Oh man, today I finally got the "superbike" back from my mechanic. Well by today's standards, with carbon fiber, etc. this bike is a piece of crap. But I cannot afford a 10,000 Trek Madone.
(Lance's bike). The last time I was in the shop, a guy was buying one for his wife. I think he was some rich oil guy from Texas, judging from the accent. Judging from the size of this woman's ass, I really didn't think she was a racer. So they got a poser-nod.
Yeah, so... The hyperlight, screaming fast Trek 2200, model year 1999. It has all the bells and whistles, clipless pedals, etc. etc. It's an aluminum frame. they still make frames like this.
I used to ride it a lot in the Berkshires. I'm leery of riding it in traffic, because of the clipless pedals, and the fact that it just doesn't handle potholes and rough pavement well. You hit acrack in the road or a pebble, and it's like "doh!!!"
With racing bikes, there are always tradeoffs. Usually it's an issue of comfort. Guys have been moaning about this for years.
The Aluminum bikes are always much stiffer, which means you get a more efficient pedal stroke, and can climb hills better. Racing bikes have a shorter wheelbase, so the ride is usually more "squirrely" than a "sport touring" or full touring bike.
The biggest downside is something called "road shock".
Because of the endless micro-vibration of the stiffer frame, your central nervous system gets tweaked out after a long ride. It's a wierd feeling, like you are still vibrating. Steel frames don't really do this. I usually feel fine after a long ride on my old vintage bikes, but the hyper stiff Univega is closer to an alloy frame and is a little trippy to ride. I only ride that bike when I'm in the mood.
So after a hauling- ass session on a very fast bike you can expect some neck pain, shoulder pain, and a vibration thing. Sorry if there are any horrible typos....I'll be ok....
They tried to absorb some of the shock with a carbon fork, but that only helped somewhat. The old Canondales I hear are murderous to ride. Biff-stiffo, with fat tubes. bleh.
I had a stem recall, found out about it ten freaking years later!!!
Trek did not contact me, and dammit, I sent in the warranty card!!! The Icon stems they had installed at the factory were prone to failure because they had one bolt holding the bars on, The bolt fails, the bars come off, and you die.
Here's great article about failures in general: Talks about reliable parts being "overbuilt".
http://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-002/000.html
So they put a Bontrager stem on, whick looks okay, but I'm going to research possibly grade B-7 or titanium bolts. I'm also going to get some opinions on a forum about this stem. There are some guys who are Trek-haters because of Lance, but they probably work for the competition.
B-7 Alloy has a tensile strength of 125,000 PSI. The bolt will bend a lot before it will snap. Titanium is lighter and extrememly strong and elastic, but quite expensive.
On thing I do like about traditional "quill " stems is that the stem is one piece as it encircles the bars. But I guess with MFG's now making twelve million diameters of bars, they went to a dual bolt system. Fine as long as the bolts don't fail.... (please don't fail) . When tightening hex bolts, a torque wrench is probably not a bad idea.
Also, when picking up an installed part from the shop, check their work!!! I discovered one bolt was cranked tight, the other fairly loose. You never know, the kid is working on the bike, the phone rings.... This shop does excellent work, but I always thoroughly inspect the bike anyway, mistakes do happen, remember the space shuttle...
My shift lever is also "missing shifts" which annoys the hell out of me. I hope it's just the cable and the shifter is not worn out. I really don't think this bike has THAT many miles on it!!! It's been pretty well maintained also.
So I hauled ass for as couple hours, nice to be out on a warm day, wearing bike shorts, being all aerodynamic and all.
I'm enjoying riding around the tobacco plantations, as you get to stay in the sun the whole time.
I went over to Rainbow reservoir but got busted by the Ranger. Like I said before, I always get caught in CT.
But I got away. Oh, almost forgot to mention, a snot rocket is how you clear your nostrils at 40 MPH on a decent. cover one nostril, blow really had out the other. When you get good at it you can get some decent trajectory. If you pass someone very closely without advance warning and you get hit, you deserve it, in my opinion.
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