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Friday, Jun 16, 2006

Bicycle Report

This past Sunday, I picked up a Specialized Sirrus Comp.

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Thirtyfive miles so far on the new machine. I was thinking about rounding it out to a nice even fifty for the week, but the knees want a couple of days off.

The carbon fiber fork does a funky vibration under low speed braking. At speed, this amount of vibration would be very ugly, but I haven't seen that. I suspect the geometry of disk brakes would eliminate this issue.

The widest tire I can fit is a 32, which is a good touring tire width. I went with the Specialized cyclocross tire -- BOROUGH CX. It has a flat, solid section of tread on the center line for minimum rolling resistance, and semi-demi knobs on the edges to give it a little better grip on dirt.

I felt some slipping in a cambered dirt section that was sand over hardpack. I've only done maybe a couple hundred yards of trail, but it seems competent. It's a huge step down from the fat tire bike, but when ridden with some restraint, should be okay. (In the early '80s my "mountain bike" was a bone stock touring bike.)

There's an alternate 32 x 700 tire I saw on a Bianchi cyclocross, the WTB Cross Wolf This tread pattern looks to be slower on asphalt, but would dig in better.



Changes I would make to perfect the bike: disk brakes, about an inch longer chain stay to increase wheel base, bigger clearance at chain stay to allow 38 mm tires, two sets of wheels (city bike, trail bike), a bit more granny in the granny gear. And a ding-y bell for the creek trail.

Changes I have made: swapped tires, added Specialized MTB bar ends, added Planet Bike tubular aluminum rear rack..

- mark 6-16-2006 6:33 am [link] [6 comments]

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