SL3

Specialized SL3

Over the years I have always been attracted to flashy bicycles. The more "bling" the bike had the better....in the late 90's I went through a secession of Colnago's with their intricate paint schemes. Like other things in life, as I have gotten older, my tastes have changed. I wrote about the Specialized SL2 over a year ago, and as I don't have a copy of the article in front of my I seem to recall that I really like the bike, but wasn't to fond of the "ninja-throwing star wheels" that the bike came with. The bike that i rode at the time was equipped with SRAM Force as Red was not out yet. It all worked well, and the frame had tons of potential, but it just wasn't the right package for me. I have been riding and racing bicycles for a long time, and although I am not sure just what I am ultimately looking for....I know what I am not looking for.

During the Tour DE France, I sat in front of my television everyday marveling at the amazing bicycles that the Saxo Bank and Quick Step teams were riding. Through a bit of research on the web during the Tour, I discovered that this was the new Specialized SL3, the follow up to the SL2. The bicycle had a claimed weight savings of 10% per frame and was 18% stiffer. The weight I could care less about, it was the stiffness that I was after. However the thought of riding a 17lb bicycle out of the box, in this day and age with technology being what it is, makes me cringe. There always seems to be a ton of equipment that i want to change on every bicycle, out of the box. Some friends from the shop went to a Specialized event in late July, and when they returned all they could talk about was this amazing new road bike called the SL3. I started to immerse myself in the literature that they had returned with. The bicycle was going to come in a number of different offerings...S-Works Tarmac SL3 Dura Ace Di2 bike for $9900, S-Works Tarmac SL3 Super Light $9200, S-Works Tarmac SL3 Dura Ace $7700, S-Works Tarmac SL3 SRAM $7200, S-Works Tarmac SL3 Module $3300, S-Works Tarmac SL3 Frameset $2900. Then I saw it, the SL3 frameset. It was "raw carbon", and did come with anything other that a seatpost. At last I could take a really nice frame and build it up with what I wanted.

Over the last year I have really fallen in love with the SRAM Red group. I think that it is light, it works well, seems to be durable, and isn't real finicky about what wheels/cassettes it is joined with...meaning it works pretty well with Campy and Shimano cassettes. The one knock is that it is clunky and noisy. I like that. When I shift gears, I want to feel the shift, I want to hear the shift. So my SL3 was going to have a SRAM Red group. No carbon bar and stem for this guy, it was the Deda Zero/100 bars and the Zero/100 stem. I have been using this or a variation of this bar and stem combo for a few years now and I really like how stiff and durable they are. Wheels....Mavic Ksyrium Sl's...again a very tough wheel that can stand up to the pounding of me on the chip-seal of North Celina or the rigors of the Plano Tuesday night crit. Conti GP 4000's are my tire of choice....and I topped it all off with a Selle San Marco Regal saddle, Arundel cages and bar tape. When all is said and done with my Time pedal I have a 15lb bicycle. Nothing light, nothing esoteric, just a real world bicycle using real world parts and components that can stand up to days of me bouncing on top of it.

Specialized says the following about the frame..."Campy-style 1-1/8" to 1.5" headset with steel bearings ensures quality, low maintenance and lighter weight. Specialized puts its championship-winning blend of speed and light weight in the new FACT IS S-Works Tarmac SL3 11r carbon frame with incredibly stiff oversized BB and 1.5" headset bearing. FACT full carbon monocoque fork with uni-weave finish integrates with the frame using an oversized race to deliver enhanced steering precision. Stiff and adjustable S-Works FACT carbon Pave seatpost uses a Zertz insert to minimize road vibrations for greater comfort. With the overwhelming success of the Quick Step and Saxo Bank teams it would seem the last thing Specialized would do is mess with success and redesign their top of the line Tarmac SL2. However, despite the bikes many victories, Specialized felt that there was room for improvement and went back to the drawing board to create the completely new 2010 Tarmac SL3."

