I received the package from Rickey with their Break Away Frame/Fork. I bought the 52 cm Road version, steel frame and carbon fork.  It comes with a case, headset, inline adjusters for the derailleurs that are used with a connector on the frame (not a very good design by the way) and three inline disconnects for the two derailleur and rear brake cables when you take it apart.  First thing I did was to weigh all the parts. The frame and fork weigh 2180 grams (4.8 lbs). The included headset weighs 5.3 oz (150 grams) for a total weight of 2,330 grams or 5.1 lbs. That is before cutting the steer-er tube to size so it might be a few ounces less.

The way the system works is that the frame breaks apart into two sections.  They are joined with a clamp near the bottom bracket and also the seatpost forms the second connection.

I had already purchased most all the additional parts needed with the exception of the seatpost and stem since I wanted to see how it all fit before I decided on the stem length and seatpost setback.   I have a spare stem to get started with.  I used a seatpost and saddle I took off an older bike so I could get the bike assembled.  The seatpost is needed to hold the two parts of the frame together, with the other connection near the bottom bracket being made by way of a special clamp.

The headset was not installed so I decided to take it to the local bike shop for that since I don’t have a headset press.  Within a few hours they called me and told me it was done.  It was $30 well spent since that included cutting the steerer tube..  Note that although it came with a headset there are no spacers for use under the stem.  I was not sure what stack height to use.  Looking at the Richey installation information online they said to limit it to 30 mm, so I used that.  You can always reduce it later but once you cut the tube that sets the limit.

For the components I installed DuraAce 7800 that I had replaced on my Trek Madone 6.9.  A couple of years ago I had replaced the double crank with a DuraAce 7950 compact and more recently I replaced the shifters, brakes and derailleurs with 7900 series.   So I had a complete set of components, but for now I will see how I do with a double crankset, something I rode all the time until two years ago.  For wheels I move the Maric Krysium SLs I had on my spare road bike and put the original wheels on that bike.  I put on a spare set of Speedplay pedals and weighed the final bike.  It came in at 17.5 lbs, quite nice for a travel bike with a steel frame.  This is around the weight of my older road bike, the Trek 5200 with the same wheels on it.

The bike comes with a travel case which measures 8.5″W x 26.5″H x 31″L with adds up to 66 linear dimension. Most airlines say 62 is limit but most people report they get charged as regular suitcase as long as under 50 lbs.  You can see how much more compact this travel case is compared with a regular bike case I own (on the left).

I added a water bottle cage, a saddle bag,  and mount for my Garmin 500, and was ready to roll.

Two miles into the ride I decided that the stem was too long.  It was a spare one I had to test out but I felt I needed a 70 mm stem, like I have on my Trek.  I returned home and pulled one of that size off the tandem and put it on.  That felt just right so the bike size and fit is almost the same as my Trek Madone 6.9. The bide very nicely.  I forgot how effortless the DuraAce 7800 double crank shifted.  I am very glad I bought this frame to use my old components on.  It has the advantage of being a travel bike.

I found this video on the web on how to pack the Richey Break Away.

Categories: Cycling Equipment
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Two years ago I installed a mountain bike (MTB) derailleur (Shimano XTR) and cassette on Anne’s road bike at the time.  See the prior post. At that time all MTB setups were 9 speed but her road bike was a 10 speed.  Although there was a 3rd party 10 speed cassette with a wide range, it was expensive and most people didn’t feel it worked very well.  So back then I used a device to allow you to use 10 speed shifters with a 9 speed MTB cassette.  The device, which had two concentric pulleys, changed the cable pull as needed.  It worked, but never worked very well and it seemed very hard to adjust things so it would shift smoothly.  It also meant that one of the index positions on the shifters would not work since there were only 9 cogs.

Anne got a new road bike last year and has been doing well with a triple chain-ring and a 12-27 cassette.   In the meantime Shimano has come out with 10 speed MTB gearing setups.  So for a relatively small price I bought a Shimano XT 10 speed cassette (Shimano XT M771-10) with a range of 11-34 and moved the XTR derailleur (RD-M971) from her old road bike to her new bike for those few times when she might need that extra low gears.

Type of Derailleur

Most road derailluers are limited to no more than 28 or 29 maximum teeth on the cassette. SRAM does sell a road derailleur as part of their APEX group that will accommodate a wider range, up to 32.  These are designed for use with a compact crank, although they may work with a triple also.

The other approach is to use a mountain bike oriented rear derailleur.  A word of caution is in order.  For many years Shimano kept the cable pull the same between their road and MTB shifters.  However with their 10 speed MTB bikes, they changed the cable pull.  Therefore, you can not buy a 10 speed rear MTB derailleur and have it work with 10 speed shifters on a road bike.  Instead, you need a 9 Speeed derailleur.  That might sound wrong since it will be used with 10 speed shifters but the XTR is not indexed and the indexing is all done with the shifters so it works just fine since it matches the cable pull on the 10 speed road shifters.  Another point is you need to use a “top normal” derailleur.  High normal or top normal rear derailleurs return the chain to the smallest sprocket on the cassette when no cable tension is applied, the same as with road bikes.  Many newer mountain bikes have a bottom normal or rapid rise shifter which is opposite, where the derailleur moves to the largest cog with no cable tension.  It would work on a road bike but everything would be backwards and should be avoided.  For Shimano the right model is RD-M971 for the XTR series and RD-M771 for the less expensive XT series.

Cage Length

Mountain bike derailleurs come in various cage lengths, which define the amount of varying chain length they can deal with.  For the Shimano RD-M971 the specs for long  (SGS) is 43T and for medium (GS) it is 33T

The easy capacity formula is to add your big ring & cog sizes, then subtract your small ring and cog sizes. It looks like this:

cap req’d (T) = (BIG ring – small ring) + (BIG cog – small cog)

…so for a 53-39-30 triple road crank & 11-34 cassette…

T = (53T – 30T) + (34T – 11T)
.. = (23T) + (23T)
.. = 46T

Using this simple formula, you would need a derailleur with a 46T rated capacity to absorb all the possible extra links and allow you to use every conceivable gear combination.  The Shimano long cage allows for 43T, and knowing that Shimano is conservative, then it should work fine.  If you have something other than a triple, use your own values in the formula above.  For example with a double crank (53-39) and a 11-32 cassette, it is 35 so a medium cage is sufficient.

Cassette

Although they sell cassettes with a capacity up to 36, most 9 speed derailleurs only accommodate up to 34.  This is what I installed, but you might consider using something like a 11-32.  That will still give you a very low gear and less of a jump between gears and you can buy a road cassette (SRAM with the range 11-32).

Chain

Another word of caution is about the chain.  Anne has a triple crankset so according to Shimano you should not use the newer chains (such as the CN-7901), which are only suppose to be used with a double (or compact) crankset.   That is true even if you have the latest Shimano Ultegra Triple.  They recommend instead the older model CN-7801 or CN-6600 chains.  However for the cassette I installed, they recommend the CN-HG94 chain, which is for the Dyna Sys mountain bike setup and is directional (like the new DuraAce chains)  so I would avoid that.  It is not as simple as when you would be a chain from Shimano and it said for either DuraAce or XTR.  Having on hand a new DuraAce CN-7801 chain I used that and it worked fine.  That is what one with a triple crank should be using, even if they have a regular road cassette.

It didn’t take long to install the XTR derailleur and new 11-34 10 speed cassette. I put on a new chain while I was at it.   Adjusting the shifting was the same as if it were a mountain bike.

Yesterday, we rode up Henry Coe, near Morgan Hill.  There is one short segment with the grade getting to about 20%.  Anne said the lowest gear she went into was a bit too low.  I think a 11-32 cassette would have been a better choice for her, especially considering she seemed to have no problem climbing it previously with her old 12-27 cassette.  Still it is nice to know there is a yet another gear in case you need it.

Categories: Cycling Equipment
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Awhile ago I decided that it was time to switch to a compact crankset so I bought and installed a DuraAce 7950, replacing the DuraAce 7800 chrankset that came with my bike. At the same time I put on a 7900 series cassette and started using the DuraAce 7900 chain.

