Weight Weenies

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By Brent:

I love my bike. I love that it's carbon. I love that it looks like it's moving 62 kph all the time. I love it so much, it makes me speak of things using the metric system.

However, I am a weight weenie, kinda. I am constantly aware of all the weights of some of the products on my bike. Every little part still adds SOME kind of weight. This can drive me crazy. To think adding 2 bottles of water can weigh half as much as your bike itself. Keep in mind being 6'3" I ride a size 60 bike, which is one of the biggest sizes out there, so I am instantly penalized for having to have the larger frame. This made me want to do some investigating. Lets take some of the most popular and heavy products on a bike and shop around and see how much weight we could lose if we picked a "reasonable priced" item and quality brand and see what it would total out to. Notice I used air quotes? This is still cycling we are talking about. A cyclist sees a tyre for $45 and sees a DEAL! A normal consumer sees a "bike tire" for $20 and freaks out. The one thing I will not put on this list is wheelsets. They don't start until you hit the $700 price range and there are almost too many options. The costing would come from 2 sources: competitivecyclist.com and amazon.com. Honestly I have never bought from "cc.com" but they carry tons of brands and do a good job listing weights.

The line up will follow this format:

Product / Current Brand / Model / Weight

NEW Brand / Model / Weight / Savings
CC.com price / Amazon price

Stem / Cannondale / C2 / 128 grams
Ritchey WCS 4 Axis OS / 122 g / 6 g
$75 / $51

Handlebars / ControlTECH / ONE / 315 g

PRO / PLT Compact II / 257 gr. / 58 g
$60 / $60

Brakes / Tektro / R580 / 314 g

SRAM / Rival / 288 gr. / 26 g
$115 / $79

Saddle / ProLogo / Scratch Pro T2.0 / 279 g

Fizik / Antares VS Kium / 208 gr. / 71 g
$180 / $162

Seat Post / Cannondale / C2 / 268 g

Easton / EA70 / 220 gr. / 48 g
$90 / $70

Crankset / FSA / Gossamer BB30/ 808 g

SRAM / Force BB30 / 658 gr. / 150 g
$355 / $249

Cassette / Shimano / 105 / 245 g

SRAM / PG-1070 / 229 gr. / 16 g
$95 / $79

Front Derailuer / Shimano / 105 / 95 g

Shimano / Dura Ace / 66 gr. / 29 g
$159 / $85

Tires / Vittoria / Zaffiro Pro Slick / 250 g ea.

Continental / Ultra Sport / 235 gr. ea. / 30 g total
$67 for both / $36 for both

Pedals / Shimano / R540 / 330 g

LOOK / Keo Classic / 256 gr. / 74 g
$120 / $85

So the totals are as follows....

508 grams saved at a price of $1,316 through competitivecyclist.com OR $956 by luck shopping on amazon.com.

508 grams? Umm.... here in the States, that means 1.1 POUNDS!

For $1300 you save 1 pound. Really? So how about hitting the road, or treadmill or put the cookie DOWN!

Thanks for not shopping!

Shoe Review, Mizuno Wave Inspire 7

By Brent

I have learned, as with the Brooks Ravenna, just because it looks good and feels okay walking around the house, means NOTHING compared to running in a shoe. Being signed up for another half marathon again I knew I needed to check my mileage in my current line up of shoes. I logged onto active.com where I have for the past year logged all my mileage running, biking or swimming (year to date, 0 miles!). The line up looked as follows...

Brooks Ravenna, 1,XXX miles due to being my everyday walk around shoe.

Asics Nimbus, 408.45 miles, semi retired

Asics GT-2140, 489.29 miles, retired
Asics DS Trianer 14, 260.49 miles, active but aging

So knowing that a bigger fella like myself is going to flatten a shoe out quicker than say, Usain Bolt, I knew that one aging pair of shoes wasn't going to do the trick. LET THE SHOPPING BEGIN!!!

