and shifters) for 9-speed bar-end shifters to put on the aerobars to meet my budget. (Brifters are nice, but I'm not adicted to them.) I spend most of my riding time on the aerobars, but that's the one place I've never tried the shifters before, so I was wondering how I'd like them. It will be awhile before it's natural to reach for the right place to find the shifters.

You can see the bike at Trek's website.

So far I've ridden it on the trail and at the Heritage Park practice race. It definitely handles better than the other bike I was riding and is noticeably faster with the same amount of effort, but the biggest difference seems to be how well it absorbs vibration. It's still stiff and I can still feel all the bumps, but it's like having a bazillion (sp?) microscopic high-quality shock absorbers. There's a quality about the ride I've never experienced on any other bike, including a man's titanium one I tried at the race. I haven't done any hills yet, so that part of the report will have to wait. The fact that it weighs seven pounds less than the other bike won't hurt a bit.

I don't quite have everything set up exactly the way I want it yet, but I'm getting close.

Daniel is signed up for a race the morning of Memorial Day in Long Beach, and for one a few weeks later in the same place. They start at 7:30am. I took the aerobars off his bike tonight since they're not allowed in the race, and he tried the Heritage Park practice race in the middle ring since juniors have a high-end limitation in the gearing so we may just take his big ring off temporarily. Otherwise we'll replace the big ring with a 45-tooth to meet the requirement.

Garth


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