Excited about the Giro

The Giro d'Italia (a bike stage race through Italy, second only to the Tour de France in stature) starts in just a few days, and I am getting very excited. It looks like there will be some very interesting stages this year. In keeping with the theme here are some videos of two of the best Giro riders ever. The first is of the legendary Fausto "Il Campionissimo" Coppi.

The second is of Marco "Al Pirata" Pantani.

Both riders were great climbers, both road for Bianchi and both died young. Actually my Bianchi road bike is in a way named for them. It is called the "9-2-8" which stands for the three years in which Bianchi riders won both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. Coppi won in '49 and '52 and Pantani in '98.

New Look Keo Sprint Pedals

Summer came early to SoCal this year with record tempuratures in April, but things have definately cooled down the last couple weeks, and we even had a light rain last night. I missed my normal Saturday morning ride this past weekend because my bike was in the shop and I picked up a new club cycling jersey over the weekend so I was really looking forward to my ride this morning. When I opended the garage door and saw the wet drive, I was thinking, "who has been spraying down the drive?" Silly me. I guess it has been so long since it rained last, that I just wasn't expecting it. The rain wasn't enough to actually bring me indoors, in fact, if you lived almost anywhere else in the country you would probably have been embaressed to even call it rain -- more of a light sprinkling. But it still makes the roads slick, and so I was extra careful.

Over the weekend I also installed some new pedals. The just look spot on fantastic on my new bike. I have been using Shimano SPD pedals for a while now. These are the style of cleats commonly found on most mountain bikes, and they were probably a good choice originally because I did much of my riding on the spin bikes at my gym, and the SPD cleats are compatible with most spin bikes. But now I try to ride as much as possible on my actual bike and lately the shortcomings of the SPD system have become more and more apparent. First of all they are pain to engage because the cleat and the pedals themselves are so small. I have never been able to engage them easily because I have to get this tiny metal thing somewhere on the bottom of my shoe to engage with this tiny metal thing on the petal all without actually being able to see it. The cleats are also metal and so you can slip on them really easily when you walk and they will dig a hole in what ever they get near (like your bike!). I have some rubber "pontoons" on the sides to help with walking, but they sometimes interfere with the engagement of the petal. I also don't like how much float the cleats have. For those of you who don't know, float is the amount of movement your heal can move in or out without the cleat disengaging. The SPD pontoon cleats generally come in two forms, no float or about 7 degrees of float. I want some float, because it is better for your knees, but 7 degress is too much. Moving your heel out that far is very uncomfortable so usually I move my heal in, but then with that much float my heal hits my bike frame before the cleat will disengage. It is very annoying. So I figured with the new bike I should get some real road pedals.

There is actually a guy from my neck of the woods who has invented his own style of pedal that looks really interesting, but they are too rich for my blood. So my choice was between the traditional Look style pedals, Shimano SPD-R pedals or Speedplays. Shimanos are out because it is just too weird to have a campy bike with Shimano pedals. That is probably just silliness on my part, but it doesn't seem to me that Shimano offers anything more than a copy of the traditional Look pedal so really, why go there? I seriously considered Speedplays for a while, but a few drawbacks kept me away. First is the cost. They are definately more expensive for the quality of the pedal. They also are a little heavier. Most people think the Speedplays are really light because in the reported stats the Speedplay pedals are around half the weight of their competitors, but that is usually because the cleat that attaches to the pedal is not counted. The cleat on Speedplays is a large brass plate which is rather heavy, along with a three hole shoe adapter (unless you have four hole shoes, which are very rare). So the whole package is usually the same weight or more than a traditional Look pedal. Speedplays do have the advantage of dual sided entry, but the float is not adjustable except on the high end models, and I have heard of other triathletes complain that they slide around when trying to walk on their bike shoes with Speedplay cleats. So for all of these reasons I figured I should just go with the tried and true Look pedals. I was thinking of getting some cheap generic pedals through Bianchi that had the traditional Bianchi celeste blue (while it looks green to me, Italians call it blue -- traditional Italian biking lore has it that it is the color of the Milan sky) to match my bike. But then I was looking at the Look Keo website and I really liked the design of the new Keo pedals. They are similar to the traditional Look pedals, but have some design improvements, such as more contact between the cleat and pedal, shorter stack, more turning clearance, a lighter weight and ease of engagement. So I pulled the trigger and go a pair of Look Keo Sprints. (I did not know it at the time, but I also just found out that they received the 2006 Editors Choice award from Bicycling Magazine for petals under $200) I wasn't sure about the bright red color on my black, white and celeste Bianchi, but actually it really brings out the red decals on the wheels, and looks really cool. I'll have to post some photos. Edit: Photos Added





This morning was their first test, and if they continue to perform like they did today, I'll be estatic. They engage easily with a solid snap, and feel really solid. Disengaging is really fast and simple and the 4.5 degrees of float in the standard cleats is just perfect for me. It gives me the float that I want, but not so much that I have to over twist my leg. So far a great pedal.

On to New Challenges

To say that it has been a while since my last post is an understatement. For a while there I think I slide off of the face of the earth. I actually wasn't sure if I was ever going to blog again. You see the first 4 months of this year were more about detraining than training. I was often sick with several nasty infections that my preschool age daughter brought home with her during the winter and then when I finally felt better it seemed that I could only get in a few days of training before some other crisis would occur and whip out another week of training. I was constantly starting my training and never building. I became so frustrated that I started to think that perhaps triathlon, and all three of its sports are perhaps too much for me to handle at this point in my life and that I should perhaps just focus on one or two.

The problem with this strategy is which sports to choose. As I got closer and closer to Wildflower my frustration built and I guess as a protection mechanism I decided to just not doWildflower. I needed a new goal. Something different and something realistic with the time I have available. So lately I have been focusing on cycling. My goal is to climb Mt. Wilson by the end of the year. Here is a nice 3D image of the over 5000ft climb.

