I posted pjorn of my new Time Machine several weeks ago. Several of you asked for a ride review. I've riden it about 400 miles so far so it's a limited review. I did do one century ride as well as the Kinetic Sprint in VA and the White Lake Half. Here are my observations:
1. I'm mostly focused on what happened at WL--my first major race of 2007. Results wise, I was 17th OA on the bike and 1st in the 50-54 AG by 5+ minutes on the bike (I did a 2:24:44 according to the SRM--about 23.2-23.4 mph--I measured the course at 56.4).
2. The bike is amazingly stiff--it could be a crit bike. Al ot of this is no doubt due to the Stronglight Chrono 55/42 Chaonring set-up but i think the beefiness of the BB and the "aero-spine" that runs south of the BB has something to do with it.
3. all the ceramics (wheels, BB, pulleys, etc) are like magic. Guys, I think they are worth it!
4. the bike fits me better than any other bike before--I have a wierd body--long legs/short torso/arms so this may be more relavent to me
5. I'm not in that good of bike shape now (coach has me on all base training still--target race is IMFL) and I was only able to average 228 watts at a HR of 151. None-the-less, I was essentially able to match my best HIM bike split (this was my 9th HIM) with a HR that was 8 bpm lower (the courses were reasonably comparable). Without going into a lot of detail, I think this bike is about 4 minutes faster at this distance (about 20-30 watts) than my old custom LS Blade (with Zipp disc and 808 front wheel). I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to take this bike down to IMFL and go sub 5 this year--it's noticeably faster for me.
6. further, the fit is perfect and I was able to start running fast (for this old guy) right away. I took just under 7 minutes off my best HIM run time doing a 1:38:01. I think a lot of this was the bike.
7. All in all i was able to hack 15:07 off my PR at the HIM and do a 4:43:14 and win my AG my 7+ minutes. Not all of this is due to the bike, but some of it was for sure,
8. On the negative side the seat locking mechanism did not do it's job and I spent most of the race riding on a seat that pointed down 30 degrees. I'm looking forward to Eagleman to see what a good seat yields in terms of my time. Woody at Cadence (I believe) solved the problem--it was complicated--let me know if you want to know the details.
All in all I'm thrilled with this bike. although I don't know any better my guess is that this is one of the fastest machines in the world (at least for my body). Of course it' obscenely expensive but to me, going from 4:58 to 4:43 at 50 years old I'm thinking it's an OK thing to spend my money on.....
rc
Randy Christofferson(http://www.rcmioga.blogspot.com
Insert Doubt. Erase Hope. Crush Dreams.
1. I'm mostly focused on what happened at WL--my first major race of 2007. Results wise, I was 17th OA on the bike and 1st in the 50-54 AG by 5+ minutes on the bike (I did a 2:24:44 according to the SRM--about 23.2-23.4 mph--I measured the course at 56.4).
2. The bike is amazingly stiff--it could be a crit bike. Al ot of this is no doubt due to the Stronglight Chrono 55/42 Chaonring set-up but i think the beefiness of the BB and the "aero-spine" that runs south of the BB has something to do with it.
3. all the ceramics (wheels, BB, pulleys, etc) are like magic. Guys, I think they are worth it!
4. the bike fits me better than any other bike before--I have a wierd body--long legs/short torso/arms so this may be more relavent to me
5. I'm not in that good of bike shape now (coach has me on all base training still--target race is IMFL) and I was only able to average 228 watts at a HR of 151. None-the-less, I was essentially able to match my best HIM bike split (this was my 9th HIM) with a HR that was 8 bpm lower (the courses were reasonably comparable). Without going into a lot of detail, I think this bike is about 4 minutes faster at this distance (about 20-30 watts) than my old custom LS Blade (with Zipp disc and 808 front wheel). I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to take this bike down to IMFL and go sub 5 this year--it's noticeably faster for me.
6. further, the fit is perfect and I was able to start running fast (for this old guy) right away. I took just under 7 minutes off my best HIM run time doing a 1:38:01. I think a lot of this was the bike.
7. All in all i was able to hack 15:07 off my PR at the HIM and do a 4:43:14 and win my AG my 7+ minutes. Not all of this is due to the bike, but some of it was for sure,
8. On the negative side the seat locking mechanism did not do it's job and I spent most of the race riding on a seat that pointed down 30 degrees. I'm looking forward to Eagleman to see what a good seat yields in terms of my time. Woody at Cadence (I believe) solved the problem--it was complicated--let me know if you want to know the details.
All in all I'm thrilled with this bike. although I don't know any better my guess is that this is one of the fastest machines in the world (at least for my body). Of course it' obscenely expensive but to me, going from 4:58 to 4:43 at 50 years old I'm thinking it's an OK thing to spend my money on.....
rc
Randy Christofferson(http://www.rcmioga.blogspot.com
Insert Doubt. Erase Hope. Crush Dreams.