New Bike

I finally took the plunge and bought a high-end road bike. I've been riding an enthusiast level Trek with a triple crank for the past 2 years. It served me well but it was definitely time to upgrade. My new ride is a 56" 2009 Specialized Tarmac S-Works SL2 with SRAM Red. The wheels are Roval Fusée SL E5's (1,450 grams in case you're interested), the crank is the S-Works FACT carbon 53 x 39t and the pedals are Look Keo 2 Max Carbon. I'm a little concerned about the 11 X 26t cassette paired with the 53 X 39t crank, especially when I like to climb and I weigh 185.....okay, I lied I'm really 187 but soon I'll be 185 if I could just stop eating so much on the weekends. Fortunately, I already have a Dura Ace 7900 12 X 28t cassette that I picked up on eBay that I'll probably swap out. I'm pretty sure I'll need the extra 2 teeth about the time I'm climbing past Mutual Dell on the Alpine Loop.

This all ads up to bike weighing a mere 15.4 pounds! I know, I know, it's an expensive way to drop four pounds when I could instead pay a really good trainer to help me shed 20 pounds from my gut. I guess now with a nice bike, I have no more excuses for being slow.

I took the bike out yesterday for a long Saturday ride. This was my fourth time on the bike and by the end of the ride, I was finally becoming comfortable with the aggressive geometry of a race bike. My first ride was earlier in the week up the south side of Suncrest and on the descent I was very tentative as I wasn't used to being so low in the drops. Overall the bike has a very fast, stiff, crisp and responsive ride feel and I'm looking forward to many good rides on it this season.