Thursday, July 17, 2008

Wet Doggie Alert

Tri-Brother left his new carbon-fiber rocket at home for this past weekend's rides, bringing instead his old, trusty Kestrel Airfoil. His bike shop told him they'd prefer the Rocket's carbon fiber frame and components be torn down and reassembled by experts, otherwise he'd risk expensive repairs, as over-tightening a fastener can shatter the carbon matrix. I dunno what that means but it doesn't sound good. And the experts didn't have time, or so they said.

He rode the Rocket in a half-Ironman several weeks ago and said it was the most miserable ride of his life. Actually his exact words were "Man, I couldn't WAIT to get off that bike!" Therein is a good lesson in bike fitting and the inevitable post-purchase tweaking. And (quoting CoachKaryn here) there's no substitute for time in the saddle to get comfortable on a new bike.

The Kestrel's a little worse for the wear - worn, battered and scratched, but has gotten him through multiple Ironmans and other distance races. It's comfortable and still pretty fast - like in 2006's Steelhead when Tri-Bro took a wrong turn on the bike course, rode 4 miles out of his way and still finished second in his age group. That's just SICK!

CtWD decamped back to Chicago this morning with T-D #3 after discovering that he is, indeed, a water dog. He spent most of yesterday leaping off the dock into the lake and happily dog-paddling around, a big goofy doggie grin on his face.

No comments: