1st date with the blue boy

My Tuesday day off was a chance to pick up the Ghiblis, to take the Blueboy to Spoke(n), have the final bits attached, check on a weary son and his sore knees and get over to DISC for a test run. We weighed him and with training wheels (+ powertap hub) he comes in at a cachectic 7.6kg..might have to deal with an underweight bike when its all set up.

While over at DISC I spent some time talking to the staff to alert them of my plans and to discuss possible times. Seems like 5pm one Monday late in November will be the time. This actually works well as the velodrome will be at its warmest and friends can get over from work in time for the final stages when I'll really need the support.

So to the first run...this was all done without any formal measuring so was on a "what feels okay" basis. First task was to drop the seat down by a huge amount..the seat tube length is quite a bit longer than the Colnago although the top tube isn't. Then the seat angle and the set back needed adjustment as my knees were touching my elbows ...hmm, I'll have to retrieve my Look ergo stem...must need stretching out a bit.

The next task was to check with a different rear wheel to see if the tight fit was a wheel or a frame problem and...its a wheel problem. A call to the wheelbuilder, Richard Sawaris at wheelbuilder.com via Skype quickly sorted out the problem and now I have to ask the better half to grind away a few mm's of aluminium on the non-drive side. How good is Skype? I can talk to my wheelbuilder in America, my coach and my family in UK at no cost and since I have a webcam, I can hold up the wheel to the camera to ensure we're talking about the same thing...brilliant.

So the next task is to get the ergo stem and sort out the front end. The wheel grinding will have to wait til Phil gets back from visiting rels in WA. Sunday's session on the track will give me a chance to do more position testing and to very briefly see how he goes at full pace.

And finally.. looks like I'm booked up next Easter for another crewing period as Ben feels he can do better. His build up over the last 6 weeks was patchy due to having to house hunt for weeks and then move house in the week before the race.