Being the cheap guy I am I continued to use my DuraAce 7800 shifters, derailleurs and brakes.  It was a workable combination but the shifting was just not the same as with my DuraAce 7800 double crank.

Lately I have had the urge to buy a new bike.  There is not good reason since things were working fine enough, but the DuraAce 7800 shifts have the older design of the shift cables routed outside and everyone has changed to internal routing.  It is kind of like driving an old car.  Sometimes you just want to drive a new one.

Although my components were now 4 years old, much of the bike was much newer, with the frame and crankset replaced 2 years ago and the wheels replaced within the past year.  So instead of going done the route of buying a new bike, I decided to replace the components that were still there from the original bike, which meant new shifters, brakes, and front and rear derailleur.  I had considered to go with SRAM Red, which is very popular now, but I have a couple of road bikes plus the tandem that have Shimano components so I wanted to keep everything Shimano and with a shifting method I was use to.

All of the components were on sale individually at Performance.com so I placed the order for a total cost of $980 (less 10% in the points I get back for future purchases).  This included the ST-7900 Dual Control Levers, BR-7900 Dual -Pivot Caliper Brakes, FD-7900-B Front Derailleur, and RD-7900-SS, Rear Derailleur.  This was much cheaper than the $7,500 I would need to spend on a new bike with a top of the line frame, like I have, and DuraAce 7900 components.

Installing the brakes and rear derailleur was fairly easy because they were very much like what I have used in the past.

When it came to putting on the shifters that was a whole different store.  Even attaching them to the handlebar was puzzling and the instruction sheet that came with them was a bit hard to follow.  After getting them installed, I then had to route the brake and derailleur cables, which was tricky because it was so different than what I had done in the past.

Adjusting the rear derailleur was straightforward since it was similar to what I had done in the past.  The front derailleur was not so simple and the method of adjusting the cable tension was completely different.  I had to keep fiddling with it, even starting over a couple times.  The setup is suppose to allow you to use any gear combination without the need for trim in the shifters, but you have to do it just right to achieve that.  It is complicated by Shimano stating there is no trim, but the shifters do allow for two clicks going into the big chain ring.   One cycling friend had put in considerable slack in his cable so he used both clicks to get into the big chainring.  That just didn’t make sense to me because Shimano would not design something that required that type of effort.  I could setup things so it would move quickly into the big chainring, but the amount of tension caused the chain to rub when I was in the small chainring and largest cassette because the cable pulled the derailleur off the stop against the chain.  I finally solved that by a slight rotation of the derailleur.  If you have it off alignment, especially with the tail-end pointed outward even slightly, the very narrow range you have to work with with no trim is not sufficient.

It was only after I finished the job, reading and re-reading the instruction sheets, that I found this great video. If I had watched this first, I would have saved myself some time. Everything in the video is in the Shimano supplied instruction sheets but the video makes it easier to understand.

Shimano Dura Ace 7900 Installation Guide from ProBikeKit on Vimeo.

If you happen to be installing Ultegra 6700 components, this video will show you have. If you are installing a triple crankset, this video will also show you the differences in the installation between a triple and double (or compact) crankset.

Shimano Ultegra 6700 Installation & Adjustment Guide from ProBikeKit on Vimeo.

Categories: Cycling Equipment
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For many years I used a Polar heart rate monitor for both running and later for cycling. Starting with the Polar 720i, then the 625X, with footpod, it seemed like an ideal way to keep track of my speed and distance on both the bike and running. However I had become progressively disenchanted with Polar as a company. Even to this day they do not support their products on the Mac operating system, something that Garmin now does with all their products. They also seem to have lost the technology advantage they once had by letting Garmin move ahead with the use of GPS technology. Garmin’s early GPS units were bulky and seemed quite impractical but with each new generation they have continued to advance and their GPS units now have become quite small.

I previously wrote about the Garmin Edge 500 compared with the Polar 625X for cycling. It turned out that the Garmin Edge 500, which was primarily built for cycling weights no more than the Polar 625X. See my previous post for the detail comparison.

