A New Low

No I'm not going to talk about my vasectomy again, accidental pubic buzz cuts, post lunch top tube food riftage or any of my normal lows. Today's weigh-in had me down to 176! (Down from 185.5 on 12/4/06) Ka-Chow! Hell it might be back up tomorrow, but it was nice to see that number again. Looks like getting back down to 170/175 by the season shouldn't be that impossible.

During tonight's 1:25 on the trainer I was watching some old Tour vids and saw the George Hincapie is 6'2" (his web site says 6'3")/ and 175 lbs..That's like NORMAL!!! None of that 4'1" 102lb. stats that normally get thrown at you.

I was skulking around the Bikeman.com site today and saw that The Mamasita has made it to the site. Not in stock yet of course, but just seeing it up and the "available soon" is damn nice.
Right now it looks like the retail price right now is at $889. Slightly more than Salsa's first estimates but not by much. I have a feeling this thing is gonna be huge for the guys at Salsa. At a reported 3.5 lb. for a Large 29er frame, this just might be the lightest frame I've ever had.

If you're interested in one keep your ballz peeled (eye ballz) to Bikeman.com. I know I look at my In Box everyday to see if Big Al (team pimp) left me any info. Then I lead kinda of a shallow, pathetic existence.

Worth the Weight?

Been working on different 29er custom and pre built wheel builds with Big Al at Bikeman.com World H.Q. (As I mentioned last week I made the decision to forgo my WTB wheel deal for a variety of reasons).

Checking weights and doing wheel build estimates is a sure way to make yourself nuts. I've been close a couple times at getting what I want, only to run into something like this-

This is just to prove point, making up these #s) one set is $600/1950 grams and one set is $750 and 1750 grams, you're all about a 29er wheel set at 1750 grams. But then you see that the hubs don't come with skewers and the $600 set does! Add 100 grams and $40 and you got yourself an 1850 gram wheels set for almost $790. So is 100 grams worth $190?? 100 grams/3.5 oz.!! Or two to three race fees!!

Shit all I have to do is switch from the Bontrager tubes I have to Conti 29er tubes and save 66 Grams of rotating weight! And both of those tubes retail for the same price ($5 a pop retail).

I'm not discounting rotating weight or my want/lust of a lighter bike, but at what financial costs. The above numbers were generous too. In some calculations the with was much as $100 for 10 grams or less. TEN!!!

Like I said, the wheels I'm looking will be a better weight than the 2200+ grams I have now, but not by much. For now there are too many guys out there on 30 lb. bikes kicking my ass for me to worry about it. Just looking forward to riding my mountian bike in the woods no matter how many grams I'm rolling on.

Later. (Boy i can ramble on with the best of 'em)