Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Rain rain go away I can't ski and I hate my trainer!!

So what's everyone been up to these days???

I've been doing a little of this:



And since it's been +10 and raining this week, a little of that...



As most of you probably know, time on the trainer can get a wee bit boring if you do any amount of it. Well I don't do all that much of it but it's still boring. In order to help me pass the time and because I am relatively new to the sport I picked up some DVDs last winter to guide me through some time in the saddle. I have mostly been riding with Coach Troy's Base Building DVDs. I figure it's a good place to start and base work doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as anaerobic work!

I've been lusting about getting a new bike or two lately. Hey, if it's good enough for http://craigbarlow.blogspot.com/ then it's good enough for me! I've been thinking that I won't be able to live without a Bandersnatch (who could really?) and I've also been thinking that I should probably have a road bike that's lighter than my MTB. So as I was turning the cranks on the trainer tonight it hit me! ALL I need to do is lighten up my current road ride... You see this bike's been around, it's been well used. I bought it last year for 50 bucks! Since then I have replaced a tire and three tubes because those damn road tires are hard to get off when you don't know what you're doing. I also F%$#ed up the rim tape so all in all I'm up to about a $75 investment. I figure I put about 2000 km on it last year so for you bean counters out there that's about 4 cents per km... not bad. Oops, I digress... So here's the deal, I figure I can make it lighter without investing a lot of money into it. Frankly I'd be better off investing in a new bike before parts for this one because it is a bit of a beater. In order to make it lighter I just need to remove a bunch more of these...



How many can I remove before it's a problem? Can I remove every second one so I don't have to true it when I'm done? Let's say I remove every second one from both the front and back wheels, I bet I could get this baby under 25 pounds! SMOKING!!

I can't wait to wave at all those uptight roadies in the park as I go flying past on my weightless road machine. Yeah I know, they won't wave back but that'll make it even more fun!!!

5 comments:

Papa G said...

Lenny! Turn that beast into a fixie! That would take a few pounds off for sure! That would also really impress the roadies when you pass them in the Gats!

G.

the original big ring said...

You can get a fairly cheap & nice set of road wheels from the Moose. Quick way to lighten it up.

LennyG said...

I am leaning towards new wheels, drive train, seatpost, saddle, stem, bars and brakes... oh yeah, and frame! :)

the original big ring said...

what are you getting?

LennyG said...

I'm not sure at this point... I don't even know what size I need so I'm a long way away from making a purchase.

I do know of a used 2007 Devinci Silverstone SL3 but I'm not sure if that's what I want. It's pretty stiff according to their site and I'm more into long rides than short sprints so I think it might be too stiff for that. Maybe I should just by a hybred! ;)