I found this from Road Bike action

"The Design
The 2010 Tarmac SL3 uses Specialized’s FACT IS (integrated Structure) carbon manufacturing process. The frame is composed of four main parts: The front triangle, seat tube, seatstays and bottom bracket/chainstays assembly. To increase the stiffness of the rear triangle the oversized bottom bracket and chainstays are now one piece, On the SL2 the bottom bracket and seatpost were one piece while the chainstays were separate. The SL3’s bottom bracket shell does away with metal bearing cups to save weight and features internal carbon ribs that stiffen the juncture between the bottom bracket bearings and the frame. Specialized also stiffened the rear triangle with the addition of hollow box section alloy dropouts that are lighter and stiffer than the carbon versions they replace. The chainstays on the SL3 are also new and feature an improved elliptical shape and revised carbon lay-up for increase stiffness. While a lot of work was done the rear the bike, the front has also been reworked with several key improvements. Like the SL2, the SL3 uses a carbon fiber steerer tube that tapers from 1.125-inch diameter at the top to 1.5-inch at the fork crown. New for 2010, the new SL3 features internal carbon ribs near the head tube and down tube junctions. These ribs help the frame tubes better hold their shape when under loads and increases torsional stiffness in the front triangle. To finish off the front end Specialized replaced the alloy internal headset bearing cups with carbon fiber versions to further reduce weight. All of this work has created a bike that is 18-percent torsionally stiffer than the SL2 and has a frame weight of just 875-grams for a 56-centimeter bike"



I knew the first time I clipped in that this was going to be a special bike. It is stiff, light and responsive. It really seemed to speak to me. However the bike has a comfort level built into it probably from the experience and feedback of the Pro teams in Europe using the bike. I have always been on a quest for the ultimate ride, and I am not sure that this is the end all/be all in bicycles....but at this time I think it is the very best that money has to offer....certainly the best that Specialized has to offer. Time will tell after I have several thousand miles on this bike, but for now i think it is a keeper.

Cateye Strada Wireless

For years it was always one of the coolest features to have a cyclo-computer on your handlebars. Long before the advent of the power meter, a bicycle computer was a riders sole source of speed, distance, cadence, and even heart rate. In the past I have had my share, and although they worked fairly well, they all shared one basic problem, other than the fact that they didn't read power/wattage. They had wires. Yes, that is correct, wires have become the bane of my existence. Catch the wire on something, accidentally snag the wire, or just forget it was there and try and take your handlebars off, and inevitably you would "tear" the cable just enough to render the computer useless.

A few years back woreless computers started to pop up at local bicycle shops. I decided to take the sound and sage advice my father had instilled upon me at a young age and "never buy anything in the first production year", and waitn till all of the "bugs" were worked out. Another problem that is starting to creep into my life is age. I am now 43, and my eyes aren't what they were 10 years ago. All to often the screens on these computers are very small and the numbers diffucult to read, especially when you are hammering along at 26+ mph, and bleeding out of your ears...or maybe that is just me.

The Cateye Strada wireless addresses all of these issues and I am happy to report comes through with flying colors. I was able to pull this from the Cateye website.."Packed with functions but free from wires, the Strada Wireless epitomizes power and elegance.
The Strada Wireless boasts the largest screen and numbers in its class. Thanks to the new CatEye ClickTec™ interface, you can switch among seven modes by simply pressing the bottom of the computer face — easy to do, even on rough terrain. Your selected mode displays at the bottom of the screen, while your current speed appears at the top in huge, easy-to-read numerals. An up/down arrow tells you how your current speed compares to your average speed.
The innovative FlexTight™ bracket mounts quickly, securely and tool-free to virtually any handlebar or stem. The new tool-free wheel sensor mounts effortlessly to most road and mountain forks."

The Strada also does the following functions which I fell is just the correct amount of features until one is ready for the "next step"..current speed, maximum speed, average speed, odometer, trip distance, elapsed time, clock. Retail is $65 at you local bike shop.

