thehappycat.net

Current Mood: Happy

First there was Ruby…

Ruby was a good bike. It got me into the sport, made it to the top of Onyx Summit twice, and now gets me to work when I commute. I outgrew Ruby rather fast, I believe in about 6 months. I probably should have gone for something a little better right off the bat but you never know how much you’re going to like something longterm and bikes are expensive.

Ruby is dying this weekend. It served me well but I’m going to start learning how to take it apart and put it back together so I can be semi-self-sufficient with bike maintenance. I pretty much do all my own technical type stuff, there is no reason to not do the same with bikes.

Then there was Amira…

This is my main bike and I love it. Steve at UC Cyclery built it for me and it is “teh” awesome. This is the bike I’m starting racing with. Someday, hopefully not soon, I’m sure it will die a horrible death in a crash. But right now it’s my favorite thing. We did this bike right with awesome parts. It’s had a few issues along the way but those seem mostly work out at this point.

Now there is Transition!

I caved, I got a TT bike. After Valley of the Sun, seeing that my biggest hold back was on the Time Trial… I decided to take the plunge. It’s interesting and certainly not going to be my favorite thing to ride but it’s still pretty entertaining. I rode it for the first time last Sunday and it’s going to take some getting used to. I was definitely not holding any lines the first couple of times around Fiesta Island. By the third lap though things were starting to get better. Not sure it’s totally fitted yet as after the first ride I went back to UCC and they adjusted some things for me. I haven’t gotten a chance to ride it since so hopefully I will today or Saturday since I signed up for a Fiesta Island TT this weekend! I have no expectations for this little race, it’s mostly just to get on the TT bike and see how it goes. I even bought one of the Alien helmets! Yup, you didn’t think we could look any “douchier” in our spandex outfits, did you? Throw on a TT helmet and you have successfully smashed that thought!

Riding the TT bike is way different than the road bike. I must admit I giggled when I heard the boys moan about their balls and looked at all the funky saddles they used on their bikes to relieve pressure on their “always in the way” junk. I didn’t realize how much more forward you sit due to the TT bike position! I mean it make sense that you’d have to roll yourself forward to be able to ride on your elbows… You go from sitting on your butt bones on the road bike to sitting on everything that’s soft and sensitive on that TT bike… It’s not that comfortable, hah. People have said you get used to that but I’m pretty sure that means they’d just killed all the nerves they had in that area.

Over the past year I’ve been to a bunch of the local bike shops. Trek, Performance, Nytro, B&L, and several with names I can’t remember. If you notice one thing about the names of my bikes, they are all Specialized and I’ve bought every one of them at UC Cyclery. With all the bike shops I just mentioned never once have I had nearly as good an experience there like I have every time at UCC. Some of the mentioned stores just wanna make a sale and aren’t really interested in helping you find what’s best for you, others you can walk in and can’t get them to help you even if you were dying on their floor, and then there are the ones who are just plain clueless…

UCC is none of that. You go in, they ask if you need help. You wanna just look around, they back off and let you look. You got a question, they got an answer… if they dunno the answer they FIND you the answer. You buy a bike from them and they will do tune-ups on it for life as long as your the original owner. One of the other shops gives you just 1 free tune-up then charges $60 every time! I just can’t speak highly enough about UCC. I would never recommend another shop to a friend. They’ve always provided quick turn around times if I leave my bike and quite often they are able to just adjust whatever on the spot if I stop by. You aren’t just a faceless person there and that’s important to me.

So that was my shameless plug for the best bike store around. I can do that since this is my blog.

Anyways, I should probably go make audio now since my job funds this obscenely expensive hobby!