Apparently, Specialized were not able to track down a 2006 model of the frame that I had and could only source a 2007 model which I was initially pretty pleased about. However, having picked it up, I was not keen - it just felt all wrong and no where near as fast as the old one. Anyway, I got straight on to trying to resolve this when I got home by completely lowering the handlebars to the lowest point that they would go. Whilst on my two hour ride today I finally started to get to grips with the bike and actually started to enjoy riding it. The thing that was getting on my nerves now though was the colour scheme...I mean, who ever thought to make a bike in the colour scheme "rust"?! Not wanting to spend any money I thought long and hard about how I could change what had become a cyclist's worst nightmare - the uncoordinated bike - into something respectable again.
In the end I managed to change this mess
For those non-cyclists out there..there are a number of issues here. The tires are not the same colour as a section of the frame and the handlebar tape is just not matched to anything!
Into this...the new colour scheme...reckon it is the best you can get out of a bad colour frame.
Total expense: £9.99 for the new bar tape. The tires are from the original bike when I first got it. They're slicks though so perfect for the winter ahead..the gear on this one is also higher than the last one. I am now on a 39x13 which is pretty high in the fixed world - still, need to beef up the legs in prep for Lausanne. Going to be doing some hill work over the next couple of weeks as well so pushing up them in a bigger gear should help with the strength.
4 comments:
Very nice Rich. But now it looks like a brighter shade of rust.
Why didn't you paint it in GB colours?
So is the bike as quick as the old one? Should it do the job in Switzerland?
This is not the bike for Switzerland - that one is here
In Switzerland you wanna be as light as possible - there are a couple of big hills that are gonna kill the legs. I'll do a post before I go out with the the course video etc - we all get to study it before we actually head out.
So what's the rust coloured one for? Commuting to work? Or will it be used in other races?
The rusty one is just for getting to work really and getting around London. The other one only ever comes out for proper training sessions, like this morning when I had to a 30min time trial, and races.
For everything else, ol rusty will suffice.
Post a Comment