Asher J. Gacki

I think I'll keep him.

out
Gacki

Greg LeMond!

fuck it, I'm going

Tuesday was another day with temps in the low 100's. I needed to start ramping up my training for HHH so I needed to get a ride in. My plan was 3 hours in the late morning....followed by 2 hours in the early evening. I went out on some of my favorite roads here in North Texas, and quickly realized that I had a massive tailwind on the way out. I took Preston road all the way to Gunter, Texas, hung a right hand turn and started to make my way back....I was slapped in the face with winds in excess of 20mph. And it was hot....3 hours 20 minutes...6 water bottles and a coke later I was home covered in salt, and sporting some very tan arms and legs.

I took a shower, did some work around here and started to think about racing the crit in Tuesday night. As I walked around the house I could tell there was no way that I had the legs for a crit. So I decided to tackle a local group ride. My brother Sam was there and I haven't ridden with him in a while so this was a nice change.

For the first hour and a half the pace was okay....it was erratic, and I was becoming more and more annoyed at others riders inability to ride an echelon smoothly, but I was dealing with it....then we came to a small hill and my legs just would answer the bell. I watched the group disappear in the distance and I took a short cut to start to work back to my car....alone, with my thoughts and music.

I was cramping pretty bad in both legs....by the time I got back to the car it had "cooled" off to 95 degrees.

I paid for my efforts all day at work on Wednesday, and all I could think about was crawling into a corner for a nap.....but as this isn't an option....I was jacked up on Red Bull all day.

I slept like death last night....more work and training today.

OUT

Gacki

For the love of the sport

This month this column is going to be a bit different.

Why do we do it? Why do we ride? Do we need it? And in a society where "keeping up with the Joneses" seems to still, despite the current economic situation, be all the rage. Which leads me to my thought for this month....Do we need all of this technology to enjoy cycling? What happened to just getting on the bike and going out for a ride? It is still there....but before we can just get out on the open road and feel the warmth of the sun on our face, and the wind in our hair, we have to get "suited up". For many of Us this requires putting on fairly expensive high tech shorts or bibs, followed by a heart rate strap for our powermeter of heart rate monitor. Nice socks and $300+ shoes follow. We don a equally expensive jersey with "wicking" properties, so we stay dry as we sweat. A high dollar helmet with tons of vents, liner pads that are lined with silver threads, and a pair of sunglasses that look like a creation from a George Lucas movie complete this ensemble. We pop our supplements every morning, with our coffee. We stuff our jersey pockets with gels, bars, and mix all sorts of powders in our water bottles. All of which are processed, and are about as far to resembling real food as tree bark. Do we really need all of this?

I look back to 1984. I got my first "real bicycle"...a Nishiki Olympic 12 speed, a chromoly frame, with downtube friction shifters, toe clips and straps and 700 x 25c clincher tires. I bought some cycling gloves for $10, that had a crocheted back and leather palms, and my Jackson cycling shorts cost $19.99 at the time. My Detto Pietro article 74 cycling shoes were the most expensive thing at I think $60...and my Bell V1 pro helmet, and Ray Ban Wayfarers completed my 'kit'. For a jersey I bought a bargain rack close out from my LBS for $5. The jersey was red with a white stripe going across the chest. I loved to ride when i first got that bike. I would ride to the beach, rode all over our town, I would ride in the morning, in the day and at night. My father was working a job that required him to leave the house at 9pm and return at 7am the next morning....I leave the house 10-15 minutes after he did, and I would stay out for hours just riding my bicycle. This was truly just for the love of riding a bicycle, nothing more, nothing less....no training, no intervals, no power or heart rate zones, sprints were to city limit signs and it was just me and my imagination.

I often think back to those days as I ride. Now nearly 25 years later I ask myself, do I still enjoy it? Do I need all of this "stuff" to make cycling as much fun as it was "back in the day"....I like to keep things simple, yet I guess in retrospect as technology evolves in cycling, the new technology is in place to do just that....keep things simple.

Long, hot fucked up summer days.........

