Brentani’s Cycling Blog

here are some pictures of Jude’s new bike, as painted by Brian at Circle A! Completely adorable, if I do say so myself. And this was also the test run for the colors for my new bike. And I have to say I’m very happy with the combination. Especially combined with the green Chris King headset and bottom bracket.

In other news, last night’s smack down was a little disappointing. Stayed at the front for the first sprint, but didn’t contest. Second sprint I was well placed and put in a pretty big attack at the start of the hill. I had a sizable gap at the crest, but Aaron caught me at the 150 meter to go mark. He rolled up next to me and slowed down. Not sure what he was doing as asked if he wasn’t contesting it, or what. He sped up a bit and took it. After the line, he said he was waiting so we could drag-race to the line. What he didn’t realize was that I had put everything into getting as much of a gap on the hill as possible, so if he had anything for a sprint he was going to beat me. Tourtellot Hill…I really wanted to win this one, since the only time I’ve lost it all year was to Keith Kelley and there’s no shame in that. I attacked about 1/2 way up the hill, but Aaron had made sure to be latched to my wheel and he brought Syl and Dave Kellogg back with him. No one passed, as I hoped they would, so I waited a bit and jumped again, but once they caught up I was spent. Too bad.

and I held them in my hands. Completely subjective, but they feel as light or lighter than the ritcheys. An additional thought on swapping between the bikes…for the price of a freehub for one of the companies that sell swappable freehubs, I could get a new SRAM rear derailleur, which, as Khalid pointed out, should work with my campy shifters. (http://velonews.competitor.com/2008/03/bikes-tech/can-you-run-campy-shifters-with-a-sram-drivetrain-sure-why-not_73404) If I did that on the current bike, then I could run the new wheels (which do not have swappable freehubs) and also any future wheels could be sram/shimano and avoid the whole issue…certainly if anything happens to my chorus RD, it will be replaced with a Force…

after toying with the idea of  the following:

• handbuilts that would have greatly increased the price tag of my bike (King Hubs, Open Pro Rims, DT Revolution, spokes) but would have come in below my target weight (~1500 grams)
• a set of Easton EA70s were a bit heavier than I wanted (1650) and also of questionable reliability, especially for cross, and also don’t come in silver.

In the end, I decided on the ultegra/open pro option. These wheels are assembled by Circle A’s distributor and shipped untensioned. They use Ultegra 6600 hubs, silver Open Pro rims, and Wheelsmith DB14 spokes and alu nipples. I’m not thrilled about aluminum nipples, but on a 32-spoke wheel, I’m not too concerned either. They’re a good deal, classy, and not as heavy as I thought (presumably – I probably won’t know for sure what they weigh until I have them in my hands). They should only be marginally more than the Eastons (maybe 1750 or so), but considerably more reliable, and prettier. Somewhere down the road, like when I get a real job, I can think about a set of race wheels (something like the Chris King option above, maybe even with carbon rims, but almost definitely tubulars).

so, it looks like Circle A’s component distributor has dropped Mavic, so the ksyrium elites are back off the table. Now looking at Easton EA90 SL’s, perhaps, or something else…Basically looking for something in the 1500-1700 range, as strong and as cheap as possible…The swappable freehub issue isn’t so huge any more since I think the Rtichey’s are holding up pretty well now that I have brass nipples on them.

And an excuse to look at my current bike. I picked “Scheveningen” for this bike for the following reasons. Now I’m trying to decide on the name of the new bike. Here are the current options:

• Noordwijk – This was in the running for the last bike. It would be a little nice to continue a theme, as Noordwijk and Scheveningen were my two main destinations when I lived in Holland. (I would ride from Leiden to Katwijk and then ride up the dunes either north to Noordwijk or south to Scheveningen.) Noordwijk is also the name of a movement in my Hörspiel, Saturn and Jupiter.
• Sisyphus – If I can get over the fact that I’d be condemning myself to an eternity of “syphilis” jokes, this would be a nice name. The myth of Sisyphus figures importantly in Glenn Gould’s Idea of North and is about a king, condemned to roll a ball up a hill and watch it roll back down for eternity, with no perceivable purpose. Except of course the purpose of going up the hill, so if you enjoy going up hills, Sisyphus’ punishment doesn’t really seem so bad.
• Naming it after a hill. This could be a fun play on all the bikes and components made by big manufactures named after iconic hills in the Tour (i.e. Trek Madone, Lightweight Ventoux, Lemond Tourmalet and Alpe d’Huez). No one would think to name a bike after Mount Washington or Scanuppia or Mauna Kea or Lincoln Gap, because people who want to ride that kind of hill repeatedly are few and far between.  Mauna Kea and Scanuppia are the only two that really make sense, because Washington and Lincoln Gap are both possible on my current bike. I probably won’t go this route, however, because I also have an idea to put 3 hills (Washington, Mauna Kea and Scanuppia, and maybe the Dalton Highway) on the bottom of the downtube with checkboxes for when I actually do them.
• I still also like the idea of naming it after a Demon from the Lesser Key of Solomon.
• or something else…still considering other options.

for finding this picture.

