Two weeks till race season!

I went to the big city the on the weekend to finish getting ready for the season and get my bike fitted to me at the Trek Store. I got down to the store and set up with the bike fitting center that’s right in the Trek Store. Barry (the store owner, and pretty much Santa Claus) set me up on a bike trainer and proceeded to take out levels and allen keys and got me pedalling. Within about 2 seconds he declared that my left leg was shorter than my right, and I still don’t know what to think about that! Next he raised my seat and moved it around and made sure that the angle of the seat no more or no less than 2 degrees (nose down). After seeing the gargantuan length of my arms Barry disappeared downstairs for a minute and came back up with a sweet white full carbon Bontrager XXX stem (12 degree, 110mm for the bike nerds), which was the coolest part that they had in the store for sure! It turns out that I’ve been riding with my seat way lower than I should (probably about 3 inches); which means I’ll put down more power and be more efficient now, but manoeuvrability is a little compromised. After setting me all up on the bike Barry had one more thing for me: my 2012 Trek kits! (which is really just technical jargon for spandex suits) I’m so happy about the colours and designs. They look AWESOME!

Tuesday was my first opportunity to show off the sweet new kit at the Speed River Cycling Club weekly hammerfest! I showed up at the meeting spot where there were about 10 of us grouped up. There were one or two comments on my new kit, but mostly the guys just thought I looked dumb because I didn’t bring any warmers with me. Apparently the temperature would drop to 3 degrees by 8...oops! The first Tuesday ride with the Speed River Cycling Club was...unreal.

Naive of the pace of the ride and the temperatures that were about to happen
BUT I LOVE THIS KIT!

I’m pretty sure that I cried the entire time. The group may have started out as a 10 person group, but there were only 5 survivors, and that’s all that I could do to end with them; survive. There were solid chunks of that ride that were greater than 50km/hr speeds (and I’m not talking about just downhills).

"Superfly Elite" my partner for the year!

My first ride on the newly fitted (and now personalized) Superfly (I know, best name ever for a bike, right?) was much more pleasant. When getting a new bike, there is a learning curve involved (so if you’re not feeling confident on your bike yet – don’t worry about it, just practise!), but I think that curve is far behind me! I can say that I will confidently ride that bike as fast as my legs will take me (which I hope is pretty fast!), and with confidence on the trails. I love my new bike, and things like the tapered head tube and front thru axel make that a notably stiffer bike than one would expect! I know that the bike nerds will judge the photos of my “customized” rig, so I’ll address that now. Bar ends are meant for gaining more leverage on your bike while sprinting and hill climbing, and yes, those bars are 680mm (really wide). I realize those are the most hipster bars that will likely be on the race course with the 12 degree sweep, bar ends, bar tape, and mega wide stance – but I had the bar ends so I threw them on! It was only after the fact that I realized I have a redundantly huge amount of leverage over my bike with the wide/bar ends combo. Maybe I’ll retape mid season, but I think it looks great and is comfy so I’m not messing with it now!

My other Trek kit, and newly fitted bike!