One of the nice features of the Garmin Edge 500 was the quick quarter turn mount. The new Garmin Forerunner 310X, has an optional “Quick release mounting kit” that is designed to convert their Forerunner running watches to use the same quarter turn mount, allowing you to use it on both your wrist and on the bike.

I ordered the kit for about $25 from Amazon and received it today. It comes with a wrist stap (the part I was interested in) as well as a bike mounting kit and a back for the 310XT to convert it to the quarter turn mount. Using only the strap I was able to attach the Garmin Edge 500 directly to my wrist. The orientation on your wrist may not be the idea way, but it is workable.

It might look a bit geeky, but not as much as the early Garmin Forerunner running watches.

So how much does the strap add to the 2 oz. weight of the Garmin Edge 500? Turns out not much, bringing the total weight from 2.0 to 2.6 oz. The difference is less than the weight of the footpod I use with the Polar 625X. It is almost the same as the 2.5 oz weight of the Garmin 310XT.

Is this combination the same as using the Garmin Forerunner 310XT?

Garmin Forerunner 310XT

If one is primarily focused on running, or on tri sports, then getting the Garmin 310XT might well be worth the price. For those who are mostly focused on cycling and do some running, then the Edge 500 does work as a workable solution if you want a GPS to use on your runs. It will not show your pace in any readout. Even using the speed, in mph, is not very useful because it seems to be erratic. But I found the pace readout on the Polar 625X to also be useless and ended up using the average speed over the course the of the run, which the Garmin Edge 500 will do. So if you own a Garmin 500 and want to have some type of GPS unit for running, you can get there with a small investment. Even without a footpod, it seems to be quite accurate and unlike the Polar 625X, the distance measurement does not seem to be greatly influenced by the pace being run. After the run, I can download the data to my Mac computer and see my average pace, and a map of the run. It makes it much easier later on to remember where you actual ran.

You also get some features that the Garmin Forerunner 310XT lack, including barometric pressure altimeter and temperature readout, although I am not sure that the temperature reading on the Garmin Edge 500 is very accurate. I realize that Polar has some newer running and cycling devices than the Polar 625X, but their unwillingness to embrace both the Mac and the standard Ant+ communication with their components, has kept me from spending any more money on Polar products. They seem to have a lot of different products, too many in my opinion. Try to pick out from the Polar offering and it is way too confusing.

Of course if you have no Garmin device now, you could go with the Garmin Forerunner 310XT, and use the Quick release kit to mount it on your bike or your wrist. But I primarily bike and the Garmin Edge 500 is well suited for that. You might also read my other post on using course on the Edge 500.

Categories: Cycling Equipment, Running
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Seems I might have finally found the (near) perfect bike rack for the car. For the Furnace Creek 508, we used my two bike hitch mounted Yakima bike rack. This is the type where the bikes hang suspended by the top tube. The front fork was free to rotate so we had to secure the wheel after mounting the bikes. With the new carbon bike frames becoming increasingly thin to get the weight down, I have grown concerned about hanging the bike from the top tube.

While in Montana recently (no sales tax) we went to REI where they had their Yakima bike racks on sale. We picked up the Yakima Hold-Up rack, the same my son John had purchased earlier. I got the model for the 2 in. receiver since I want to use on our van for future use and plan to use on the Hoodoo 500 this August.

With this new rack the bike is supported from the wheels and a single arm that clamps down on the front tire.  Nothing touches the frame.  It is very easy and quick to make a bike change.  When not in use, the rack folds up, out of the way.  Anne is also pleased that the color matches the color of our van!

With this model you can buy an extension that holds an additional two bikes.  That would allow you to haul four bikes on the back.  I have another so called four bike Yakima rack that hangs the bikes from the top tube but I never could get four bikes on it.  Also the new rack works great with mountain bikes, which have a sloping top tube and wider tires.

Categories: Cycling Equipment, Hoodoo 500
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Yesterday I wrote about putting a compact crank on my road bike.  Today I changed the gearing on Anne’s road bike so she would also have lower gearing.  She already had a triple crank with a 12-27 cassette so the only way to get lower gearing would be to add a mountain bike type cassette on the rear, which means also the need to change to a mountain bike rear derailleur.  There was one complication because Anne had 10 speed shifters on her bike and all mountain bike components are 9 speed.

