NATHANRTAYLOR | “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.”

Making the switch

By Nathan | March 4, 2010

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I think it’s getting to be time to upgrade my groupset on my bike. My current groupset is Shimano Dura-Ace 7700 9-speed, which is functioning perfectly, but hasn’t been manufactured for almost ten years.

I’ve looked at the new offerings from SRAM and Shimano, but it isn’t the direction I want to go. No, I’m pretty sure that the next groupset is going to be Campagnolo Chorus 11. I played around with Fred’s bike, which is equipped with Chorus 11 and was really impressed with the feel of the shifters.

In the cycling world, this is akin to making the switch from PC to Mac. Shimano and SRAM both make great groupsets, but Campagnolo fans are dedicated enough that it nearly approaches religion. I’m probably buying into some of that, but I also like to think that I’m making a decision based on function. We’ll see if I stick to that assumption after I switch.

The real question is, why upgrade at all when my current groupset works fine? Well that’s the other interesting piece, as I have no intention of letting the current stuff go to waste. It will be going on a new cyclocross frame built by local builder Cysco Cycles. I haven’t ordered the frame yet, but here’s a picture of one of the bikes that Richie Moore (of Cysco) took to the North American Handmade Bike Show recently (NAHBS) recently.

cysco

Tell me that isn’t sick.

Posted in Cycling | Tagged Campagnolo Chorus 11, Cysco Cycles, upgrades | 2 Comments

An Evening Ride

By Nathan | February 21, 2010

Dusk falls,
lights aglow.

Wind stalls,
pedals flow.

An evening ride begins.

Breath tightens,
muscles burn.

Senses heighten,
pedals turn.

Writing verses on the wing.

Creatures rise,
temperatures fall.

Nightbirds chastise,
backroads call.

Spinning circles into Spring.

Posted in Cycling | Leave a comment

‘Thaw’some start to the weekend

By Nathan | February 19, 2010

Today the temps in Nashville rose to around 50 degrees. A perfect day to sit in the office and work on powerpoint presentations, which is exactly what I did. Fortunately I hadn’t planned on wasting every minute of temperate daylight and met up with Brad, Jay, Todd, and Shawn from the Harpeth Racing team for some corner sprints at the Titan’s Stadium parking lot after work.

Everyone says that when two or more road cyclists get together it instantly becomes a race, which is usually a true statement. One of the things I really like about the team I am on (Harpeth) is that it isn’t always true. Take today for instance. The planned workout for tonight was to do at least an hour of endurance paced riding, but to sprint into and out of each corner for 3-5 seconds to work on burst speed and cornering ability. We did this for 40 minutes or so, staying true to the workout, and then regrouped for some team focused drills.

Right about the time that an uncoordinated group would start attacking each other, turning the night into an unofficial parking lot criterium, we were working on leading each other out for sprinting. Brad talked us through the steps: pull hard up to the corner, take the tight line, then peel off towards the inside so the next guy can sprint out of the corner. When executed correctly, it sets the next rider up to fly out of the corner like he’s been fired from a gun. With enough riders in the leadout, you can control the corners coming into the last turn and shotgun the last rider over the finish line. It was great.

Even though it was a highly controlled workout, and was only an hour long, it still ended up with the highest TSS of any single workout so far this week (tomorrow’s ride will top it, I’m sure). By Monday, my CTL should be just over 70, which will be the highest point it has been since I started measuring it in October.

I ended the evening at Mellow Mushroom in Franklin with Jonathan, Gabrielle, Fred, and Chris drinking beers and talking about shop plans. It was the perfect way to end the work week, and kick off a weekend of riding weather the likes of which we haven’t seen in weeks here in Middle Tennessee.