It is About the Bike

Drugs cheat* Lance Armstrong (*copyright every tabloid newspaper) once published a book called "It's not about the bike," which I suppose proved to be accurate in his case as it was mainly about the EPO.

Actually I think the title of the book is a nonsense.  In my view the reason for the massive increase in the popularity of cycling is that it gives us blokes a chance to spend our spare money on bikes and bike related accessories that we don't really need.  I am the exception to this rule and only buy vital bits of kit; for instance the carbon fibre water bottle holders you can see in the pictures below save literally fractions of a gram from the weight of my steed and therefore make it faster.

The bike I will be using for LeJog is based on a 2013 (I think) Scott CR1 Pro frame.  The frame is a thing of beauty, complete with forks it weighs in at just over 700g.  Other things which weigh 700g include a 700g bottle of Heinz Ketchup and a 700g bag of sugar.

The wheels have been built specially to withstand the rigours of this trip and generally not breaking whilst holding my not inconsiderable bulk (note: the back wheel has a deep rim section to give significantly higher aero performance and of course cost.)  For bike geeks the groupset is Shimano Ultegra 6700 including front and rear hubs.

I built the bike myself which was quite a good learning experience and means that if it all goes really wrong it is likely my own fault.  Having said that we have done thousands of miles together and all has been well.

Just before the trip I gave the bike to the excellent Paul at Cambourne Bike Solutions for a check over, he adjusted a few bits but generally gave it a clean bill of health.  Paul has been a real asset to my cycling career, from selling me my first grown up race bike to being always ready with spare parts when I remember I need them at 23:00 on a Tuesday evening!  Thank you Paul if you are reading this.

I have just noticed that Paul has a block paved garage floor.  Nice.

The only annoying thing about my bike is that at least one guy I know has Di2 electronic gears and I don't.  This makes me sad so I try not to think about it.

Anyway in conclusion sometimes it is all about the bike.  In a future Blog post I hope to discuss why it is all about the rider........On the other hand what if it is all about the bass.

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