Funny. I love bike racer who don;t have the first clue about how their bike works.....makes me laugh.

nah, I think they were $470 or $480 (last year). Cecil Walker now retail them for $537, so they've dropped quite a bit -- they were $620 not so long ago.
Terry Hammond had $725 on his last year, but they would have to have dropped since then!

Dont say that, its much cooler to believe its his ungodly power output breaking his bikes.

A mate of mine rode the Aussie TT champs out at friggin Bayles or Yannathan or Buttferk South or somewhere back in the early 90's. He reckoned Huey was visibily flexing the Merckx TT bike during the TT. Frightening!

Nerds. I hope that they don't get their pocket protectors in a twist.

yeah, "they" say he still holds the ergo power records at the AIS

Well, considering it was the early 90's and TT bikes are designed to be aero, not stiff, I reckon I coulda flexed an early 90's Merckx to buggery....but that's mostly because I'm a fatazz.

470-480 for the latest DAs is a cracker of a deal. Last shop I went into had the XTR MTB equivalent for 900!

My GT has 34/50 FAS carbon 'compact' cranks with a 23/11 cluster. Basically they are lighter because of the smaller chainrings (and the carbon cranks :rolleyes: ), and give a lower granny with the 34/23 while the 50/11 is plenty high enough for most sprinters.

Gees this forum was so fgn slooooooooooooooooooooooooow to day. I gave up trying to post anything earlier and I've been unable to connect for days. Pretty crap.

Did the last of the Tuesday night summer crits last night.
Got 2nd... 1st got in a really good attack in the last couple of corners (used someone from a different grade to aid confusion), sprint was 53.5km/h. Woohoo!! :D

hmmmm.....looks to me like you're in better shape than the other fatty boom-bahs --
been any grumblings that you should to up a grade or 2? :):D

fatty boom-bahs -- :eek:
Which one is you Odin?

I've sussed the best way to work this forum. You click on an action, go make coffee, come back and read/post, click again and go make toast, come back read/post click, go to work, come back..............................God it's painful aye!

Got that right!!!!
I've even started copying my posts to a text editor so I don't have to rewrite them when the forum loses it all into the bit bucket.

FYI - The Sunshine Coast Bicycle Touring Club has a new web site SCBTC Inc
If your up this way enjoying our "always perfect" weather or on holidays you are welcome to join us on a ride. Club rides are touring speed. Weekday training rides push it a bit - the fast group is not up there with the 18yr old alpha-ones, but we sure make them work hard for the glory!!

You guys all given up on this**********??

just lurking berny :)

riding? nup.
posting? yep.

Riding....distant, fading memory.

Posting....something to do in between cluster f***s at work.

A rare appearance from Climbo and Willie at track night to will on Dr Jock to a track record :eek:

Anyone racing FNWT?

Yep.

Oh, and I'm the fatty boom-bah @ the front Berny :D

http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...es/9664.0.html

2007 Shimano pRon. beware rodie types, contains MTB bling as well.

i actually odnt like SRAMS shifting system which is why i went with dual control. ( IMHO rapid fire and rapid rise dont mesh very well, but rapid rise and dual control are excellent) .

what was wrong with the old trigger systems? i think they were much more intuitive and easier to use than SRAMS shifter gear, why copy somone else instead of having your own neiche.

Still waaaay too slow. Let's put it in perspective: my 'record time' was beaten by..... a girl. I am so proud of that spectacular achievement :(

FNWTR is likely to commence in mid June. I'll be there in my never ending quest for more bettererness. Bernie, that means you have a few months to save up the $1200 for a raceline, avanti, or bianchi track steed :)

If I ever get over this fgn dogs disease. $#!+, how crook yu gotta be before you die :(

is a 1200 dollar track bike competitive? sounds like a ripper of a bargain to get some nice close racing in. have seen the Avantis around in certain stores.

Don't you just love marketing. Check out these textbook pearlers from the Velonews article (Similar article on cyclingnews.com) on the new Shimano stuff -

"newly designed XTR RapidFire Plus shifters raise the bar"

"With two-way shifting the new XTR shift levers adapt to meet your needs."

"delivering the shifting and brake positions you have come to know and trust."

"Pull it with your finger, push it with your thumb - you choose." (Ah yes, the classic 'it's your choice' line. Ironic coming from a company who invented planned obsolescence)

"the message is clear: a winning design just got better."

(Just let me know if you've vomited yet :lol: )

Wheels
 

Anyone up for offering advice to a newb?

Currently living in Sydney but soon likely to be Melbourne and will in the near future be buying a new roadie around 2000$ region before heading overseas to live. This leaves the stock factory type wheels which are not always reliable at all. I had problems with wheels from the start on my previous bike (OCR1) and thought there would be some alternatives out there. I dont intend on racing anytime soon, just some wheels for general riding/training whatever. Any suggestions on good value alternatives besides the usual shimano 550's 500 540's etc..?

I hear bikes are cheap in Holland, maybe you should wait?

competitive? absolutely it is !!! It's the legs that matter !!! We have guys riding older model second hand track bikes that wouldn't sell on e-bay and they do fine.

You had problems with wheels on a new bike??!!??

Either

- you weigh 9000000 kg and those low spoke count jobs just couldn't hack it
- you love gutter jumping, riding straight into potholes, etc
- you forgot to take the bike back to the LBS for a tune up after two weeks
- you got a really bad break and ended up with rims/spokes from a bad batch
- your missus/man/parents were sabotaging your bike

My two cents worth:

wheels are generally the component that gives you the least amount of problems on a bike once they have settled in and had a true after 500km.

$2000 bike? hmmm... you might be able to find a nice new Al frame with full Ultegra groupset in that price bracket, but the wheels will be on the cheaper end of the scale. For $2200+ you might even get carbon seat stays and seatpost.

I train on crap Alex DA-22 36 spoke wheels and race on crap Shimano 540's. No problems with either. For general riding/training look for 32 or 36 spokes and rim profile of 30mm or more for strength. Don't need to be anything flash, but a good set of spokes (eg DT Swiss stainless) are worth every cent.

Competitive enough for the Commonwealth Games anyway. My bro told me the 3 Fiji fellas were riding an Avanti Pista. One bike - 3 dudes, just swapped after each one had done their 1km TT. :D
The crowd was fully behind them and cheered each rider all the way round the track.

Nup, you will need a $10k+ BT with discs to take your first win....other riders will either drool or laugh themselves into a crash, leaving the door open ;)

Talking of drool, anyone see Grants Zipp disc on wed? Mmmmmmmm. I think Holly just bought a SET :eek:

Trek are releasing a trackie in a couple of weeks, think rrp is 2500, dura ace spec, looks like their TT bike.
Might even come with freewheel and brakes...?