Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Just call me a Tri Sheep

I'm now one of the herd. One of the mindless sheep who can't make decisions for themselves. Well, the latter statement is definitely not true for me but anyone who buys a Cervelo is viewed as such.

I decided after the Marines Ironman World Championship 70.3 to sell my Scott Plasma and buy a new tri bike that actually fit me. In hindsight, I wanted to buy a Cervelo back in 2009 but the shop I was racing for at the time was not an authorized reseller for Cervelo and they offered me a sweetheart deal on the Scott or so I thought. After removing all of the spacers and adding a very, negative drop stem the Scott was still not the best choice for me. Todd Kenyon at ttbikefit.com helped me out immensely and got me as aero and comfortable as possible. I highly recommend Todd and his fitting service and have referred many triathletes who are much happier and producing higher watts after working with Todd.

Why a tired brand and model like Cervelo when there are other "super" bikes out there? I'm not convinced that the Trek SC or Specialized Shiv TT is that much more aero than a Cervelo P3. Maybe talking a 3' savings over the course of an ironman leg. Really??? There is a reason why Cervelo has dominated the Kona count year after year and continues to produce World TT champions. Let's not forget that the motor has to move the bike and based on my 2011 results, my motor produced numerous podiums on a not so aero bike so moving to the Cervelo P3 should produce faster times and even better results!

Tried to find a P4 on close out but had no luck. Did go with the 2012 P3 as it had a 3T Aura Pro carbon base bar. I did upgrade the crank to the Quarq SRAM 975 powermeter as I can't live without power. Also added a Black Box Ceramic bottom bracket. Decided to switch to the Adamo Road saddle versus staying with the Cobb V-Flow Max and I'm glad I did. Immediate comfort and much better than the Cobb in my opinion. Highly recommend you try this saddle. If you do, make sure you mount the saddle with the rails horizontal and not the top of the saddle. The latter will cause you a lot of pain and discomfort. also, give it 2 weeks or 5 to 6 rides as it will take the skin on your sit bones some time to build up the callouses. Purchased vinyl name labels from Victory Circle Graphics and am very pleased. They provide name labels for some of the top professional teams in the peloton so you won't be disappointed.

For race day, I plan to use my Zipp 900 clincher disk and Zipp 808 clincher front wheel. Could gain a few seconds by switching to a Zipp FC 808 for the front but not worth the investment in my opinion.

Bike rides like it is on rails and is probably one of the best bikes I've ridden for power transfer. Had some issues with the seat post slipping but I think that was due to the bike shop forgetting to add carbon assembly paste and blue Loctite to the threads of the bolts. Did purchase a fixed torque wrench to make sure the seat post in torqued to 4Nm before every ride. Make sure you add the blue Loctite to the bolts for the arm pads as they loosened up pretty quickly without it.