Hardware

At long last, here's the newly rebuilt Slim Chance. The frame was built in the old Somerville shop in the summer of 1994. It's not stock, as it was an employee bike and he scrounged/played around with tubing choices. It has fat Yo Eddy straight chainstays mixed with some lighter than standard main tubes. I had it repainted at IF a few years ago. For this build, I tried an Easton EC30 carbon fork, as this was all I could find in a 1 inch headtube size. It seems pretty good, lively yet still stiffer than the old steel unit. The rest of the build is mostly 10 speed Dura-Ace, with skimpage on the calipers and front changer, which are Ultegra. I sourced a proper 17 degree drop level Ritchey stem, which is paired with 3T bars. It probably wouldn't have killed me to leave another 5 mm or so on the head tube, but it's too late now. I like the fit. The bike comes in at under 20 elbows as pictured with open 4 wheels. It rides so sweetly. My favorite bike is always going to be the one that doesn't creak!



Last night at Wompatuck, the thunderclouds opened up as soon as I got on my (other) bike. I got to spend 40 minutes waiting it out under a tree with the best bike rider ever to come out of Brockton. We had a delightful conversation covering a wide range of topics, including the always entertaining tales of the D3 Pro life on the road. Eventually the storm relented and we got under way for a 20 lap race. The field was small and the course was a mess so Adam bailed and headed back home because he had a morning flight to a race in Texas. Lucky him.



As you can see, since the Wompatuck course gets covered in leaves, pine needles, and general muck when it rains hard, so does your bike by the time you're done. Was this a 'cross race or something? Everyone stayed up, though some of the regulars really need to branch out and race elsewhere once in a while in order to improve their skills. Skip was getting very irritated with the way some of these guys were slowing for the turns, which weren't all that slick. My legs sucked, so I felt like I was between gears all night, but I still got in a few efforts and made the trip down worthwhile before returning home for beer, nachos, and basketball on TV. Tomorrow night will be the Squantum 5, and then maybe a running break. I'm really not sure what to do. On one hand I know the running is f'ing up my bike legs, but on the other I'm considering that this may be the only way to HTFU and get used to doing two sports at once. Thanks for reading.