You can not just use a 9 speed cassette with 10 speed shifters because the cable pull between gears is different.  When I bought my new compact crank for my bike, I also purchased an XTR rear derailleur because it was also on sale at Performance and there was also a 12 hour period with 20% more off.  Cost for the XTR was only $80, a steal.  From my prior experience I knew that I needed a “top normal” type.  Newer mountain bikes use a “low normal”.  Derailleurs are defined by the normal position of the derailleur (that is the resting position), either the top gear (smallest cog) or the lowest gear.

I checked with the bike club for recommendations.  Most of those responded recommend using an IRD product. They make a 10 speed 11-34 cassette.  I was not too anxious with this approach for a couple of reasons.  First I had tried that cassette, on loan from a friend, on my road bike before last year’s Everest Challenge.  I was not happy with how it shifted so I took it off and did the event last year with my double crank and regular road cassette.  Second the price for this cassette is about $170, which is a lot more than a Shimano XT cassette that would shift better.

When you have a triple crank having 10 speeds is a bit overkill because you get a lot of duplication in gearing.  I feel that most people with a triple who also want mountain bike gearing would have been happy to stay with 9 speeds but Shimano didn’t go that route with their road components.  There is talk that they will come out with a 10 speed mountain bike group, but that is not yet the case.

One club member suggested I look at a product from Jteck Engineering, called the ShiftMate.  I emailed the company and got a reply to my questions within an hour.  After studying the concept, it seemed like a great way to go so I ordered online from them, cost of $35 plus $6 shipping.  They shipped to me by priority mail.

This device is two concentric pulleys that the derailleur cable routes around.  The difference in the diameter of the two pulleys is such that the cable pull from the 10 speed shifters is increased to match what the cable pull from 9 speed shifters would do.  This allows you to use a 9 speed cassette.  The device arrived last Saturday.   I took a look and it seemed to be a clever approach to a common issue.

Today I decided to tackle this project.  I started by removing the cable from the existing Shimano 105 rear derailleur.

Next I removed the chain from the bike.

After I removed the existing 10 speed derailleur, I attached the new XTR derailleur in it’s place.

I cut the cable housing shorter so it would fit better, then threaded the cable back through the housing and then through the ShiftMate.

Next I removed the road cassette from the rear wheel and replaced it with a Shimano 11-34 cassette.  I had purchased a new XT cassette for our tandem during the recent sale but was not planning to use that until later this year.  Since we use our tandem more than Anne uses her single bike, I decided to do a swap and put the new cassette and chain on the tandem and move the tandem’s rear cassette and chain over to Anne’s bike.

The final step was to connect the cable to the rear derailleur and make the final adjustments.  Since the shifter has 10 stops and the cassette has only 9, I used the low stop on the derailleur.

A short test ride on the street showed that things were shifting smoothly, just as you would expect if the bike had 9 speed shifters.  Since I used some components from our tandem, the total cost was only $80 for the XTR and $35 for the Shiftmate, for a total of $115.  If Shimano does come out with a 10 speed 11/34 cassette, I can always switch to that and most of my investment will still be used.

Later in the day, we went for a ride to make sure that it shifted okay while actually climbing.  Anne reported that it worked just fine.

Categories: Cycling Equipment
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After the experience of cramping going up Snowbird at the end of the 1000 Warriors race, I decided to order a new compact crank.  I had already put a SRAM 11-28 cassette on the rear and that was working, so I would be able to still get a fairly high gear (50/11) with a compact crank.  I was lucky because Performance had it on sale for almost 40% off retail and then there was a 12 hour extra 20% off coupon.  I bought it and a new XTR deraulier for Ann’s bike and had them delivered to our Utah home so no sales tax.