It has been a while since I posted here with anything of real content other than some of my favorite music videos. So I guess it is time to give people something to discuss at the water cooler, or at least some fodder for the 35 or so loyal followers to this blog.

The weather continues to be brutally hot....temps are regularly between 100 and 104 degrees. This make riding and racing a bicycle a challenge, but hey it is better than 22 degrees, and everyone has to deal with the same conditions. I am in a rut. My weight is up again by 8-11 lbs, depending on the day....I cannot lose anymore.....I have gone to some drastic measures to try and drop this extra baggage but as of right now I feel like a fat fuck....to see me in street clothes you would think I look great...but as a bicycle racer I am a fat bastard. I am having motivation issues....maybe depression...but I am tired all of the time, and just really have NO passion for anything right now. And then there are the outside factors that are contributing to my funk.

Equipment....I keep breaking equipment. Last week in a crit, I snapped a aluminum handlebar....No I didn't go down....the Powertap that I have isn't working at all...so I am going to spend an hour on the phone with the Saris cycling group today trying to get it worked out, and the rear wheel that the Powertap is laced to has now become a mess. I am breaking spokes every 7-10 days...usually at a point in my ride when I am about as far away from the starting point as possible.....all in all this makes for a situation where I am hating cycling.....it is a pain in the fucking ass to deal with all of this bullshit.

Neo-Nazi/skinkead/white supremacist/fucking asshole.....So Saturday, after a lackluster performance at the track on Friday night....shocker...we were racing in 104 degree temps and the track temp was 142!....I decided to to an 8am ride and swing around for the 9am ride when it passed. This "should" have given me a decent 50-55 miles with some pretty good intensity. The 8am ride was just that...it started mellow...but 7 miles in the pace picked up, and as the temps rose, I found myself, feeling that for once in a long time all was decent in my world..I was hitting the front taking some good pulls....my jersey was sweaty...it looked liked i was heading for a good morning. I stopped at a Starbucks to refill my bottles and waited for the later ride to come by...it did...and I jumped in to discover many friends were on the ride. This was getting better by the moment. A short time into the ride...one of my boys, Nick Labarba rolls up to me, and says...Hey Gacki, is that a Nazi symbol on that guys arm? Pointing to a rider a few in front of Us. I looked up and sure enough, It looked like something from the old news reels of WWII. So I rolled up on this guy for a closer look. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME????!!! It was a Nazi flag and swastika. I was in so much shock I almost fell off my bike. I went back to Nick, Gary, Baker and Marc...and reported that I had just confirmed what we all had suspected. 2009 in Dallas, Texas and I, a JEW was having to deal with this....un-fucking-real! I sat there and thought about it for a bit, and decided I had to say something to this "guy". So I rolled up to the guy again....Hey man....where did you get that tat?....the one on my leg...he replied?...no the one on your arm...I said.....he told me of a tattoo artists in Ft. Worth.....ahhhh I said....so are you German?.....he came back with this little morsel...."not really....it is a movement, a belief". At this point I wanted to beat this guys ass.....this wasn't the right thing to say....and it really wasn't the right thing to say to me. As the ride continued, more people started to talk to this jerk-off about his unusual ink. At one point my boys...many of who are of different ethnic backgrounds took this ass-clown to task....and I needed to just divorce myself from the entire scene so I rode off alone.

It takes a special brand of hate to select those tattoos....

This just all adds to my already crappy disposition.

Enough for Now

Michael Gacki

Ship of Fools by Robert Plant

dirt off your shoulders by Jay Z

Threat by Jay Z

July 1st

The year is half over...so I have to ask myself, am any better now than I was 6 months ago? 1 year ago? 2 years ago?....kinda/sorta...

Things are better, and I feel that we all need to strive to be better, faster stronger, constantly improving....

