Tough Ride, Got My Saddle

On Thursdays, HACC does hills and yesterday we did hills. The hill up to Camp Smith is a killer and for some reason I just wasn't feeling it (even though I did knock out two trips up the hill and back). Casey had an accident and broke his wrist. Tough day.

Got home and found out my saddle had come in the mail! This saddle was actually featured in the April issue of TRIATHLETE which just came out.

Saddle: $17.50. Shipping: $9.00. Subtotal: $26.50

Total for build: $316.11

No new parts, but great ride!

HACC gets together every Tuesday during lunch for a ride on Hickam Air Force Base. This ride has become known as the "hammerfest". This is due to the crazy speed displayed by some of the riders. Yesterday was not much different. After doing our usually warm up cruise through the base, we started out towards Hickam Beach. As soon as we got by the dive locker, it was on. A few riders took off and the rest of us tried desperately to hang on. I was doing surprisingly well. I got out in front of a couple of other riders and pulled for as long as I could (great paceline training). I was amazed at myself and how well I was riding.

I hit a bump on the way out and lost my water bottle but decided to pick it up on the way back through. When I got back to it, it had been crushed...so no water for me.

On the way back, I was still riding surprisingly well and pulled another rider part of the way. I caught up with Ben and Bryant who were cooling down from their blistering run out but I still felt like going at it. So i did. I told John later it must have been the Cheerios I had for breakfast...great ride!

Not Zipp, X-Lab, or Neuvation...give me Velocity Deep V, baby

Nice ride into work today. It has been a couple of weeks since I have commuted to work by bike, which I usually do. I have been busy at work and with school, so needed to drive.

Finally got my wheels in...they are the Velocity Deep V (650c) wheels. I had been waiting awhile for these and was finally able to pick them up at the post office today. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to start putting things together.

Wheels: $100.03 (+ $25.00 shipping).

Total: $289.61

Quiet Weekend

Well, not much going on this weekend. I finished up my Algebra exam (91%) and was happy to finally have a weekend without homework and got in an 8 mile run on Saturday. Today, just watching the Milan-San Remo bike race. I got my rear derailleur in the mail on Saturday. It was a little more beat up than I thought it was going to be so I am looking for a good deal on a better one.

Waiting for the final grades for my class and a few more parts to come in the mail. Once my wheels come in I'll start putting things together.

Rear Derailleur: $45.33 (+ $10.00 shipping) (Ouch!!! I fell into the thrill of bidding on this one. I could have gotten a better deal but got too into winning when someone kept bidding against me...bad mistake).

Total: $164.58

More Parts

Took a break from taking my Algebra final...man this is tough, checked the mail and got two more parts. Got my cassette (11-21T). I'm going with Ultegra 9 speed to keep the price down. The crankset I bought had 53/39 chainrings. I was also given a set of chainrings (56/42), not sure which way I'll go with those.

I also got a Shimano clamp for mounting a braze on type front derailleur. Not sure if I'll use this but I seemed to find more braze on type derailleurs on eBay and got a good deal on the clamp. The bike needs a clamp on front derailleur, so this solves the problem if I get a good deal on a braze on derailleur.

Cassette: $45.26 + $12.00 shipping = $57.26

Clamp: $7.99 + $3.00 shipping = $10.99

Total to date: $109.25

First Part Comes In The Mail

Received the first part for my bike project. It is a Shimano Ultegra crank and bottom bracket. I have the day off work today (I'm taking the final for my Algebra 209 class), so I got up this morning and cleaned it up while I was having my coffee. I will start putting things on the bike when more parts come in.

For those keeping tabs, I picked this up for $31.00 plus $10.00 shipping.

My Bike Building Project

Well, thanks to Gil Loomis, a member of my cycling team, Hickam Area Cycling Club (HACC), I am now the proud owner of a Griffen bicycle frame that I intend on building up as a Tri/TT bike. It is an older frame that Gil used to ride and is in perfect condition. This is my first bike building project, so I am trying to keep the project reasonably priced by scouring eBay for parts. It has been quite a project already just on the eBay search alone.

Now, I did say this is my first build...so you won't see crazy stuff like Zipp wheels and top of the line, carbon this and that like on Ben's and Casey's blogs (other HACC members). You will just get the story of me building up this great bike that was so graciously hand down to me. The goal is to try to keep this build under or around $500. We'll see how that goes. I already have several items on the way that I have gotten through eBay

This is also the first time I have done this blogging stuff, so bear with me. It will surely improve as I play with it more.

And the journey begins...