The first 1000

On Saturday I crossed a silly little milestone.

Which is a wonderful time to reflect on the custom bike experience.

I was first measured and questioned for the bike the beginning of December 2020.  They wanted to know my riding experience, what my current bikes were, intended purpose.  After submitting all these tasty tidbits, we waited for a drawing.  Due to some holiday in December, It took a little longer than anticipated for them to get that done.  Once done, we had to clarify a couple details and wait another week for the final drawing to sign off on.

Custom graphics and being a weirdo who wanted a frame designed to only be a singlespeed caused lead time to be longer than quoted.  This is something I wished there was greater transparency on.  But all was good, I loved the bike I was riding; it would have been nice to have a quarantine project though.

Anyhoo...

I got the bike.  A Seven Sola SL SS.  The Velveteen Coney.  It was built up with exactly the parts I wanted to put on it.

I"ve been and still am a fan of Shimano brakes.  After building a number of road bikes with Campagnolo disc brakes, and loving the feel of them, I decided to go a different route and try Magura MT8s, which have been wonderful.

 

I thought a USA made drivetrain would compliment the USA made frame so I mated A White Industries M30 crank, chainring and bottom bracket with a Wolftooth stainless steel cog.  Hear that?  No?  That's right, silent.

Does the carpet match the drapes?  You betcha! WI headset

So how does it ride?  Much like a bike.  A very refined bike.  Subtle.  One of the questions asked and submitted was "which is more of a priority, weight or ride quality"?

 Ride quality!  

duh.

Never been a weight weenie, and consider it a very minor property to be concerned with.  I want to get to the end of the ride, not have the lightest ride.

The standout feature of the bike is it's sexy ass that effortlessly leaves the ground following the arc with which I choose

That's it.

It's a stable, well handling bike that floats beneath me and holds a line when needed.  It goes over logs better than any bike I've ridden...

and rides like a bike.

Bikes For Bovines Battle Royale; The Hunted

Racing this year has been good but sporadic at best.
The season opener of the Root 66 race series, Hopbrook Dam, started well but came to a sputtering halt due to poor choices in equipment and strategy.
The next couple of races went well, so well that a race report would really be kinda boring.

Missing a few races due to family obligations had left me at almost two months without strapping a number to my bike.

BUT! Bikes For Bovines, the first race I ever won as a CAT1, was upon us.  I had my eyes crossed and my teas dotted; I was racing!

The start list was stacked and strong, I knew Tyler Monroe and Steve Witkus would be there and contenders, but I hadn't realized Mr. Consistency, Andy Chambers, had signed up too until he sauntered up to the line in his usual nonchalant manner.

After the usual confusion of which category I'm racing (yes, it's a singlespeed, no I'm not racing singlespeed) we line up and wait for Chris' whistle.

The start is a long slightly descending dirt road, my best hope was to jump on someone's wheel and spin like crazy.

Chris gives his speech, counts us down and sends us off.
Holeshot!...for a brief moment until Steve takes the lead with Tyler on his wheel.
Okay these are good wheels to follow.

We get to a slight incline and tighten things up.
The three of us are getting a bit of a gap despite swapping a little paint.
After I grabbed the lead a couple times on the climbs, Tyler gets to the front on some more of the twisty, technical stuff.

Holy Shit can that man drive a bike!

It's not too long before he drives it away...leaving me with Steve on my wheel like a hungry wolf.

I'm able to build a small gap on the climbs and surprisingly the descents but Steve reels me back in on the start loop and fireroad stuff.  Through the woods I see Andy with Steve Arsenault closely on his tail.

Steve W keeps gaining and gaining on me until we get to the steepest climb of the course.  Again I get a gap, only to have it erased on the first section of the course.

Andy is gaining on us.

The third lap goes to a dark place.  Clumsy and weak, questioning what I'm doing.  I feel the Steve's catch is imminent.   I'm going through a mini stages of grief.  I want to quit.

At the top of the steepest climb things start to turn around, at least with my attitude.  I get my gap again.

On the lower sections of the last lap, I'm seeing Andy, but not Steve...because Steve has reeled me in even earlier and is right behind me.

I'm trying to gap him on the climbs but he is tenacious.  In the twisty stuff that Tyler used to get away from me I catch teammate Tina Severson from the Pro Women class.  She's ready to give me the easypass but her lines are so sick there's no reason;  I couldn't ride that section any faster on my best day!

I get to the steepest climb, Steve is closer than he's been on any lap; this is it, he'll catch me or I'll stay away.  What little I have left I pour into the pedals, at the first switch back he hasn't lost any ground.  Second switch back, no difference.  But as things start to get more gradual and twisty, I'm loosing sight of him.

No matter, until I'm right under the finish banner I keep my head down and the pedals spinning as fast as I can finishing second :24 back of Tyler.  Steve rolled in :39 later with Andy back only another :41.

Now that's racing!