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[tuanscott]

Today I went for a ride with the USC cycling club. It was pretty good fun, even though we just rode to the beach and up the boardwalk for a while. The club rode 48 miles, but I had to ride a 17-mile round trip to meet them at school. Also, when I got back to my house, I decided to tackle Mt. Washington, the hill behind my house (the road up it

Comments

[bobbotron]

Nice! I didn't know you have a new road bike. What kind of bike did you get?

[tuanscott]

Well, I didn't so much as get a new road bike as build one up. My girlfriend has been riding this really nice early 80's swiss frame I bought in Germany and built up for her on our European tour since we came back to the States, even though it's way to big for her (frame is ~56cm, she's 5'3"). I finally bought a new frame for her this fall (a sweet mid-80's steel Trek) and just switched her frame out. As I still had about 80% of my road bike from Europe (kept almost everything but the frame and fork because the airlines dented the crap out of them on the tour), I just built this frame up with some new bits (I'd already used my STI shifters and handlebars on my touring bike), most notable Cinelli handlebars and Shimano 7spd indexed DT shifters. After riding my touring bike on road for a year, it's nice to be riding a "lightweight" 700c racing bike again. The thing is super nimble (much shorter wheelbase) and has much more aggressive geometry, bumping my average speed up by 3-4mph

[bobbotron]

Nice - yeah, you really don't need a bling road bike to improve your ride. I remember riding my old steel Raliegh - it was a basic 14 speed road bike, man I could fly on that bike. :)

[tuanscott]

I've still got the Schwalbe Marathon 700x28c on there from the tour. It's plenty fast on those and I'll use them for training, but I think before I start racing I'll get some smaller tires.

[tuanscott]

Oh man, I think everyone needs that.