Saturday, July 18, 2009

'cross bike upgrades

I'm starting to feel a little road season burnout and am really looking forward to cyclocross.

I've got some preparation to do before September. I started to ease back into running. At this point, I'm only doing 5 or 10 minutes at a time to get my legs used to the pounding. I'll build up a little bit each week.

The good old Redline has gathered a thin layer of dust, but is about to get a workover next month. There's some routine maintenance work to do and some upgrades. With the wide Aluminum bars I've got on the machine and the 'cross tires, it feels more like driving a bus than riding a bike. I'll get some lighter and narrower carbon bars. I'm switching to a single chainring setup. I think I've been on the big ring for a total of 10 minutes over the past three seasons. So, I'll lose it, the front derailleur, and the left STI shifter and replace it with a light brake lever.

Once I get it tuned up, I'll head up to Whiskey Island and try riding around on 25 mm slicks to see how that works. The surface of the fields at the park were packed like concrete last year so slicks should be fine for most of the course. The off camber sections might be challenging, though.

3 comments:

Julie Lewis-Sroka said...

I hear you. I'm ready for cross too!

Jim said...

Ready for cross???
It's mid July!
Started riding hard a little too early?

Kevin Kimmich said...

This weekend since I'm not racing (especially since I'm not driving somewhere at 5AM) the mental energy is recharging.

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