- More new DA -

It's amazing the internet has taken the 6-degrees of separation of the 80s and turned it into 3. What does that have to do with anything? This is info found on the WeightWeenies forum that quotes a source on RBR, an now it's posted here...

"Derailleur cables under tape. Ti clamp band. Carbon blade with easier reach from hoods and relocated pivot for better leverage. 20% reduction in lever throw. No trim for front derailleur (not needed, cross chain away). Adjustable reach. Flight deck with HR, altitude, & incline (PC download). Front derailleur 20% stronger spring. Brakes have Ti hardware and recessed cable stop and arch style for more power. Rear derailleur carbon jockey cage and redesigned wheels to get rid of need for GS. 3 cranks alloy 130, alloy 110, and carbon 130 with BB30 on the way. Crank spindle alloy/carbon. A lil' bird told me..."

I must say that this new group excites me enough that I have swapped my favorite bike from Campy to the current 7800 DA that we had hanging around from an 07 Interbike build.

Please don't get me wrong, I love Campy. I have used it exclusively for the last 7 years. But for some reason when I think about putting in big miles DA seems like the group I want to ride - never realized that until I started training again. The mileage that I have put on all of my Campy groups is far less than I used to put on one DA group when I was racing...

- Not what you want to see happen -

Most people who have ridden a set of Mavic's Cosmic Carbone wheels swear by them. They are solid, fairly aerodynamic, and bombproof. It's my favorite Mavic wheel.

Ksyriums make less sense to me. They aren't particularly light, or aero, or a great value. I still don't quite get the big aluminum spokes. But they are very popular.

The R-Sys is supposed to not only be stiffer than the Ksyriums, but the spokes are supposed to resist compression as well as elongation. Unfortunately, it also seems that they have a PR problem. There are a number of images floating around on the internet of nasty crashes with an R-Sys completely exploding. Some of these crashes were precipitated by rider error or prior damage to the wheel. Whatever the cause, there aren't many wheels that you ever see do this...

It will be interesting to see how this develops.

- A short treatise on why ISPs are silly -

ISPs - those very trendy integrated seat posts that are popping up on bikes from everyone and their brother - Time, Giant, Trek, etc. etc. - are officially just irritating. Sure, you say, "you have one on your track bike." True. That is why I now hate them.

I had one on my road bike for a bit, but that got hacked off and replaced with a normal seatpost. It took about 3 rides. I usually test a bunch of different things based on projects that I am working on and specific client requests. Since one of our projects is custom cycling shoes I ride with different pedals on a regular basis to better understand the pedal/shoe interplay. That doesn't work with an ISP where pedal system stack height can very by almost a centimeter. Sure I could swap back and forth between a Selle Italia c64 and regular SLR to change the 10mm, but that seems pretty cumbersome when all I need to do is change a couple mm in height.

I figured that on my track/fixed gear bike that there wouldn’t be much of an issue – it’s not like I usually change anything there other than the front end to convert it from road to track (fork, stem, bars). But after yesterday’s ride my hindparts were feeling a bit tender for the c64 saddle, so I wanted to swap on my trusty SSM Era Composite (it’s been through the wars with me). Too bad the SSM has 1cm more in stack height than the c64.

So I put on a fresh hack-saw blade and removed 1cm of ISP height, re-slotted it and mounted my Era. Unfortunately since the seat tube is CHT/T treated Ti it killed the blade even with liberal use of cutting oil (which is a killer to clean out of an ISP). And now if I ever want to torture my delicates and go back to the c64 I’ll have a geeky 1cm bit of seatpost – which completely kills the whole “I’m cool and super pro with my ISP cut to the exact height that I need” look.

Though I guess I could always swap my DA pedals for Speedplays if I want to do that – they are a centimeter lower in stack height…

- A fixed path -

It's one of those facts of life that there are only so many hours in a day, and you only have so much energy to do everything. After about 6 years of 100-hour work weeks (starting a new biz ain't as easy as it looks) I am certainly not the svelte athlete that I was before this endeavor. Looking back on the photos of "skinny me," it's perplexing to remember how badly I felt I needed to lose a couple pounds at the time.