(image courtesy of CalTech Velo)
And here is the elevation profile. Definitely an epic climb, but no extreme grades.

(image courtesy of CalTech Velo)

So far I have made it to about 3000ft. Other members of my tri club have been going up this route too, but I usually don't ride with them because I have to be back home at a reasonable hour (I couldn't keep up with them anyways), so I leave the house at five or six in the morning. The triple crankset on my Trek 1220 has been a life saver. I don't think I could move my 250lb body up this climb without a triple. I am usually in my lowest or next to lowest gear the entire way up. No standing, just spinning.

While I appreciate the triple I still am not happy with this bike. All this cycling has made me more sensitive to the fact that my bike just doesn't fit right. It is a 50cm frame which is the second to smallest frame they make and I am six feet tall. I bought a new seat post and toyed with the idea of a new stem and even a new fork, but in the end that would just be putting more money into a bike that will never be 100% right for me. This was hard to admit because I wanted my next bike to be a tribike. I also wanted to have a road bike in the stable, and at my level of skill a road bike is going to be more important than a tribike, because I am simply not fast enough to take full advantage of the aero position available on a tribike. So I started to look for a new road bike and pushed the idea of getting a tribike back for a few years. Who knows. Maybe I wouldn't be doing triathlons in a few years, but still cycling. Then I would really appreciate the choice of a new road bike. If I still am doing triathlons by then, then I know I have earned the tribike. At least that is what I keep telling myself. . .

So what to get. There are so many more options with road bikes than in tribikes, and I combed the magazines and internet for options. I was becoming obsessed. The problem is that no matter what bike you look at there is another "better" bike for a little more money. That is just the way it is. I did not want to regret that I could have gotten something better if I had just spent a little more money, and yet I have to cut it off somewhere. After struggling with the issue for a while I came up with a system. At the risk of revealing to everyone I am an incredible nerd I am going to share with you my system in case you have to make such a decision yourself.

First I selected the features that I cared most about, and ranked the factors. I then awarded each bike points based on how well they satisfied each factor. For me, I cared most about ride quality, because my Trek 1220 is just bone-crushingly stiff. The second factor was that I wanted a decent component group. I am a big guy so I need something that will work well and have good durability. The third factor was weight. It is not that important since I am rather heavy already, but for some illogical reason it mattered to me. The last was the brand name. I guess this makes me shallow, but the name Cervelo, Pinarello or Orbea it is worth something to me. Certainly less important than the other factors, but still worth something. I would be dishonest in my analysis if I left it out.

Now you may notice that I left fit out of the equation. Fit is really a do or die issue. Either it fits or it doesn't. Obviously I can't buy a bike that doesn't fit. But what I am doing here with a point system is really trying to establish a baseline of value, or at least the value to me of each model of bike. Then I go try them out.

So I ranked each factor and gave more points to higher ranked factors. 10 points available for factor one, 8 points available for factor two and so on. If the bike exceeded my requirements it got full points. If it met my requirements it got half points, and if it was deficient it got no points. For example, for ride quality I based it mostly on materials. Carbon, Scandium and Lightweight Steel bikes got full points, other steel bikes and lightweight aluminium got half points and regular aluminum bikes got none. Ultegra or Dura-Ace was full points, 105 was half and Sora or Tiagra no points. For weight, bike less than 18 pounds got full points, less than 20 half and greater than 20 nothing. Etc.

After adding up all the points I then divided each point total by the price of the bike. This gives me a value quotient or value for the money. Certain bikes came up as good values right way, particularly Felt, Jamis and Raleigh. They seemed to offer the best value for the money. But did I get any of them? Nope. This is what I got.

I found a great deal (40% off) at a local shop for a 2006 Bianchi 928 Carbon. It fits very well particularly because the size is 55cm which is actually a rare size. I have short legs relative to my height, and so I need the largest bike I can get while still having a tolerable standover. 55cm is the largest I can go with my legs. Most other brands offer a 54cm or a 56cm. A 56cm is too tall for me to standover comfortably and a 54cm will have a cockpit that is too short. Some compact geometry frames would also work, but they often have headtubes that are too tall, so this bike worked out perfectly.

The full carbon frame allows the ride to be really smooth. The component group is Campagnolo Veloce, which from all my research is very reliable and strong. I gather that the general concesus is that Veloce is between 105 and Ultegra in terms of quality, but that with Campy the lower end components share more in comon with the high end stuff than with Shimano, so it is difficult to compare the two. Really the only difference between component groups for Campy is weight so Veloce should be very durable. I was skeptical of the Campy system at first because I wasn't familiar with it, but after trying it out I like it much better than Shimano. The brifters fit my large hands better, and I like having two separate levers instead of one. I find that I can't mishift like I sometimes do on Shimano, and the cabling is much cleaner.

The bike is also just at 18 pounds. And the name . . . got to love it. I admit I go a little crazy over Italian stuff. It's not rational, I know. The bike was handmade in Bianchi's factory in Italy with Italian components and even Italian wheels. By the way, this is not true of most Bianchis, which are often made in Taiwan with Taimanese components. The bike got full points in every category and because of the closeout price, it was by far the best value of any other bike I considered. The only problem with the bike is that it doesn't have a triple like my Trek so going up Mt. Wilson my not be possible for me. It does have a compact crankset so I may be able to get the gearing I need by swapping out a cog or two in the cassette, so I am still considering what I want to do about that.

Now I have been riding this piece of art for a few weeks, and I am in cycling heaven. Now on mornings when I'm scheduled to ride I wake before my alarm goes off, and I haven't missed a single ride.