私の愛人です。 Wannabe Cyclist has a Mistress OMG! BMC SSX01 Review Part One

私の愛人です。Translated: My Mistress, in Japanese. After toying with the notion that in order to race legally with my Gunnar Bad-Ass All-Purpose Super Awesome Steed, I would have to first remove my coveted disc-brakes (AVID BB7's), and add a crappy V-brake from my Schwinn, or shall I say: "One of my Schwinns!" And as it be an all already "heavy" bicycle, 23LBS heavy, it still wasn't meant for racing no matter how I sliced the pie. It is great for Psychocross and such events where those mega awesome brakes come in handy dandy in the grimy gunk, but definitely not for 27mph peloton racing in a criterium for any given length of time, what I really NEEDED was a true road racing bicycle.

You can click the picture to see a bigger version, but not always better version of the picture.

It all started quite a few weeks ago when fellow RACING GREYHOUND "Miami" said he was selling his trusted steed, it was then that I had eyed the bicycle but didn't move in for the kill due to money being tighter than a frogs ass. Time went on by and it was getting time to buy, that led me to the consumption of this product for my bicycle queue. It was a fine Wintry Wednesday night at the Cycle To Fitness Bicycle shop, after a relaxed trainer night (Riding rollers and watching a movie), the bicycle kept calling out to me. Seriously just look at her!!!!!

That is an '08 BMC Streetfire SSX01 with a decent Mavic wheelset, Crabon Fork, Cane Creek Headset, with Sora, and Tiagra Dérailleurs. A great starter bicycle for road RACING and WINNING. Okay, that may be a tad bit overzealous but what the hay, ya know.
N+1 Definition
Anyhow, the miles accrued on this steed as per the trip computer were: 2156 as shown here in this image:

which has already been bumped up about thirty or so miles on both the rollers and the road. I am not able to discuss performance as of yet due to not having much time with her and not having clipless shoes too. Some of the finer bits on this awesome bike are the complicated skeletal frame components, I do like this a whole bunch. :) Have a peek:

This must help the frame deliver the stresses equally amongst the ultra thin aluminum tubing.

Now this fancy little doo-dad looks like crabon, and from what Maimi had told me, it was a special press fit style bearing or something fancy like that. Great technical prowess I know, I'm good with complex engineering wording eh. Seriously though, It all adds up to a definite step up in quality that I am used to when it comes to cycling and all that jazz. I could be happy on a 30 dollar huffy, just as long as it was "solid" enough to hold up when I am riding it, ....

So the so called test ride went like this: RIDE DATA Can you see the indecisiveness in the route! I must have doubled back three times! The great extent of the ride was riding to an abandoned comfort station and home to take pictures and prowl about the ancient landscape, a pastime that I hold dearly might I add.

Love the map feature, it adds so much more interesting value to my already boring blog posts.


View Larger Map
Notice the Fred just casually riding along Edward Hines Drive in this shot. :) I speak of myself, I too am a total FRED turned into a Wannabecyclist racer type.

Sweet, now thaT i HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PEEP THIS:

This and much much more lay in ruin just beyond the tree line, I hope to further investigate this great find. Did I mention that I am an avid explorer too? yep. :)

Well, I hope this unfinished review serves you well, as for the BMC ride data and opinions thereof, I cannot make such statistical claim or opinion until there are at least a hundred miles under my belt with her. Speaking of miles, last season I rode over 2700 miles on bicycles, and about 450 miles this year so far, January 1st as the cutoff date for miles. Wow, who knew that cycling would be this fun!!!

Synopsis on the 2008 BMC Streetfire is this:

Quick, Nimble, Light in the front-end, very rigid, a very tight feel to it. That is about it for now, yeah I know, kinda a half cocked review, but really, who can judge at this point, especially when your ride was in the thirties with gusting wind eh!


Addendum:
As I write this, the sleet / ice mix coming down is rather atrocious and unforgiving if one were to be traversing the motorway in any vehicle, let alone a bicycle. I am actually glad that I didn't ride my bike here, it is nasty out. Might be an iced in day tomorrow, that sucks.



Photo Album:
BMC Aijin


-WCFTW

U.S.A. Cycling Bicycle Racing License - And Century Touring

Here I sit, patiently waiting for the INTERNET connections both on my fancy schmancy iPhone and the coffee house to actually do their job and work. Obviously they eventually did as this is written. I must note: This was the most irritating time writing a blog post in ages. First off; if you let you child run around the coffee shop making irritating noises thus distracting me from my work, YOU Sir, Ma'am are a douche. Second; if you like to congregate as a cluster right near me while incessantly yapping about frivolous things like lame indy music or texting, you too, are a bunch of douche bags, go sit down and carry on in the corner. I come here to write, read, and drink coffee, as do 80% of the clientèle here so take notice. When one of us politely asks you to sit the eff down and shut the eff up, you now know, and knowing is half the battle, douche-bags. I listen to this to help help it somewhat sane here.

Anyway, the sun is shining and it is 30 degrees out right now, time to suit up and go for a ride!

It is official folks I am a licensed Bicycle jockey, also known as a CAT 5 Racer, also known as: *"The blender of death" Racer. Joy

This ticket came in the mail about a month later, I had sent out for it the Thursday before my TLT, I remember this because I was so excited to tell fellow teammates at the shop that night, they were pleased. The mere act of applying for such license means much more than "looking good" on your brand new Scott CR1 at a TT wearing 400 dollars worth of lycra and aero gear, it means you are ready to start pulling your own weight for the team, as to gain points that is. The initiative to join a great cycling team such as the RACING GREYHOUNDS is one thing, but to try to improve and bring something to the table, well, this speaks volumes as far as I am concerned regardless the place in a race, whether it be DFL anyway. What is important is my personal drive to become better, faster, and fitter throughout the coming race season, getting first is not my concern as it is impossible with my current setup as it stands coupled with my limited skill-set as well.

I know I am better than I was a year ago, I totally know this, for example:

Pretty pathetic Wannabe Fred there eh! 9.442 miles in 50:26 at 11.3 mph average. A crawling pace my my current standards, even on a heavy MTB!!

Moving onward, how about a 113 mile ride:

This was spread out between three days, the actual video footage is here in one 18 minute long video:

And that is only June 1st of last year, after 2 months of riding, 600 miles deep and loving it.

So all in all, within one year I went from total Fred to Wannabecyclist and feel absolutely great about cycling, just getting out there and riding just totally rocks, I am so stoked for spring!!!!


Thanks for watching, and I sincerely hope to inspire more of you to fix up your old bicycles and go for a ride this season! It has totally changed my life, and it will totally change yours as well, just give it a go!!

Oh yeah... The cycling license and the century tour videos probably don't relate to one another so much, but since I am getting the spring fever easily, I thought I would share them in this post.







-WCFTW