SWEET!

It's no secret at all to anybody that I'm a TOTAL bike dork. 110% bike dork.

Today was one of those days that every bike nerd gets sweaty thinking about; the arrival of a box full of shiny new bike parts!


The parts are the new and improved SRAM Rival parts that are spec'd on our newest version of the Gran Criterium. These have the new carbon brake lever, the reach adjustable levers with trim adjustment and the new sweet black finish. I have been riding the first version of the parts on one of my bikes for about 2 full years and have only ever needed to adjust the rear derailleur once in that time. The only problem I ever had was with the non-drive crank arm loosening up- never coming off, but loosening. After some cleaning and re-greasing, the problem went away. Since then... perfect! So I'm pretty excited to get this stuff to ride- now that I CAN ride!


The frame the parts are going on to is this new prototype of a full Scandium frame- it's painted and decaled in the livery of our SoulVille SS, which is one of my favorite looking bikes we do currently. With all the black parts, it should be smoking hot! I'm thinking of white cable housings and maybe some red color accents too... not sure. Looking at putting the Ritchey "wet black" finish bars, stem and seatpost on it too. Talking to my friends at Spinergy about a set of wheels too- those white PBO spokes would be hot!

I've been itching to ride this frame for forever too- I got it just before my crash and have been going nuts to ride it. The Gran Criterium I currently ride uses this proprietary new Scandium tubing for the top tube, head tube and down tube. It rides incredible and I have a feeling that the full Scandium frame will ride even better. The tubing shapes used should create a great ride with plenty of stiffness and comfort- thanks to Scandium's vibration damping qualities. I have been toying with the idea of either replacing the current Gran Criterium with this tubing or just offering a frameset with the tubing as a special edition kind of thing. The price should be pretty competitive, so I'm very excited about the potential. If it rides the way I expect it to... it will likely find a place in the line. The geometry is our traditional Gran Criterium geometry that I have ridden for the past 4 years since coming to Masi, so I am VERY familiar with it. Any new subtleties in the ride should only come from the frame itself. THIS is the kind of shtuff a bike nerd LIVES for! Trust me... many reports will be following along the way... another great reason to be recovering and able to ride again!

Ok folks... time to wrap this up. Another very busy day tomorrow as I get ready for Montreal on Saturday. So... see you soon!

Tim

It's like dejavu all over again...

Busy. Still.

Leaving for Montreal on Saturday for the Canadian industry tradeshow. Eurobike is this week, but I'm not there... obviously. Looking forward to being back in Montreal- it's been two years since I was there and it is one of my favorite cities I've visited so far. Can't decide if I should take a geared bike or my Speciale Fixed. Have considered taking one of my carbon bikes, but It might be nice to reign myself in and just take the Fixed and stay off the Mont this trip (though the view is unreal). The view along the St. Lawrence river is incredible too and the bike path that runs along the river meanders for many miles without a single stoplight and barely anybody else to contend with. It's pretty much heaven.

Interbike will be directly on the heels of Montreal and somewhere in the middle of all of that, we have to finalize what we're doing for our Spring release bikes (mostly color changes for a few models and a tiny few "enhancements").

Yeah, I know- broken record.

The things we do to keep making more and better bikes for you... you folks are a tough crowd!

Tim