So here I am, starting the training regime again, and as always I am relying heavily on hours spent on a fixed-gear bike to provide serious base fitness in a hurry. The beast that I have built for this task is actually a modification of the track bike that we showed in Las Vegas this year (perched on a stand in the Pedros booth - we like the Pedros guys...). The frame is a combination of 6/4 and 3/2.5 Ti with some massive dimensions and wall thicknesses. The frame has been CHT/T treated. The fork is an old 38mm rake AlphaQ EX fork that has been resprayed (the glitter finish that came on it was hideous). AlphaQ also takes care of the stem and bars. Tektro brake levers are comfortable and cheap, and DA track cranks and BB and some trusty Zipp wheels finish it out.

For the first time, I decided to use a "doubler" so that both brake levers would work on the front brake. It looks like a pig up there, but I certainly appreciated the option of using both levers to lightly bleed off speed on some of the steeper downhills. Sure I could have done it one-handed, but for some reason my "road" brain just copes better with the modulation that two levers provides.

So here's to hours spent on a fixie, and the fitness that it brings. And watch out Meatball, I'm gunning for your spot on the team at Paris Roubaix next year...

- In the Slipstream -

Since late November we have been working, under the radar, with the Slipstream Sports cycling team. Today the relationship became official with JV's signature on our contract. Because there were a number of intellectual property issues involved with this partnership, it took a bit longer to get everything ironed out than we initially expected, but it was time well spent, and we are very pleased to be working with the team.

GdT will be a "technical consultant and strategic partner" of the team. Basically that means that we could tell you what we do for them, but we'd have to kill you... No, it means that we will be working on some proprietary things for the boys that will give them an advantage on race day, but that we can't say what we did until after the fact.

GdT will also be providing Magnus Backstedt (continuing an existing relationship), Taylor Phinney, Lucas Euser, and Meatball Friedman with our custom cycling shoes this year. Maggy has been giving us feedback for over a year on the shoes and has been instrumental in getting things to their present state. (Now, if he could just stay upright over the winter...). Talylor, Lucas and Mike (Meatball) are all young guys looking to make a splash with the team, and we look forward to growing with them and developing a long-term relationship with each of them.

- New Dura Ace... -

It seems like half the world expected Shimano to unveil a new Dura Ace (7900) at the 2007 shows. Usually that's what happens, they bring out a new XTR one year, and the new DA the following. That didn't happen.

My theory is that Osaka wanted to see what the impact of the Sram stuff would be and to gauge what was needed for DA based on the favor that Force and the rumored Red group were receiving. It seems that Shimano will care even less about what the Italians are doing than they have in the recent past, and toe the line - largely - against Sram for dominance of the OE market.

So, now that they have a good idea of what is needed to beat or compete with the Chicago boys, there is a good bit of speculation about what will be coming this summer (i.e. at the Tour). What is "known" is that there will be two groups - DA7900 and eDA. for those of you (like me) that are not so interested in powered transmission, the 7900 group holds the most appeal. Rumors are consistent that the carbon crank will take a swan dive and be replaced by a lighter, stiffer alloy crank with a hollow forged spider and arms. Carbon should also make it's first appearance on the rest of the group's parts. Other little niceties - like better ergonomics for the STI levers (darn them - it's harder to improve the ergonomics with new Hudz if they did it themselves), and hidden shift cables from the STI levers will also be included, I hear. As a matter of fact, I am so excited about the new DA group that I've abandoned my Campy-Only credo and set up one of my bikes with DA (the 7800 version) for the first time in about 8 years.

And from what I hear about the new Record and Chorus groups, more bikes will follow as soon as 7900 is available...

Wait, did I say new Campy groups???

- That was a good weekend... -

When you get to work with top-level professional cyclists it's pretty cool for you as a small business owner. Sure, we like working with almost everyone - and people who have never raced a day in their life are some of our favorite clients - but there is something about seeing things that you contributed to winning or doing well on a world stage.

Not that I helped Katheryn Mattis do anything on the way to her vicotry in Geelong at the Women's World Cup opener this weekend, but it was the first world-class victory (probably first victory period) by a rider using our Hudz. It was a gutsy ride, and we'd just like to congratulate Katheryn and all the ladies at Webcor for showing what they can do down under. (More info on the race and some great pix at here.)

It was also nice to see CVV and David Millar putting in such good shows at the ToC this last week. I was sitting at the keyboard updating away the cyclingnews.com coverage of the ITT in Solvang and hoped that David would pull out the victory on the day and pass Levi in the race. Unfortunately that didn't happen, but it was great to see half of the top-6 in TT sporting argyle, and the same thing on Sunday's GC final. I am really starting to look forward to two great races in Paris this spring (Roubaix and P-Nice), and hopefully one in July.

More on the Slipstream squad to come...