more pre-dawn goodness. it was pitch black out today, an interesting fog formation hovered over everything. it reminded me slightly of the independence day, where the ship hovered over the city, but I digress. you can actually see clear across the water, straight into san francisco, which is pretty awesome. just another quiet day in marin – I believe I saw 5 riders total, a majority of which were heading towards marin as I was coming back. it must be the holiday season. dry roads, with some puddles on descents kept my mind occupied.
as a side note, I’m thinking about jumping back on the track bike for city riding, and twin peaks climbs. the views in marin are nice, but nothing beats climbing up to see clear down market, as well as shredding through tires all the way down. I went through 39 tires from 2008-2009 on my windsor and pista concept, clocking in roughly 250-450mi weekly. it was crazy, awesome, and most of all, fun. plus, I feel a bit bad for my cannondale track bike, it doesn’t get ridden nearly as much as my road bike. and I’m sure that riding two completely different types of bikes will help me become more tactile with handling them both. I’ve learned a lot (and I still have more to learn) since the last time I’ve ridden the track bike. various things like tire pressure/drop, tire compound, crank length, setback, saddle to bar drop, tilt, reach, etc. it’s going to be my little side project, since racing my road bike is obviously my priority. there’s not too much to tweak, I’ve made a small parts list:
saddle: selle italia flite, titanium rails. the vintage shaped one, not the modern one. the slr saddle is minimalist, decently comfortable, but meant to be used with a chamois and bib shorts. there’s very little padding for this reason, the same goes for most other modern saddles. plus, the slr on the track bike is pretty much toasted, I might as well try something new!
cranks: shimano dura-ace 7600 crank arms. yea, I’ve got the exact same ones on the bike right now…so why buy them again? well, the ones on the bike are 165mm in length, which is great for shoe clearance on the front wheel, but much too short for what I need. not sure what I was thinking when I first started riding on 165′s…that was kind of a bad idea. and I’m fairly certain I’ll have a much nicer spin up with longer ones. I’ll be going with 170mm on my next pair. very excited, these cranks give me bedroom eyes.
pedals, shoes: time atac xs, sidi dominator 5. wowza, 2 bolt pedals and cleats as opposed to running look 3 bolts? yea, it’s time to make the jump. I’m keeping my sidi ergo2′s strictly for road riding. plus, a wonky cleat on the front won’t allow me to walk around once I’m off the bike. ever try ted-shredding in road shoes? wouldn’t really work, since there’s no rubber on the bottom of the shoe, just composite material to make it lightweight and stiff. and trying to shred just on the heel pad…yikes, it’s hard and doesn’t slow down quickly at all. the dominators will give me versatility and durability for city riding. and, they’ll work with my custom insoles (another reason why I’m sticking with clipless and not regular pedals, clips, and straps).
valve extenders. yea, I’m going to run the reynolds in the city. I built them up to be ridden, it’d be a shame if I let them go unused. the stock reynolds valve extenders are loose and leak air. they’re definitely not as secure as the sram or zipp ones on my road wheelset.
and I think that’s pretty much it. stay tuned for cannondale track v2.1.
