Bike Drama

We have had some serious bike drama over the winter.  I am pleased to report, and more than just a little relieved, that it is all now taken care of.  But it was touch-and-go there for a bit whether Jason was going to even have a TT bike to race St. George on next weekend!

Let's rewind a bit.  I guess I can take the blame for starting this whole thing.  You may remember when I did Ironman AZ in 2010, and Jason lent me his Specialized Transition rather than have me ride my road bike.  Of course, I didn't want to give that bike back - I love it, it's fast, it's comfortable, it's pretty... what else does one want in a bike?  But seeing as I wasn't racing any big races in 2011 and Jason was (IM CdA and Kona), he took it back.

Just before Kona, he bought a new Transition for himself, thinking I could get his old one and he'd build up the new one for himself.  There wasn't time to build up the new frame before his race, so it was still at home in the box when we flew to Hawaii.  There... we saw the new Specialized Shiv.  For those of you who remember my friend Wendy's dog Marty - well Jason was like when Marty saw a squirrel.  Whole body shook, salivating, mouth chattering... and I knew what was next.  Didn't take long once we got home for him to order a Shiv, and sell the still-in-the-box Transition.

We waited waited waited all winter for the Shiv.  It was supposed to arrive by the end of February, and we thought that would give him a lot of time to get dialed in before IMSG at the beginning of May, including putting some major miles on it during our March trip to Tuscon.  February ticked by, and soon we were boxing our road bikes to fly to Tucson.  During that time, Jason decided to build his old Transition up for me, which included recabling it.

We found out that some 2009 Transitions have a defect, and turns out ours did.  While recabling, one of the cables got permanently stuck in the cable guide.  Specialized assured us this was a warranty issue and would ship a new frame, which they did... but it was the middle of March and we still had no Shiv and now no TT bike at all as a backup in case the Shiv didn't arrive in time.  There were some chewed fingernails around our house.   

A call from our bike shop, my new frame was in!  And Jason's Shiv was in!  Hooray - two bikes and two very happy people!  Jason got the Shiv built up and took it for a Retul fit, and I got the Transition built.  He spent the last month dialing in his position and fit, and is ready to rock St. George.  

The lean, mean, ready-to-race machine.

I still have lots of work to do on my fit, but it's great to ride and I'm not in a rush since my Ironman is still many months away.  Funny thing is, my new frame is the same year/model as the one Jason bought & sold in October - a 2011 Transition Pro.  I guess fate wanted us to have that one.  And cool thing is it's all mine, never having been ridden by anyone else.

Drama over, back to our regularly-scheduled programming.

Happy spring everyone!  Love, Humu