GOESE NEWS NETWORK
A BOY AND HIS TOYS
Dan has gone even more crazy about bicycles in the last couple years...maybe the racing thing was just an excuse to buy more toys...Toy #1...an all-carbon road bike, used for fair-weather road riding and racing.
Similar to the bike used by 7-time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong,
the TREK MADONE is in the no-longer-produced, USPS Team Colors...
...son Mickey now rides this.
Toy #2: Goese got aero bars...and a whole aero bike to go with them.
This is the Cervélo P3-SL time trial bicycle, used by Ivan Basso in 2004 to help improve
his chances against Lance Armstrong. It helped, but as Lance once wrote..."It's not about the bike."
It sure doesn't hurt, though...going with the aero bars takes over a minute off Dan's 20 km time trial.
Now imagine this sweet ride with a HED disk rear wheel and a 3-spoke HED aero front wheel.
Well, imagine they're the same SIZE, too.
(I just grab these pictures off the Internet, you know. I don't spend time taking pictures of my bicycles!)
Anyway, It's a thing of beauty and technolgoy that will help me reach my time trial goals in 2007!
Don't they say good things come in threes?
Or is it bad things? Or maybe it's just bicycles.
The Bianchi Pista is Toy #3. This is a low-end, "fixed gear" track bike (with no brakes)
that helps one get a "fix" of the San Diego velodrome video game
that can break your collarbone...pretty realistic and very 3D!!
"Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been over 20 years since my last confession."
Is bicycle gluttony a sin? Don't ask. Dan still has a lot fewer bikes than Robin Williams has.
(Dan had the pleasure of riding up Torrey Pines hill with him during the
2005 San Diego Triathlon put on by the Challenged Athletes Foundation.)Toy #4–and oldest–bicycle in the "new binge bikes" stable is the trusty Santa Cruz SuperLight.
This is now used by Mickey Goese, so maybe it doesn't even fit in the bicycle gluttony countdown..
Toy #5: Why pass up the opportunity to ride this pretty blue Giant Tempo while watching movies on TV?
Now that Mickey is using the Santa Cruz, another spine-saving, full suspension mountain bike
is clearly needed when one doesn't wish to ride alone.
Thus, Toy #6...the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp...a no-frills off-road performer...
It's 2008 and the Madone 5.2 in Postal colors (and mountain bike gearing from the Everest Challenge)
is getting a little "long in the tooth" for a bike addict. Plus, the gearing is not so great for criterium races.
So it became obvious that it was time for another toy. Aesthetics was a huge factor. I wanted a bike that
was so beautiful I could get passionate about it. Fortunately, that happened with the Colnago CLX,
which is a great "value" racing bike, and not one of those top-of-the-line bikes that cost as much as a motorcycle.
I did switch out the standard wheels for a pair of HED Ardennes, so mine looks even sexier than this one.
A woman on our club ride reacted to the new bike's great looks by saying, "That IS sex!" (not "sexy"). I'm not
sure I'd go that far, but it does look pretty damn good in real life.
Gluttony Rationalization:
All "new car" money has been going into bicycles.
So, we're SAVING money by not buying new cars, right?
Ride on!!
For bicycle links, see the bicycling favorites page.
