RED,E.P.S. and Vector power pedals

2012 SRAM RED

I have had two chances to look at the new Red, neither gave me the chance to shift or test ride. With a little luck I will have it set up on a bike in 2 weeks, I'll let you know how it goes. Looks cool and if the front shifting is improved this is going to be a great group!

New more powerful braking, cam action.

Front der is according to SRAM greatly improved! And it needed too be! Lets hope it is.

Redesigned shift ramps.

New shape and an allen wrench to adjust the reach on the double tap lever!

Chain catcher, may or may not need it.

Elastomer between the cassette rings help quiet down the chain noise

More cut outs and alloy cogs.

 CAMPAGNOLO EPS SUPER RECORD!

I did get the chance to ride this on a trainer, I know it not the same as on the road. It shifted great and had a "real" feel. I also went through the 3 1/2 hour training session. If I wasn't pumped up enough be I was afterwards. EPS offers so many fetchers that Di2 does not. The most impressive one is gear adjusting on the fly. If you have a wheel change during a event and your gears do not shift properly you can adjust them while your riding. .4mm at a time, fine tune it and never miss a beat! Also if for some reason your battery dies  or the cable is lost, you can manually shift the rear derailleur into any cog that you want. Just another nice little plus. It is a little pricey Record complete group will sell for around $4400.00 and Super Record for around $5200.00. But for people that want it the price won't matter!

You would think they would do a better job of wrapping the bar with everyone taking pictures and posting them on like?

The Battery and brains of the system

  Control center lights the way. You'll need to know your colors. If your color blind it could be ruff!

GARMIN VECTOR PEDALS

Yeah, Still dreaming about these, if they ever ship I think it will be a very popular power meter. But its still a BIG "IF". At least I got a chance to see them, talked with a rep that said he has been using them. But still some bugs in the system that need to be worked out.

Super Bowl Sunday ride.

I think this is the first time, or at least the first time I can remember going on a road bike ride on Super bowl Sunday. I may have went on a few mountain bike rides a long time ago,  but nothing in recent memory. But today I got out for an hour and a half. This winter in Wisconsin has been great for being able to get out and ride. We keep waiting for the "really bad stuff" to hit, but it hadn't. And im ok with that. The more nice days we have the closer to spring we get.

Always recheck you stem after doing adjustments. This was driving me crazy the whole ride. Kept wanting to turn right.

The river was very calm and unfrozen today.

Bad start to the day.

Its funny how a little piece of metal can run your day. Left for work yesterday morning, and the car just didn't sound or feel right. Pulled into a parking lot and took a look, damn flat tire! Drove over the the air pump. Four quarters later I was looking for a tire shop.And on the south side of JVL there's not a lot of places to have that done. But I found one. Lets just say they did a good job of fixing my tire, and I won't get into the fact that everything was covered in dog hair and smelled of dog pee! He got me back on the road, I wasn't later for work and its all good. So I took a picture of the little sliver, Its amazing how something can cause your world to get put on hold for a few minutes.

Thinking about France

I just found this picture that one of our Guest took this year in France. If you can tell it was a wet and cold day. And this was almost to the top of a 10 or 12k climb. I was glad to see the top. On the decent the sun came out for a little bit and the road dried out, which made for a nice and fast decent. This was a nice day in the saddle.

Finally they have what I've wanted for years.

Chris King has finally started making campagnolo freehub body's. Only available on the R45 hub but that's the hubs you want to use anyway. Now I just need to get a set.


 

Cyclesport Travel information meeting

Cyclesport Travel/Cronometro

Cycling Vacation information night.

Have you ever thought about a cycling vacation in France, how about Italy? Thursday, January 19th is your chance to stop in and check out the great trips

Cyclesport Travel is offering for 2012.

The Pyrenees Playground Trip June 25th to July 7th
This trip include an opportunity to participate in the Ariegeiose Cyclosportive and ride virtually all the important Pyrenees climbs.
Castles, cave paintings, the Tourmalet, Plateau de Beille, Ancizan, Col dAspin, Col d Agnes, the Corniche and the Mamar are all
on the menu for this incredible experience.



This years L'Ariegeoise Cyclosportive will finish atop Plateau de Beille in the L'Ariegeoise 161km and La Mountagnole 117km events.



Tour de France trip July 9th to July 17th
Experience the TDF like the French villages do! We will let the Tour come to us in the our mountain village and ride up the Port de Lers to watch the pros!
Ride every day and come back to your cabin or head down to the local bar to watch the Tour excitement.






You will have the chance to ride the 18 percent grade on the last climb of stage 14 before the tour attacks it.

Italy, Gran Fondo Prosecco and Chianti October 1st -10th
Ride through two beautiful wine producing regions and celebrate by rolling through the Prosecco vineyards during the Gran Fondo on Oct 7th.
 LINK TO GRAN FONDO PROSECCO


We will have wine and cheese snacks and lots of pictures of past trips.
Time: 6:00-8:00

We hope to see you then.
Colin, Dave, Mark and Scott

Cyclesport Travel is now able to take credit cards! Just our way of trying to make your trip more convenient.

Just wait 24 hours!

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday the high in Madison was 55, today we awoke to 28 degrees,  20 minutes later it started to snow. Needless to say 28 was the high for the day. Made it to work scooped the sidewalk for the first time. 3 hours later did it again. And at 4:30 did it one last time. By the time o left for home, (45 minutes early) I would guess we had about 6" or more on the ground.
The drive home was when the fun really started. This is Wisconsin we are supposed to be able to drive in the snow. We shouldn't need to relearn this after every snow storm, should we!?! But I guess it has been a long time.
Few rules to remember:

Put the cell phone down!
Slow down, you don't want to stop, but slow down!
Look ahead, plan where you want to be before you need to be there.
Don't tailgate!
Four wheel drive is not FOUR WHEEL STOP!

OK, now i'm done.