Friday, September 12, 2008

Equipment - Riggio Track Bike, Part 2

Yay! The bike and its career earnings. Note the SPD-R pedals now on the bike.

To quote Hans: "Is this rideable?" 140 mm track stem (1" quill, not sure of make), with a 3ttt track bar (40 cm). Whenever I look at the bike I think the fork is bent back, but when I check it out, it's okay. Looks bent here.

An illustration of the drop. It doesn't seem to bad when you're on the bike, kind of like skiing down a slope - it's much better to just get going, instead of thinking of "will I flip over". Fork looks straight here. Note horrible tape job - the end is just ridiculously messy. Good thing is I cut one strip of tape in half, so I have another strip for a re-tape job.

I fitted the bar before I left for the shop. I actually did a double take on the massive drop but figured, well, the races aren't that long. Note the old cranks on the bike.

I always thought of the very tough track racers as wearing long finger gloves. So I brought my black car mechanic gloves with the additional excuse that, "Well, it's got to be colder in New Hampshire."

Okay, so it's a SR Suntour Superbe crank, not a 105. I don't know where I got 105 from. I don't know what "SR Suntour Superbe" really means (cold forged? heat forged?), but it has a "hidden" fifth chainring bolt 'a la Record'. I used my four remaining blue bolts where they would be visible. Note the third chainring bolt mounting points.

I didn't notice the big bug on the back of the cap when I got it.

3 comments:

mattio said...

WOW, you ride that bike looooong.

Anonymous said...

Cool pics. With that drop, I assume the gloves are to protect your fingers from the front tire(!)

Aki said...

I'm going to measure some stuff on that bike. I don't have any numbers on it so it'll be interesting.

I'll also ride it on the trainer so I'll have some more idea what sort of speed etc I can hit. I didn't have a cyclocomputer on and all I was doing was trying to go faster than the other guy.