Why should the pleasure of easy climbs followed by acceleration off the crest unlike anything a heavy bike can produce be reserved for young team and pro riders?

There is no practical and age-appropriate machine for any particular individual or age group.  If you want to feel a snappy turn and you want your bike to shift effortlessly, without hesitation or grumble, you find a way to make that happen for you.

After this build, giving me a truly awesome ride at 15 pounds 2 ounces (with pedals, without water & tools), I have something that tells me in uncomfortably unforgiving terms that the only limitation is the rider and the condition thereof.  This bike screams “Come on!” as I think about how to spend my time.  Do I take advanced training in Tivo programming, or do I divert into the garage and spin for awhile?

Posts to come will have more to do with returning to a higher level of conditioning at a certain age.  WIsh me luck.  Or better yet, join me.

When I stepped back after the laying on of WTB Vigo saddle and Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels, the message I had to suppress was, no joke, “Nobody’s going to let you get on that, you know.”

Still missing bar tape, a chain, pedals, and tuning, but this puppy knocks me out.

This Geezer’s 2008 Trek Madone 6.9 Pro…

Thank you, Danielle…

The Citrus Heights City Bicycle Works store is the corner hardware store version of the City Bicycle Works kingdom.  You want people who’ll take the time to bring you to understanding, this is the place.

If you look closely at the lever positions, no, they are not quite in the right spot, but everything works like a champ.

Oh, and brakes… why does Campy sell front brakes with backing inset nuts that are too short for 90% of all forks out there?  Is that to keep their advertised weight down?

Campagnolo, I had translated what I have to say to you about that:

Ciò è una strategia stupida.

This build, however, was anything but that.

Frame: American; Waterloo, Wisconsin; used, via Ebay.

Drivetrain: Italy (pretty, but have you seen that tower in Pisa?)

Other parts: China (very glad there’s no dog food in this bike)

Installing the Campagnolo Record Ultra Torque bottom bracket was nothing less than an affirmation of my faith in international community of engineers.  OK, maybe the European Space Agency and NASA can’t keep their feet and meters straight when they jointly send something to Mars, but when Campy and Trek put their heads together in this revolutionary bottom bracket design, they totally got it spectacularly right.  Once the hard-to-find Loctite products arrived (primer from San Diego, adhesive from butt-nowhere), the BB went together in about five minutes.  I had to stand and wipe grease from my hands multiple times just to slow down the experience.  It’s beautiful, it’s light… I pity the poor slobs who pay someone else for the pleasure of installing it.

So I started fishing about for a responsible way to get into my $5K bike which, of course, had morphed to an $8K bike in my head. A year ago Ebay offered up a Chorus/Record drive train – you’ll see this later – and I was off to the races. That drive train sat in my garage, burning in its box on the shelf, until the daily news that I wasn’t getting any younger drove to me find something to hang it on.

Back to Ebay, and to the Madone frame offered by an excellent seller, Sarah Hansing, master wrench with deep Trek connections, offering guidance and necessary wisdom for this carbon-baby who didn’t quite appreciate the depth of the project he was beginning.

So I bring you today’s progress:

headset installed, complete with new Madone 6.9 fork with its 1 1/8″ top and 1 1/2″ bottom Cane Creek headset bearings, Bontrager Race XXX Lite carbon stem, and FSA K-Force carbon bar. Yummy.

Still looking to two wheels for a speed fix, I have begun a build, and I’m bringing you with me. It all started with stumbling across this lovely frame:

This 2008 Trek Madone 6.9 Pro called to me and just moved on in, as you see here.

Carefully and perfectly repainted by Russ Pickett of Air Art in Chico, CA, this frame awaits that which will make it the lightest thing to roll beneath me, and you will be witness to its transformation.

Ahh! I can’t stand it! If your eyes don’t water when you watch this, you’re not watching… more Mallorca!

And more! Slightly less insane, and mega-scenic. These Deutsche-wheels give us the helmetcam tour:

Thanksgiving holidays brought an opportunity to get back onto the Parkway after a long year of change; a marriage, a move, some grief and struggle, much joy.  So much to be thankful for, also things to cry for.

We did fifteen miles to ease back in, then stopped to watch the salmon at the American River Hatchery make their battered and weary way up the ladder into the “processing area” to spawn.  Their life-ending struggle put our past year in perspective, to tell the truth.  Here we were, watching them at the end of their lives, not the other way around.

And a new Trek is growing to join my mate’s.  Stay tuned.

But life has its way of providing undeserved wonders, and metaphors are transformed…

As fitness gurus will advise, there is nothing like a training partner to enhance the effectiveness and longevity of a commitment to fitness and wellness through exercise. We are a social species, after all, and we look to our peers for support and approval. There is also nothing like a life partner to enhance the meaning and experience of everything, including wellness and deep living.

This post is dedicated to that new shiny butt I am blessed to chase…

I was never very far from the thought she might hate it, until, that is, she kicked my butt while I was in hot pursuit. For a small frame, her 31” inseam legs with elite skater thighs were more than ready for that short top tube frame. Hell hath no fury than a woman on a bike that fits her.

Watch this space for pictures of the partnership.