Man. 100km on the mtb? I'm thinking about paying people to carry me and my bike to the start line to save as much energy as I can to try and make it that far. ;)

Yeah it was a serrotta and it looks like its been taken down because I cant find it. Sorry about the link I must have copied the wrong address. :S

saccy, ferget sleeping pills. work on your preparation instead.

have dinner an hour earlier
after dinner, forget the TV: do the race visualisation that's keeping you up at night.
have a shower to relax
when you go to bed, try to recall all the posts from the aussie thread: brain numbingly effective
load a tape of big brother up late into the vcr as a backup plan: that crapola will put anyone to sleep.

and ease up on the caffeine during the arvo/evening

Ah, sorry Bri, I forgot your tandem was XACD. I only mentioned snappages because every XACD product I sold in the early days snapped (ti forks are a bad idea, somtimes it's a good idea not to pander to the market).

Odin, if you're having issues with a 105 equipped Giant, I reckon you've probably outgrown it as a racer. Nothin' wrong with that. You're probably at a stage where you should keep the Giant as a training bike and start shopping for a solid race-day/group ride pose machine.

Mmmm...Scandium frame....Chorus.....Kozak/DT/DT wheels.....mmmmmm

so what's the story bloke? where've you been? who's sister have you been shaggin? got a mega-dollar sponsorship yet? etc..

Hey Thylo - there's a Ti thread you may like to dump a load of scorn on :D http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=192684

They actually offered me Ti forks - for the tandem! Gee, wouldn't it save money to just go to the pub and ask someone to kick my teeth out? Their QC has improved though. Aerolite of Canada is bold enough to offer a warranty on the frames, so I'm not worried. Again, getting the missus to go for a ride has been an issue. She has her full suspension bike, plus her beach cruiser.

cmon, youve been repatriated for how long now? its a bar! ;) :p

Sorry, I just exceeded my scorn quota this week. Still got sacrasm in reserve though so it should be okay.

Patty, glad you didn't get the forks! It's not so much as the weld quality is questionable, it's just that XACD can't design for crap. I mean, don't get me wrong, they can't come close to the US guys and probably never will in terms of outright quality, and who knows what QC there is on the tubing, but they have no idea of the mechanical properties of Titanium as it pertains to bike design. THAT'S the scary part.

It's Utah, ok? There's no bars here. :D But it's about 5 hours to Vegas. I miss the days of the $39 flights. Oh, I was talking about when we ordered our tandem too.

oh; different story :)

Still bendy though :)

Just got back from Omara cycles... they're saying I should be looking at the 3-4K bracket for a new race bike.

I love how they can 'bracket' you into a price range Odin.

There are guys out there still killing it on old crates from 20 years ago. And my crappy sub-$2k bikes get me to the line OK. Ticker and legspeed count for more than bucks spent on yer ride in my book.

Bollocks! You need to spend at least 5k. ;)

My impression of Omara is that they're a bit expensive. You shoulda popped into "my" shop, Bicycle Recycle, 672a South Rd., Moorabbin. They sell mostly 2nd hand stuff. They've got some great bikes there. The price tags are a bit above what you'd find in the Trading Post, but i'm sure they'd move on the older models.

What size are ya? What's your inseam and height?

what is the approx raceable lifespan on an alu frame anyways? 3 years? 5 years? more?

looking to the future as one has to when on combined finances, would a better plan of attack be to keep up to date and everythng servicable on a current bike then upgrade the frame when its had it, or just leave the current bike as is then buy a complete new rig when it packes it in?

personal thought puts the road bike up for replacement in 4 or so years, the mtb in about 4 - 5 years as well.

I agree jock, but in the last few months this thing has become so mushy... I've beaten guys on Madones and been beaten by guys on old steel.
3-4K might as well be 30-40K at the moment. The main problems I'm having are with the frame and wheels. Everything else works like a charm.

Oz, I was at Omara's cos they gave me a set of leg warmers fer 1st place on Sat but were the wrong size... never been there before.
I'm 5'11"ish 85cm inseam.
I just need something stiff between me legs. :eek:

My current plan is to buy cheapish aluminium frames (I've never bought a complete bike), and replace if necessary. I scrounge around for bargains, such as trade-ins, or whatever. I don't see the point (unless you're rich :)) of spending big $$$ on aluminium if the rider is over 80kg, and the bike is just gunna be raced, thrashed and mashed. These guys spending $3000+ on alu Italian imports is rediculous, unless they're only "Sunday" bikes. I busted a Specialized Allez Comp and a crap Evolution in under 2 years, but my cheap 2 Dedacciai 7003 Taiwanese frames I bought of Kennedy are still going good after 3 years. I'll be amazed if I ever get more than 4 years out of an alu frame -- I'm too much of a masher :)

When the subject on breaking alu comes up on other threads on this forum, we hear cries of "oh, it's a myth", and this is backed by plenty of proud alu owners, but this leads me to think that 90% of people on this forum never race and never get off the saddle to mash!:) If the subject of breaking alu is brought up at a club race-meet, it's a completely different situation; everybody has a story! If aluminium is mashed, it's highly likely to eventually break.

if its the frame thats squish you always just buy a frame *insert plug for thy frames here* and just transfer everything across. Also there is usually a few good frames on ebay regularly
eg
large giant tcr frame

or

XL cinelli frame

i have nfi how stiff they are though

ha!! :p I have the Proxima, and I really like it. I got the frame-set brand new for $800!! Mainly coz is was 'old stock' at the importer (Bike Sportz were pissing them off), and the shop thought the BB thread was stuffed, but I cleaned it out by hand with an awl and a an old, steel bottom bracket.

http://vmartin.bigpondhosting.com/ph...i_yellow_2.jpg

why not just get a nice steel or ti frame that will outlast many alu/carbon frames in it's life ? :)

I can flex our tandem like you wouldn't believe. But I'm a big boy.

On a totally different note, it seems like I was able to get better deals on parts in the US when I lived in Oz. Go figure.

hey I was pointing out that maybe buying a frame may be a solution. And that decent frames can probably be had from ebay. I also threw in a plug for thy, so it aint all bad

Because when you were in Aus they could rort you on shipping maybe?