With the aussie dollar dropping so badly and all bikes sky rocketing in price, we decided we should bite the bullet and upgrade Lisa's bike ASAP.
After MUCH shopping about and several test rides (its hard to find a shop that has high end bikes to test ride in Lisa's small size), we eventually settled on a 2009 Scott Addict R3 at a ripper price from Melbourne Bicycle Center in Prahran.
Lisa did test ride several "woman's specific" bikes but in truth, their geometry is hardly different to the men's bikes and the female graphics and colours did little to thrill Lisa (who wants a serious race bike with swirls and flowers on it?).
We had to make a judgment call on the fit based purely on the geometry as compared to other bikes Lisa test rode and her current bike, but it turned out a perfect fit, just as we thought.
We had the shop swap the bars to FSA Wing Pro compact bars in 38cm (same as her current bike). Unfortunately the 38cm don't come in white so we had to have them painted (see below). We also had the shop swap the stock 100mm black Ritchey stem for a white Ritchey stem in 90mm to fit Lisa's reach better.
We went with the white stem because we had plans to bling up the bike with the bars painted white and the headset spacers also painted white to match in. A friend from the BV forum is a professional spray painter so we had him to the bars and stem spacers and he did an awesome job. Thanks Johan! Unfortunately, I managed to put a small scratch in the white bars when fitting them so some touching up is required. Bummer! :(
Then we fitted some nice white bottle cages we found on Ebay (nice find, clean design, work well, glossy plastic and best of all- cheap!).
The stock Scott saddle was swapped for a new Selle Italia SLK Lade Gelflow saddle which is the same model as on Lisa's old bike and its a perfect fit for her tush to rest on!
While shopping for bits online, I came across some metallic gold bar tape from Cinelli that looked like it would match the gold on the frame, so we purchased that. Lisa was a bit apprehensive at first but I (and most of our friends) think it looks awesome (and Lisa is starting to like it now).
I also came across some bling bits and pieces from Purely Custom including champagne colored bottle cage bolts...
and champagne cable ends...
a champagne stem bolt, and best of all, a champagne spacer with diamantes in it (Lisa LOVES this which was a surprise present from me).
A bike this nice deserves everything to be sleek and quality so we brought a Knog Bullfrog rear light which fits really well and is brighter than we thought, plus a Fenix torch for the front light with a Twofish lockblock bike mount to hold it safe and snug to the bars. To power the lights, we brought some decent rechargeable batteries to power it all economically. Sorted!
A Topeak carbon mini pump was purchased and a Pro storage bottle to hold tubes/tools/pump was chosen rather than a saddle bag to keep things clean and neat.
Koolstop dual compound brake pads were fitted to the front brake right from the start for better stopping power and the cables were shortened to tidy things up. 
Shimano's 8 degree adjustment blocks went in the brifters to give Lisa better reach as per her old bike...
To protect the lovely frame, some clear System Ex cable rub protectors and a chain stay protector went on the bike for that detailed look...
and a Garmin cadence sensor and second mount kit were brought and mounted with white cable ties to match in with the frame (yes I'm anal enough to go out and buy thin white cable ties to keep it looking tidy, even though I had plenty of black ones laying about).
Matching Ultegra SL pedals are waiting to go on the bike as Lisa's current Nike shoes have a strange problem where the ball of the foot has too much curve in them, leading to the cleat also bending so much that it won't clip into any pedals, except that is her current old 540 SPD-SL pedals (yes I know.. very weird). So the new pedals will have to sit in the cupboard till Lisa's new Sidi shoes can be purchased.
And how does Lisa like her new bike? She LOVES IT and is much faster on it...
Its cool how its all black and all business from the rear...
yet white and bling from the front...
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Lisa's new bike - BLING!
Please forgive me...
Please forgive me for it has been quite a while since i updated my blog.
But I have been very busy... honestly!
Since my last update, I have been riding as much as ever, racing a bit and doing pretty well if I do say so myself.
Some highlights include-
-Several road races including my last RR for the season a handicap where I was started with several C-graders in my start group where I managed to beat most of them to the line.
- The following day my first crit race for the season where me and a young kid made a breakaway from D-grade and we spent the entire race passing and being re-passed by B-grade, far ahead of the rest of D-grade. Ultimately I didn't have the legs to match the young kid in the final half lap sprint and finished second.
- Lisa winning her first B-grade woman's crit race for the season easily (same day as my break away).
- Lisa racing the Amy Gillet Cup and doing awesome (2x 5th's and a 6th in her first open races).
- Moving up to C-grade and having an event filled first C-grade race including being the middle link in a chain of events that saw two riders go down after touching my wheel, having the marshal's call me in and having to explain that I had to change my line due to the rider in front cutting across my line, rejoining the race after explaining and then having 2 riders go down in a corner RIGHT in front of me, skidding to a stop in the gutter and helping a downed rider off the track, rejoining the race and finishing in the top 10 and just glad to get out of the race alive!
- Having my first race crash (this is a low light) in my second C-grade race when a young rider who was moving up on my left with plenty of room to move, strangely veered into me by accident, tangled bars with me and we both went down in a heap, me with a fair bit of bike damage.
- Getting my 1:20 time down to 18:30 and my Kinglake time down to 22'ish mins.
- Racing at the Hawthorn crits on Kew Bouli in C-grade several times and NOT finishing last on a tough, hilly course (stuck with the pack the whole way and even lead for a while).
- Finding myself comfy in further C-grade races, able to move up and down the bunch at will and able to finish top 10 (in a field of 40 riders) with a decent sprint at the finish.
- Doing the MRR with an average speed of 34kph with only a small group of 4 to share the work with (trust me, 34 average might not sound fast but there is plenty of traffic lights and lots of hills to sap the speed out of you).
As for my weight, It seems to have stabilized at 98-96kg's. However, my clothes are getting looser and looser so i am putting on muscles and dropping fat. While I would "like" to be lighter, it's not stressing me.
