Life cycles

Regular readers of this blog know that my Number One Son, who pops in here from time to time and leaves a comment, is all about bikes. When he was five and we took the training wheels off his first bike, we quickly learned that we'd been holding the kid back. Instead of wobbling around with a worried expression on his little face, he stood on the seat, kicked one leg out behind him, and sailed down our quiet little street, thrilled to have two wheels under him. Years later, when all of his friends were buying cars (where we live, everyone drives), Tristan sank his fortune into a sexy new bike and all kinds of gear. He was almost nineteen when he finally bought a car, but he sold it when he moved to downtown Chicago to work and attend school--and hang with the bicycle messengers, who now know him as their current skid champion.

Tristan is excited that his new, custom-built track bike is finally finished, so he e-mailed and asked me to blog about it. I invited him to say a few words, and here's what he e-mailed back.

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Wow! What's this, you ask? A SPECIAL GUEST BLOG ENTRY! You may remember an entry my mom wrote several months ago with a picture of me holding a goofy looking pink bike frame. Nearly a year after I received the frame, the bike is finally all built up and ready to race!

This bad boy is for velodrome use only, and is a purebred race steed. It's light, fast, stiff, and expensive. All the things a good bike needs to be!



Here are all the bike-geek oriented details:

Frameset:
Custom hand-built Don Walker frame & fork. A carefully selected mix of Columbus Zona & Reynolds 531 steel tubing.

Components:
FSA Orbit II XL threadless headset
Look ErgoStem (adjustable from 0mm-150mm)
Nitto B125 38cm
Velox cloth bar tape
Thompson aluminum seatpost, zero setback
Salsa seat clamp
Miche bottom bracket & Crankset (49t)
KMC extra wide chain
Dura Ace rear cog, 15t aluminum
28h Mavic CXP 30 tubular rims, Dura Ace 7600 series track hubs
Vittoria Pista Evo CL tubular tires, 19mm
Look pedals

Many thanks to Don Walker and my boss Marcus at Yojimbo's Garage for helping me get exactly what I wanted.

Rubber side down,
Tristan



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