I decided to do the swap today. I first removed the existing Dura-Ace double crank by looseing the two bolts using an allen wrench.  I then removed the cap using a special Park tool.  You then flip up the plastic tab that keeps the crank from coming off, then pull off the fright crank arm.  I could see that I had a press fit bottom bracket that came with the new frame.  Since this was brand new, there was no reason to replace it.  I pulled the crank assemble out of the bottom bracket and reversed the procedure.  I could not get the plastic lock stop to engage properly so I thought maybe my crank arm was no in all the way.  Finally I swapped the plastic tab with the one from my double crank and it worked just fine.

I had to move the front derailuer down a bit but my new frame has a clamp-on type so that was easy enough to do.  My frame that ended up breaking had a brazed on derailleur and I was always worried about the amount of adjustment.

I realized I also need to also shorten the chain.  The prior chrankset was 53/39 and the new compact is 50/34.  So the large chainring has 3 teeth less and the small chainring has 5 teeth less.  The chain goes around slightly more than 50% of the chainring,  So for the large chainring that means 3 * .5 = 1.5 links and with the small chaingring 5*.05= 2.5 links.  You can only remove links in multiple of two so I took out two links and checked the chain when it was cross chained in both directions.

So how much lower gear will I get?  The compact crank with a 11/28 cassette gives you the range of a stock triple since 53/12 is about the same as 50/11 on the high end and 34/28 is about the same as 30/25 on the low end.  Of course it will not be as low a gear as a triple with a 27 or 28 tooth cassette.

My next project is to add mountain bike gearing to Anne’s single bike.  On the same order with the Dura-Ace compact crank, I ordered a Shimano XTR rear derailleur that was also on sale.  But she has 10 speed shifters and most mountain bike cassettes are 9 speed.  I had to either get a special 3rd party 10 speed cassette or try a device that changes the cable pull.  I decided to try the later.  But that is the subject for another blog entry.

Categories: Cycling Equipment
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Well I didn’t exactly get a new bike. Last week I broke my bike. Heading down American Fork Canyon, after dropping 2,500 feet, we arrived at Mt. Timpanogas Cave National Monument, where we stopped at the snack bar. As soon as I got off the bike, I could tell the rear wheel was not rotating completely free. It was rubbing against the right chainstay. I noticed that the connection between the metal dropout and the carbon fiber chain stay had started to separate, which was forcing the wheel off center. Yikes, what to do?

After making some adjustment, tightening the wheel and opening the rear brake, I was finally able to rotate freely. We then headed down carefully, stopping a few times to make sure the separation was not increasing because if it came apart it would be disastrous. We decided to ride directly to the Trek Bike Store in American Fork. There they confirmed that the frame was broken and advised against riding it even one mile.  They confirmed that the frame was under warranty and that Trek would either replace it or repair it at the factory.   I told them I needed to get my bike fixed as soon as possible because I have the 1000 Warriors race coming up and if they replaced the frame I didn’t care what the color it was.   That turned out to be the right thing to say. A real nice guy at the Trek store said he would do what he could.

I was hoping to get a new frame rather than have the factory try to repair my old one. Well I was lucky because not only did they end up giving me a new frame and fork, they gave me the top of the line Madone 6.9 Red. The local Trek store received the frame only 8 days after I first went to them and today they finished moving my components over.  When I picked up the bike the nice guy there said he never saw Trek do such an upgrade on a frame under warranty.  The new frame has a built in seat post so they could not move mine over and no braze on front derailleur so they had to add some components.  It only cost me $200 for everything.

When I got home with the rig, I did a short ride.  It was not shifting quite as smooth as I was use to so I had to make several adjustments.  I also adjusted the headset angle slightly.  It seems to be working great now.  I can’t wait to get the bike out on a real ride.  It is sure lighter than my old frame.  I just need to make sure I get use to this new bike and that it is working smoothly before I race a week from Saturday.

Categories: Cycling Equipment
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I rode my older bike, with the triple crank, on the ride up Henry Coe last night. I was thinking to use it on the upcoming Devil Mountain Double this Saturday because it has the lower gearing. It was making some rattling sound, the speed pickup came loose, and it just doesn’t fit me like my new bike, even though both are a 52 cm Trek frame. I was thinking last night to go ahead and use my new bike for the tough double this Saturday, even though it only has a double crank. I can climb all those hills with the double, but I am not sure about doing all of them the same day with a double. I had to use the triple last year for this event due to cramping in my legs.

