The weekend.

Saturday was streetcred. I hyper extended my left knee on wednesday and it was still sore. I went out for the 9am ride, 40degrees, raining, and went for an hour until I decided to go home and make my kid waffles. In the afternoon I worked downtown, Joe and I built some sweet tb14 23mm wide hard ano rims to some grey smooth hubs...for his soma smoothie. Then I got to building on THESE. 1200 grams, $500. tubeless or tubes.

Then streetcred happened at 3pm. Had a beer and off we went. It was a scavenger hunt, but there was an order to it. 9 checkpoints I think, each had to be in order. It was still around 40degrees and raining. The first checkpoint was across from Strauser True Value on SW Blvd. It was a pretty sweet drag race from v18 all the way down to it, only the first group I was with totally passed the sign that said Hill St., we road an extra 2 miles or so, almost to 635, before turning around. Got back to the intersection of seminary and hill, where there are some epic stairs going all the way up to rosedale middle school.

Then to roanoke park, ran the stairs that are by the tennis court, counted them, 50 total, then off to the 816 bike collective off troost/31st. I was the 3rd to arrive with Buta behind me. They gave me the task of fixing a tire. Wheel off bike, tire off wheel, find the hole, patch it, check for stuff in the tire, install tire/tube, air it up, good to go. Dude says, "Let me sign your manifest so you can go." I reach for it, its not in my pocket, or the other pocket, or the other, its gone. My manifest is gone, my race is over. I am soaked, jeans are soaked, feet are soaked, and my wool jersey is soaked. Soaked.


So I head home, change, ride back to 18th and start the team party.
Cellar Rat hooked up the wine, plus a keg of TallGrass Oasis was in attendance, good.

Sunday, we had a big team ride at 1pm. 24 riders I hear. I was testing some 404 firecrest clinchers. Normally I would argue that wheels aren't worth $2700, these are. When you spend 4 years designing something, you think of everything, these work. Great breaking, super fast, 1540 grams, 58mm deep, super stable, stiff, strong. I can go on. The tubulars are about 1290, so 250 grams lighter, I'd prefer the tubular, but we'll see. There are some 808 firecrest clinchers to test as well.

So, your probably wondering why $2700 58mm deep carbon 1540 gram clinchers are better than $500, 1200 gram clinchers.

The main difference I noticed was cruising speeds. I'm sure a 1200 gram, aero alloy rim with bladed spokes spin up to speed very quickly, but when you hit 23-30mph, they just sail, like a sailboat without a motor. Firecrest means you don't have to pedal to go. I can pretty much guarantee that if you don't have firecrest wheels, then the 1200 gram $500 wheels are better than what you are riding.

If you are a rider that cruises the whole ride, then I'd say the $500 wheels are good, but if you do a lot of accelerating, like from 20 to 40mph, then the firecrest will be much faster. You have to try them!

I really wanted THIS. Its just one of those things where it is stupid to buy something when you owe someone else money for something you already took from them.

My favorite race of the year happens this saturday. Watch out! Street Cred cyclocross!