Carrera Day

Saturday I headed down to Orange Park to do a morning ride with the fellas from About Bikes. The route leads you almost immediately out of traffic-choked Orange Park and out into rural Clay County. There were about 20 riders or so, and the pace was quick (quick enough to be hard for me) but not what one would call blistering. A very pleasant ride. I spent a bit too much time goofing with sprints and trying to catch breaks that it bit me in the ass in the end, and when on the way back to the shop we turned into a headwind, I had to fall in behind my friend Travis to let him pull me for about 7 miles at 19 or so into the wind. I'm sure he got a workout from that! Max speed for the ride was 32, couple of stints at 29 or so, and a few wheezy moments...all good signs of a predominantly off-road cyclist getting an on-road workout. I'll be back this Saturday. They're a good bunch of guys.

I did get some comments about my heavy steel road bike, but in the Carrera's defense, a good amount of that weight is from a steel cup headset and the Tange chrome fork. I have maybe two pounds that I could shed on the front end alone...I should get to it. The Tange fork was always meant to be stop gap...so that it is still there after a year speaks to my generally content nature when it comes to steel...OR that's BS, and I'm just too lazy to track down a nice red King HS and a carbon Ritchey threaded fork 1". Probably the later, to be honest!

The Rush is at Bicycles ETC getting the replacement swing arm fitted. Warranty work requires that the dealer do it, so there you go. I'll have to give it the once over when I get it back because shop work always leaves me sketchy. While I was in the shop I struck up a chat with Mike the owner and we gabbed a bit about the good old days and boutique manufacturers and anodized purple crap and so-on, and before long I was with him in his store room going through dusty bins of retro goodness. I left with a NOS KORE stem for $10, and an entire SRP anodized bolt display, nearly 2/3 full, for 20$!! WOOHOO! I love tacky old crap!