Turbo Man's Fitness Blog: Bike Blinging

NO LOVE HANDLES ALLOWED!

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' Theodore Roosevelt 23 April 1910

Thursday, 21 October 2010

Bike Blinging

Not having to train in the evening is quite pleasant. Today I finally finished unpacking my TT bike from the Barcelona trip and stripped it of it's useful parts. The brakes went onto my Scott in preparation for bike duties at the new house. The FSA ceramic bearing bottom bracket was removed and fitted to my Litespeed. The rear mech was removed to also go onto the Scott, but not before I took the FSA ceramic bearing jockey wheels off and replaced them with 'normal' Ultegra ones. The ceramic ones were fitted to the Ultegra SL rear mech on the Litespeed. Do ceramic bearings make a difference? I don't know if it can be measured on a power meter but it certainly feels easier to turn the cranks by hand (finger!) and certainly feels much, much smoother.

The Litespeed (my Outlaw race bike) is now almost ready for 2011; it just needs new clip on tri-bars (and new tyres before next season starts, of course). It needs a clean and a polish and then I will post some pictures. It's quite under-stated and, to me at least, is all the better for it.

Hopefully we are all enjoying rest and cake; or does anyone have any races left this year?

All the best.

1 comment:

Cavegirl said...: Ah, the joys of pottering about tinkering with bike parts :-)

Only person I know left racing is Matt - very interesting to see how he does - age group win do you reckon? And does that qualify you for Kona?; 22 October 2010 at 15:36