Not getting much riding in right now so I have been looking at the bikes. Or rather two of them. I only went road 4 years ago after many years of Mountain biking and that first bike was a lowly OCR3. Not a bad bike and not the best I could have got at the time but I did not want to invest a great deal on money into something I was not too sure about.Took a full year before I was convinced that road was worth doing so a "Big" investment in a decent bike.
Boreas Ignis
Race geometry Lightweight Aluminium with mainly Ultegra running gear and a shade over 15lbs. . This is basically how the bike came and other than a few minor adjustments and addition of the Garmin and Mini-Morph pump and the wedge under the saddle- is how it is run today. What a difference from the OCR and it rode well and was comfortable. Whats more it goes uphills which is just aswell with the South Downs being just 6 miles from home. (South Downs--A chalk ridge that runs along the South Coast of England.) The hills may only be a max of 800 ft high but they are frequent and around 12 to 15% gradient.
Wasn't long though before I realised that the OCR was no longer a bike I enjoyed riding so 6 months later and a custom build on a Giant TCR-C frame.
Giant TCR-C
Downgrade a bit to 105 running gear with Aksium wheels. First ride out and a bit of a shock. This was not the same as the TCR that I had test ridden earlier in the year. It took some time to get it to handle well but it turned into a decent bike. Couple of changes came about and the Aksiums have gone and been replaced with handbuilt wheels. The Double crank has been replaced with a triple and the cassette is now a 12/25. Biggest change has come about on the bar height. Boreas has a long stretched out position and the bars are 4" below the saddle. Seems to suit my aging back as it takes Vertical weight off the spine and seems to assist it on the longer rides. I took a spacer out on the TCR last autumn and the bike is different. Still goes uphills but it now appears to have more speed behind it. That low down position seems to put me into "Race" mode and I want to go. May be just mental effect but it works.
TCR-C as currently set up (Will have to cut the Stem shortly)
Been checking the bikes over in the last couple of weeks and silly bits of tinkering. All I need now is some decent weather and I will find out if The bikes still work and if they are still fitting my aging body. And with the little riding I have done recently- that body seems to be aging fast.