I have said before, with size 15 feet, I don't have the same luxury as most folks who walk into a store and point out the prettiest thing on the wall and try it out, so the best luck I have had so far is on runningwarehouse.com or roadrunnersports.com. Going through runningwarehouse.com I entered my specs and it shot out a fair amount of shoes to choose from. I also appreciate that there is no shipping and handling, 2 day air standard freight, and return label already shipped with the shoe, and almost every time, the best price you can find anywhere!

One option that popped out was the Mizuno Wave Inspire 7. I have wanted Mizuno for quite some time. I was pleased with the $85 price and they had my size in stock. The other perk was that the shipping time line worked out perfect for a family vacation we were taking that weekend down to see my uncle, and Boston Marathon runner, and I could use his True treadmill and not have to touch mine.

"Is True the best brand treadmill?" you ask. I don't have a clue. I know they have gotten good reviews from runners world magazine, but for me, my height makes me love it more than mine. I have to turn the treadmill 90 degrees, slide an acoustic drop ceiling tile to the side and run very steady with in a span of 24" front to back and 16" center to center.

So the Mizuno's arrived and I put them on. The only feeling better than a new pair of sneakers is a new pair of socks. As I walked around I thought they felt good. Not a noticeable amount of cushion, but still a good feeling shoe. snug on the heal, roomy in the toe. Very solid. I felt good about this one.

The family made its trip south and Saturday night was the big event. I got all dressed out and put on the Mizuno Wave Inspire 7 and began the walk. A slow, boring 3.5 mph walk. As I walked I did feel a disturbing amount of rub on the very back of the right heel about the sock line. So after a half mile walk I stopped and moved my socks, which were a no show sock, but were now pulled up rather high and looked fairly dumb. Either way, I wondered if maybe it was just this type of sock. So I got back on and walked another quarter mile and wasn't pleased with how things were panning out. I wondered if speed was the issue so I pressed the preset speed button on the True (wishing that I myself had one) and tried them out at 5 m.p.h. No better so after stopping and readjusting I hopped back on and tried out 8 m.p.h. No better. Another sock tweak, and another 5 m.p.h. lap and things were looking like my relationship with Mizzo was going to be null.

After 3.25 miles I decided that I will be sending the Mizuno back. After a side by side comparison the back of the Mizzo's do run up a good bit higher than my current Brooks or Asics and didn't have nearly the same ACL cut out section. I will be exchanging these and going back to my brand of choice, Asics and bringing in the GT-2160. What could possible go wrong?!?!

Christmas Catch Up

By Brent:

Well the holiday season was good to me. I hope you all had great holiday's also. Typically, when I am into a hobby, I am overwhelmed by it. It's all I do and think about. This year was no different. This post is just an informative post to let you in on future posts that will be, umm, posted.

The Garmin Edge 500 cycling computer is an ingenious creation that knows more about my cycling abilities than I do. This little gizmo has the capability to give you so much information on the go, plus hooks you up to a free service on Garmin Connect that douses you with even MORE information.

The Garmin Cadence sensor and "upgraded" Heart Rate monitor. This work along with the Edge 500 to give me more information indoors on a trainer, telling me how fast I am spinning, and the heart rate monitor so when I collapse, the doctors can see where it all went wrong.

Cycle Ops Magneto trainer. This will be a difference maker during the winter months. This little beauty will hold me up and still while I continue to log miles indoors while its 4 degrees outside and the roads are caked with snow.

DZ Nuts jersey. Plain and simple. A new short sleeve jersey for the summer. This is my first true biking jersey. It's a little dumb how excited I am about this. Yet what could be more dumb.....

Castelli Leg Warmers. Yes. LEG WARMERS. (Enter images of me in Flashdance) Leg warmers because they are simple to put on and server a great purpose. Castelli because they are marketing GENIUSES and used a scorpion as their logo.

Castelli socks. Because nothing compliments Castelli Leg Warmers better. And seriously, look at that scorpion logo!

Paceline Chamois Butt'r. This was a lovely gift from mom and dad. The best part is they had no idea what it was, so when I informed them it was for your "undercarriage" they were a bit shocked. Ahh the grossness that comes along with almost all fitness activities.

I probably have forgotten something, but this was a great year for biking. Hope you all had a great holiday also! Look for future reviews of these hopefully great products.

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