Project Manager

I've been busier this last few weeks than I think I have been in months...if not years. Add to that a return to a full training load and also a good bit of actual "work" waiting for me every day and it's a recipe for the blog to suffer, at least a little. This week I'll let you guys have a peak inside the garage to see what all is on the workbench.

First is the Cervelo rebuild. As I've had a tough time getting low enough on my Speed Concept I've decided I'm going to sell it (ahem... $500 for the frame, two forks, two seatposts, new headset and Shimano BB... shameless plug) and go back to my aluminum P3.

New braking hazards

It's much easier for me to get low on the Cervelo, mainly due to it being made in a time when long/low was something that bike manufacturers actually made. Add to that some very low stack bars (USE Tula's, something I've been searching for for some time) and an adjustable stem and I'm able to get back to as low as I was years ago on my Planet X. It's coming together rather slowly unfortunately, as I'm not really in a  hurry to get back on a TT bike, and I want to make sure the fit is totally dialed in before I start cabling it.

What am I in a hurry to get on? My cyclocross bike. Actually that's not fair, I've been on it a bit already doing some gravel grinding and playing around near the house.  I've got a set of clinchers to get me around the fun stuff, but for racing I need to get my Major Tom tubulars glued and ready to ride.  I hope I have a how-to on both how to glue a tubular (at least my own way) and also on how to build a wheel. (I laced/built my Major Tom's) It's tedious, but not very difficult. I've glued tires before, but nothing quite so tough as a very wide rim. Gluing the front I made a huge mess and had to remove / re-glue the tire due to my own inefficiency at getting the tire straight before it settled. I'm hoping I do considerably better on the rear!

prep work!

One thing I figured out quick is that taping the brake track is a very handy thing to do. The amount of glue on the front rim brake track was a little bit ridiculous (could have also had something to do with my heavy handed glue painting.) and extremely annoying to remove. Prep work goes a long way in saving time and hassle in the long run!

But by far and away, the biggest project going right now isn't even mine... it's the wifes!

boxed and "partially assembled"

She has been on the hunt for a "do it all" bike for a while now, and after some serious research we ended up going with the Raleigh RX 2.0 Disc.  I've been rather impressed with my 1.0 I picked up for cyclocross at the end of last year and this was pretty much the best "bang for buck" we could find for her. It came to the door "75% assembled" which is code for "we threw a bunch of stuff together with no grease and super long cables...good luck. So currently I'm about 60% into building it after taking it from 75% to 0%. Here's where we sit now.

It came with pre-wrapped bar tape...wut?

It's a very slick bike... the matte base paint really pops with the decals. I'm not a huge fan of disc brakes or thru axles, but it's what she wanted and this one delivers.  I am a big fan of the SRAM Rival 1x group they put on it, although the wife might need something smaller than a 40t if she's going to be doing some of the bigger gravel climbs around here. Or maybe not... she is a mountain bike beast. I'll throw up a full detailed post on it once I get it totally put together (and of course after she gets to ride it a little bit!)

Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it!

- Christopher Morelock