Bike Technology?!

Man I love this weather! This is the best time of the year here in New England.

I started a contest on my message board about picking the Hawaii IM 07' winners and their times. Whoever is closest wins some great Hammer product including a huge jug of Recoverite, Perpeteum, and endurolytes. Hopefully we'll get some players!

In the general discussion section of my message board, Frank Salvo was asking for some advice. He's purchasing a new bike and wanted to know if he should get 650c wheels or 700c wheels. I mentioned that if I were fitting Frank, I wouldn't even think about putting him on 650 wheels. But then I thought about my own experience. My fastest Hawaii IM bike split was on 650 wheels. It was also on a full aluminum bike - yes, even the fork was aluminum. I had standard zipp 404 wheels. No dimples or zedtech. No ceramic bearings. I used a jetstream up front! And, sit down for this one, there wasn't one piece of carbon on the whole bike! I'm as big a bike tech geek as there is. Well, I don't come close to Scott Forster - he's got his finger on the pulse! But I love the tech side of the sport. However IM bike times aren't really getting that much faster with all this bike technology. Sure, Norman set a new bike record last year in Kona, but I think that has more to do with the conditions and the newer bike course rather than his bike itself. I still feel that 700c wheels are the way to go for Frank, and I'm not switching back to 650's anytime soon. The point is that it's all about the legs. It all comes down to how well you trained and that's the bottom line. Put Norman back on my 96' cannondale 650'c aluminum rig at last years race and he still would have set the bike record. So get out the door and ride, damn it!

Some great new music I've been listening to during training:
Bleed it out by Linkin Park - man this one just get's me goin! If it doesn't for you, then check and make sure you have a pulse.
The Pretender by The Foo Fighters - anotther great song from a great band.
Timebomb by Beck - I always liked Beck. This one reminds of some of his earlier stuff that got me interested in his music in the first place.

Cheers,

EH