Oh shit....I just realized....today would have been my anniversary....what a fucking mess I mess I made out of that....people change/ times change...next

"Friday night at midnight were all going to get what we need"

I have a feeling training is about to get kicked up a notch. HHH, Texas Tough, and a few other races are on the not to distant horizon...then there is track....what to do about track....which has not been a ton of fun this year....late in the year, usually when I am the most burned out, is a boatload of big track races at the Superdrome...

Over the next 3 months I need to sell this fucking house, move, maybe take my relationship with Shelby to the "next" level....go to Master's track nationals, work, train...look at new dogs....my fucking head is spinning....ahhhh yeah...I will get some sleep in like, December.

Enough for Now

out
Gacki

Hungry by Dave Navarro

Slow Motion Sickness By Dave Navarro

Drama

In the past few weeks there has been so much fucking drama....he said, she said...it makes my head want to explode. To quote my old buddy David Sommerville...."I don't have enough middle fingers for the world right now"

I have said this before and I will say it again....people need to concern themselves with their own little fucked up lives, and stay out of the dealings of others UNLESS it has some bearing on their own lives.....and usually it doesn't.

And then there is the whole business of "douchbaggery".

Don't be a fucking douchebag

Do the right thing...you know what you are supposed to do and not do...even if you are justified in your actions in your own little fucked up head....you still know what you are doing is wrong....SO DON'T DO IT...ASSHOLE!

Blind loyalty without due diligence is fucking idiotic.

Have an original thought...don't copy the wants and ideas of others....lame.

Slow Motion Sickness by Dave Navarro

Continued the waiting
Tearing at the wing
I lost a friend
A terrible plaything
Broken on a swing
I lost a friend
Kept boxes of old days
When you were afraid

Alone and nothing
Thought I had something
To ease the pain of hurting you
I just can't take this
Although I've made this
The evening that I'm moving through

Forever to find you
Severing the new
I lost a friend
I wanted to wake you
Someone that I knew

Don't even know you
Can I go with you?
Can't say I need anything
Love this depression
Another session
There's nothing more that I can bring

I am writing this down
I have never lived before

Slow motion sickness
Why should I fix this?
Shaken by the sight of me
The painted babies
And run late ladies
Brought out a different side of me

I am writing this down
I have never lived before

Sometimes I don't feel so good

Not great, but good

Ready for battle


Okay, it has been a while, but I am going to write a post about a bike race. It was a small bike race, but a bike race nonetheless. The Dallas Tuesday night crit is a square crit and is actually in Plano, not Dallas. It has been a Tuesday night institution for over 20 years. A local guy name Brett Crosby, is a monster, on any given day one of the better bike racers in the entire state of Texas, and has dominated this race for the past 2 years, often going on multiple week stretches where he is unbeatable. Last year he won 8 week in a row at one point and the streak was finally ended by my teammate Max. As a team we have at times thrown the kitchen sink at Brett, but to no avail. Just as Superman has his kryptonite....Brett seems to have his....heat. Last night at race time is was close to 100 degrees, and the wind was howling. Brett had won 7 in a row and was looking to tie his own "record" of 8 wins last night.

I should preface everything with I rode for over 3 hours yesterday in this heat, came home took a nap, had a snack and headed out to the race. I could tell during warm-up that I was tired and the efforts of the ride earlier in the day were going to render me a non-factor....so I did what I could and played the worker drone teammate.

For the first few laps last night the race was a bit strange. No one would attack, but individual riders would make strong accelerations and ramp up the pace. Then about 15 minutes into the 1 hour race it happened. A breakaway got clear....Brett, had one of his teammates....we had two..Chris and James...in total there were 9 in the break...but i think 1 or 2 guys got shelled out of the break. I was patrolling the front, trying to chase down anything that looked threatening to the break, all the while watching my heart rate go through the roof every time I hit the gas. It was hot....I thought my head was going to explode a few times. I am not sure what happened during the race, but Chris won....it was a good win....but all of Us were so hot and T was just a mess after the race.....Brett finished 2nd or 3rd....so i guess the new "streak" will start next week.

Enough for Now

OUT
Gacki