Pretty awesome, I’d say

in my previous post, I don’t think I really did the shade of orange and green that I was thinking of justice. This jersey was where I got the idea for that particular combination (the dark green woud be for the lettering):

Wheels are still not decided. I’d like to do Kysriums, but the freehub issue definitely seems to be real. But for now, on to other things:

Stem: Deda Zero 100

Handlebars: Deda Newton Shallow Drop

Seatpost: This is a little trickier. I don’t like the Zero 100 post in black, and I’m not entirely convinced about how I like it in grey/silver. Or more to the point, I’m not sure what color to go with for the whole set. The stem and bars are available in dark metal or black anodized. In general I’d prefer silver over black, but I’m not sure about the darker metal. gewilli and marcus vote black, but my personal opinion is that black detracts a bit from the frame. If I go with silver/dark metal, then I’d get the Zero100 dark metal post. If not, then I might just get another Ritchey post like I have on my current.

So I guess the first question is: Dark Metal or Black Ano?

Another consideration: I’ll be getting the cheap selle italia seat, and putting that on the gazelle. And I’ll take my white selle flite seat off of the gazelle and use it on the new bike. It’s a bit faded, but it has sentimental value because it was a gift from Mark Nicholson. It should look good with the Deda grey handlebar tape.

The next source of much contention on the new bike: wheels. My current wheels (Ritchey WCS Protocols) suck ass. Well, sort of. They haven’t been too bad, but i have broken nipples on 3 occasions, and recently ran over a nail that put a hole in the rim. The bike shop gave the go ahead to ride on the rims with the hole, but I really don’t trust the alloy nipples any more (in the back, anyway). All in all, these are not wheels I want to rely too heavily on. But, they did have the nice advantage of being both cheap and relatively light (around 1500 grams). So, lets just say in an ideal world, I’d like a wheel that I can use on both bikes. And, given that this bike will be used off-road and on some bumpy terrain, I’d like something sturdy. And I want something light since I’m using these for hill climbing. And cheap (meaning, also, that I only want ONE set of wheels for all this – I mean, in an ideal world, I’d get new race wheels for the current bike and a pair of handbuilt training wheels, and then do the same for the new bike for shimano hubs. Like maybe 2 pairs Reynolds KOMs or 303s, and 2 sets of ultegra/record hubs w/ open pro rims…yeah, not happening until I get a real job and University profs start making over 6 figures).

New bike will be, for reasons stated in previous posts, sramano. So here are some options:

1. Handbuilt DT Swiss with swappable freehubs could be run on both bikes. with the right rims, and the right spokes, this could conceivably be both light and durable. Cheap? No.
2. Reynolds with swappable freehubs. The Solitudes fit two of the criteria. They are cheap (especially with the team deal!) and they’re pretty light (around 1500). Unfortunately, they don’t seem much different from the Ritchey’s and I’m afraid they might end up having the same sorts of nipple popping problems, etc.
3. Ultegra hubs w/ open pro rims. I can get a good deal on these, and they’d nice and strong. Weight would be within range (though I’m not sure what the exact weight would be) and I would not be able to use these on my current bike.

And now, what I think my decision actually is. (drum roll…) Mavic Ksyriums. I can get a good deal on these (not through competitive cyclist, btw, they just have nice pictures). I can get an even better deal on the Equipes. (Or, they’re cheaper, whether it’s a better deal remains to be seen.) According to gewilli, they’re used a lot in cross, so they’re durable. Mark on our team is a big fan, and he’s at least 50 pounds heavier than I am. Elites are 1550 grams, Equipes around 1750. That makes the Elites LIGHT in my book, and the Equipes aren’t too shabby either. And Mavic sells a replacement freehub body as well, so can run this on either bike if I get the freehub! win, win, win. The only question now (assuming someone isn’t going to rain on this parade and tell me that the Kysriums aren’t all they’re cracked up to be) is whether to go with the Equipes or Elites. The weight difference is enough and the price difference isn’t enough that I’m leaning towards the Elites. But if the weight savings on the Elites comes at the cost of durability, then I’d have to think more seriously about the Equipes. Anyone care to chime in on the relative durability of the two wheels? Any other advantages/disadvantages I should know about??

Oh, and I’m going to rebuild the Ritchey rear wheel with Brass so that I’ll hopefully have a decent and more durable wheel for general riding on my current bike.

For Khalid and Marcus, here’s another idea: