After many years and thousands upon thousands of miles of faithful service my Shimano Dura-Ace 7800 Bottom Bracket finally gave up. In addition to the fair weather riding we are so fortunate to experience here in Southern California I have also ridden many raining days and many dirt roads on Sarah. By contrast, the BB30 Bearings on my Cannondale Super Six EVO last barely 6 months between replacing. I am not a fan of BB30 bottom brackets and it’s a damn shame the industry continues to move towards an inferior design.
I replaced it with a new Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 Bottom Bracket. As an added benefit I saved 33 grams of weight 😉 of course I’m just being silly since this BB is going on my 15 year old custom steel Serotta CSI. Although fully built with SRM power meter Sarah weighs in at sub 18lbs.
Shimano Dura-Ace 7800 Bottom Bracket
Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 Bottom Bracket
1998 Custom Serotta CSI with Shimano Dura-Ace 7970 Di2 with SRM Power Meter
Tomorrow I will be doing the Malibu Grand Tour Highland Double Century withLori Partridge Hoechlin on the tandem follow this link to my SPOT transmitter during the double century. We will be rolling about 530am
TIP: When the link opens up on your computer or Smartphone you may want to zoom in or out to actually see the streets. I have found that every time I go to the shared link it is zoomed all the way in and you can’t see street names.
I wish to thank Brad Horton with Global Star for his unmatched customer service and SPOT sponsorship!!!
On today’s ride I wore my SPY + KEEP A BREAST Lens: Pink W/ Pink Spect. These are some wicked cool lenses. When you are holding them in you can see through them but once you put them on your face they go completely mirrored. The tint is really light so they are great on an early morning ride before the sun is shinning in earnest. Let’s just call them great for low light conditions. I wore them in bright sunshine today and they were fine as well. I strongly recommend these glasses for their performance, great looks and heck you are helping the Keep A Breast Foundation. Get your pink on!
Pictured above L to R. Jim Miller, George “Red Eyed Vireo” Vargas and Michael Marckx.
Also on today’s ride I stopped by Spy Optic’s Headquarters in Carlsbad to pick up a pair of sunglasses for another one of my elite riders. If you are curious they were the very glasses I am describing in this post. I spent some time visiting with Jim Miller, Director of Sales. We spoke about the upcoming Waffle Ride on April 7. Road Bike Action did a write-up you can find here. Jim gave me the brief history of how it got started and how it’s modeled loosely from Dave Jeager’s French Toast ride held in January. The Waffle Ride has grown significantly in it’s barely 2 year history and he’s expecting over 300 riders this year.
We chatted until Micheal Marckx, CEO & President of Spy Optic was available to join us. We continued our discussion about the Waffle Ride with Michael. I was surprised to hear that some riders cut the route short on last year’s ride. I was appalled to hear that riders would do such a thing. I then thanked Michael and Jim for their sponsorship and got back on the bike.
Thank you Spy Optic for taking an interest in us and supporting our development team!!!
Here are some graphs of my training over the last three months. These are the highlights. All data collected on Training Peaks WKO+ v3.0
1. I hit 1000 miles for the month of January. First time over 1K since May of last year
2. Notice the steady increase of miles and hours trained per month beginning in November 539 miles/35:24, December 896 miles/56:45 and finally January 1002 miles/61:10
3. Notice weight loss from 163 lbs down to 149.8 post ride today 2/1/13
4. I train by hours but miles is easier for most people to understand and grasp so I am using mileage charts. There is quite a bit of power data I can discuss as well.
5. Notice 5 min peak power was 324 watts Normalized Power of 343 watts or 5 watts per kilo today. Even with the weight loss this is the highest 5 minute peak power in the last 12 months! It confirms that I have not lost power or muscle mass during the weight loss.
6. The last week of January was a recovery week and you can see the Acute Training Load line (PINK) and the Training Stress Balance Line (YELLOW) are just about to meet. This translates to a feeling of being fit and well recovered. Now it’s time to build for another three weeks.
If you have any questions please make a comment on the blog and I will get back to you!
Here is my product review on the Serfas Thunderbolt Tail Light.
From Serfas’ website
Serfas Thunderbolt (UTL-6) Taillight gives you style and safety in one high-powered and affordable package.
Being seen on your bike at night never looked so good with Serfas’ Thunderbolt (UTL-6) Taillight. This USB rechargeable gem comes with 35 lumens of firepower while giving riders’ several different rear facing mounting options.
The 30 micro-LED strip will let your presence be known to cars and bikes alike. And with 7 different color options, your bike will definitely find its match.
Charge up, light up and get riding safely with the Thunderbolt.
I had my first ride today using the new Garmin 810.
SET-UP
I found the set-up was very easy. Garmin 810 like its predecessor is all touch screen commands except for Power, Lap and Start/Stop which are buttons. I just tapped through the different menus and was ready to ride in fewer than 5 minutes.
The bike set-up was really simple. I have an SRM Dura-Ace Crankset Power Meter. The Garmin 810 found the Suunto Speed sensor and the SRM power meter with ease. I then did a search for my Heart Rate strap and bam! all sensors were detected.
People laugh at me because I name by bikes. Ok then why when I was doing the bike set-up did the Garmin 810 have an option to name by bike? You’re not going to put something boring like “Road bike” or “MTB” or “Serotta” in there are you? No! You have these little icons to choose from that are silhouettes of bikes. If you do that then you can see if it’s your road bike or MTB. No, the very smart people at Garmin are giving you the option to NAME you bike! So do it it’s ok.
Once you get the basic sensors from your bike detected by your head unit it’s time to have some fun. One of the cool upgrade feature of the new Garmin 810 from the Garmin 800 is Live Tracking. Pair up your Garmin 810 to your smartphone via Bluetooth technology and now you can invite friends to follow you on your ride. You can choose selected friends by inserting their emails into the Garmin Connect mobile app or simply turn on Facebook or Twitter and have ALL your “friends” follow you. Watch the video below so you can see how it works.
Tomorrow 1/19/13 I will be doing a century plus ride and if you’re my Facebook friend you can follow me through some of San Diego’s great country roads.
My latest endeavor is forming a new and completely different cycling organization. REV Endurance Cycling Team – a cycling organization focused on bringing up the next generation of endurance cyclists. REV is a development team rather than a racing team. As part of it’s rider development strategy, REV is very keen on bringing more women into Ultra Cycling. REV is about making and maintaining a lifestyle change with personal health, fitness and cycling as priorities. REV will take the “couch potatoes” coach and train them to complete their very first century or Gran Fondo. REV will take century riders and assist them in becoming brevet riders (unsupported events) or double century riders. REV will prepare you for “the toughest 48 hours in sport”, the Furnace Creek 508.
REV Endurance Cycling is always looking for corporate sponsors and individual donations. Please feel free to contact me with your interest in assisting REV Endurance Cycling accomplish its goals.
I DNF’d the 2012 Furnace Creek 508. I shall tell you more about my experience in due time.
Thank you for all your comments, emails, text messages and Facebook messengers during the race. Trust me they helped to keep me going. I’m sorry I disappointed you.
George's Epic Adventures 