I spent this morning putting a new tire on the front and moving the front tire to the rear to replace that worn tire. I reattached the speed pickup for my Polar heart rate monitor and I tightened the cassette, which I think was the source of the noise. I had used a torque wrench before but I guess I had the wrong setting.

I weighed both bikes, loaded as I would ride them, sans water bottles. The new Trek Madone is a lighter bike but I have aero bars on it. On my old bike I have put on new wheels and a new Durace crankset so it is lighter than it use to be. I was surprised that both bike weighed nearly the same, within half a pound.

• Trek Madone 5.2 18.65 lbs (with pack with 2 tubes, CO2, mini pump, aero bars
• Trek 5200 19.35 lbs (with pack with 2 tubes, Co2, mini pump)

Part of the difference is the weight of the Syntace C2 aero bars at 358 grams, close to one pound. I could remove those since there is not that much drafting on this event. That would bring the wieght of the new bike down to 17.8 lbs, or 1.5 lbs lighter, both on an equivalent basis.

I set up both bikes next to each other to see if I should make any adjustments to the old bike to match the ride I like on the new one. I ended up moving the saddle forward slightly. I notice the handlebars one the new bike are a bit higher and the 10 speed shifters really do have a better angle, but without getting a new stem for the old bike there is little I can do there.

I just finished 24 mile last ride using the old bike. I fixed the rattle and it seems to be working fine. I calculated that the difference of 1.5 lbs will only mean 4 mintues total time difference for the entire DMD. I recall when I did the Furnace Creek 508 going up Townes Pass with my double and having a difficult time. Later I thought I should have used the older bike with the triple (which was on the support car). I expect the climb up Sierra Road after already doing 140 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing will be similar. But I did the entire Furnace Creek 508 with only a double, even Townes Pass. I used the double on the Death Ride and the Cimb to Kaiser. So I have decided to tough it out and go with the faster and lighter bike.

Categories: Cycling, Cycling Equipment, Devil Mountain Double
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While visiting Mac World I stopped by the Garmin booth to see what new items they had. I found three very interesting new products.

Forerunner® 405 1st Quarter, 2008 Part Number: 010-00658-10 Suggested Retail Price: $ 318.74 USD

This unit is much smaller than previous Forerunner units and was finally down to the size you would expect for a runner’s watch. It had a most unique user interface. Instead of pushing buttons to move through the menu options, you just run your finger around the watch front, and tap it when you find what you want.

There is no mapping function but it does support heart rate, and has optional bike speed and cadence, and supports a footpod. It automatically transfers your data to a computer.

Edge® 605 1st Quarter, 2008 Part Number: 010-00555-00 Suggested Retail Price: $ 430.75 USD

This unit appears to be a much improved unit over the previous Edge 205, which it appears to be replacing. It now includes a true GPS mapping function in a package no larger that what I recall the 305 to be. Included is only the base map so that means buying mapping software to get other than major highways. It has support for a MicroSD card so you can add your own maps. This unit does not support a bike speed/cadence sensor heart rate and does not include a barometric altimeter, so you may want to opt for the Edge 705.

Edge® 705 1st Quarter, 2008 Part Number: 010-00555-20 Suggested Retail Price: $ 541.65 USD

This unit appears to be a much improved unit over the previous Edge 305, which it appears to be replacing. It now includes a true GPS mapping function. It adds support for heart rate and cadence and will also support Power with third party ANT+Sport-enabled power meters. You can also send your course wirelessly to another Edge 705. The battery life is suppose to be 15 hours, an improvement over the Edge 305, but still a bit on the short side. Even though the price of the 705 is more than $100 more than the Edge 605, I would recommend it because of the added features the serious cyclists would want and if you are not a serious cyclists why would you bother in the first place with one of these expensive units.

I asked about Mac computer support. All of the above units currently will only work with Windows, but Mac support will be coming later in 2008 (as Garmin has been saying).

Categories: Cycling Equipment
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