Another Hippy Crit in the books! This time the pack was tighter and I was in the front. Chris let me lead the "A" pack this time instead of sweep. I took a bunch of pics check em out!
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Coffee, bikes, and beer; the recipie for fun! Hippy Chris from @CoffeeCycle made a route on Strava years ago known as the Hippy Crit. Condensed training that starts and ends down the street from his house. I rode it for the first time May 19, 2014 so I am a four year veteran of these climbs. 11 miles with about 1800 feet of climbing.
Saturday, March 5 I got to go meet up with the Specialized roadshow and test out the new Roubaix. The meetup point was at Stone Brewery in Escondido, 30 miles north. I rolled up wearing my neon Specialized jacket I wore around three weeks at SBCU and was recognized by one of the designers that was down here to show off the bike on the ride. I got sized up on a 58, excitedly I checked the storage box to find it fully loaded with all the emergency supplies. The 58cm model comes with 44 cm bars, I ride 40 cm bars so I was perfectly comfortable riding the pavement but that's personal, and that came in handy later. I had ridden the new Roubaix before but not clipped in and just around Coronado alleyways, and never clipped in so this was going to be my real first good ride on one. I had also never ridden around Northern the county. The ad for the ride said we were going to do the elfin forest which I had heard of several times before but never ridden so I was excited to go. As soon as we hit the road I started testing the bike out. The new future shock on top of the steer tube under the stem really made a huge difference. We started coming down the hill and I tried hitting every man hole and pothole I could and it was amazing hits in pots that would normally jar and pump my wrists were absolutely nothing. Because of the rain everything was green and beautiful. After several miles of winding paved roads we wind up on a dirt road that eventually stopped at a gate, a few of us hopped the equestrian pass at the gate and continued up a dirt climb that had several features that I knew would making descending tricky. When we came to the end of the trail and regrouped. I was the second to descend the trail. This is when the wider bars came in handy. It really was a trail all the features I had a challenge climbing over became the parts the suspension just soaked up on the way down. It was incredible, it felt like I was mountain biking, there's no way I would have let the brakes go like that if I was on one of my road bikes, the constant tire patch made it feel like a samurai slash down the mountain. As we regrouped with the people that didn't want the extra credit climbing we started riding back and I continued to take the roughest path possible. When I was chatting with the designers I found out one of them was from San Diego, City Heights actually to be specific. Also he was a track cyclist whose favorite bike is one he got from a European olympic team frame builder that is basically one of the bikes raced in Rio, also he had a bunch of rad tattoos and I recognized him from my time at SBCU. On the ride back we took a slightly different way than before. A few times I stood up on the pedals in to climb and felt incredible responsiveness, it just does what I want. I noticed a positraction feeling when I was cornering that felt great, this bike is a game changer in everyway. This is THE bike to have for putting in miles and an awesome all surface road bike. With the perfect fit you could ride this bike for hours on end. The shock is fully active so your constantly saving energy from fatigue on this platform versus any other road bike. There is room for much fatter tires on there but I was impressed how the 26c tire package off the shelf handled what I threw at it. Here is the data from the ride, nothing crazy but a route I can't wait to take again! https://www.strava.com/activities/887744676/ if you are looking for a new bike, test one of these out. Cheers!
Last week I was back at SBCU in Morgan Hill, California. I learned advanced fitting techniques to further my fit business. I am going to add suspension set up and aero fit to my fit menu. This training was invaluable. The advanced assessments will help me address stance width and core stability. I am excited to offer more fit options or my friends and customers. Here is a preview, full post next week!
This is the third year I have done the Strava challenge : Rapha Festive 500. Two years ago I did most of the mileage in 3 big rides. Last year I got sick and didn't complete the mileage and this year I decided to just be consistent and chip at the distance everyday with my track bike. 73,000 pedal strokes, no brakes, on 49x15 ratio. I love this challenge and am looking forward to the next one too! Enjoy!
This past week I was at Specialized Bicycle University (SBCU) in Morgan Hill, California. I learned so much! It is incredible how much pain I tolerated before. To put it simply I feel like everything I thought a bike fit was got thrown out the window. My goal is to become the best bike fitter in San Diego. Enjoy these pics, please comment at the bottom if you have a question!! I was building confidence in the descent; apex after apex after apex. I started cooking up to 39mph when a blind chicane put me in the cliffside. after the ride I learned that on previous SBCU rides they have had 5 crashes there with 2 broken collar bones..... I am infamous for coming out with just scratches. I am so happy I had the opportunity to go to SBCU. It gave me a new direction to take my cycling career. I am going to focus on being the best fitter in San Diego. I am now Body Geometry Fit Level 1 specialist. In January I am going back for the level 2 class to learn more about mountain bike fitting and aero fitting. I am forever gratefull and want to give a huge thank you to Karl, Dale, and Thayne at HolLands for sending me to SBCU. Another huge thanks to my instructors Julie, Hugo, Andy, Joe, and Robert for an excellent experience and instructuon. Thank you, see you in Janurary!
The Body Geometry Fit process takes about two hours. The first hour is an 18 part body examination, followed by a 15 step fit process. It is an ultra premium service where I systematically custom tailor the bicycle to the rider. I am excited, I felt that I had plateaued as a salesman but now I have found a new calling as a Fit Specialist. Here is more info about Specialized Body Geometry Fit #bodygeometryfit #SBCU #iamspecialized #gotmytopcap Several awesome Tokidoki characters adorn this high quality Italian made jersey. If you want to stand out and make people smile then check this out! Shipping was faster than expected. Shipped from Italy, my jerseys were delivered in only 2 days by DHL. Upon opening the package the jerseys were packed in celo wrap and placed in a neatly folded reusable tote. Although the jersey is mostly black, the premium material breathes great and stays cool. This jersey is lightweight and the fit is super tight, I love it. I wear this jersey when I want to go fast and stand out. I have two Bikeinside.cc jerseys and really like how hey fit and feel. I broke out a flexible ruler to size upto the chart and ordered size small. I am really happy I can confidently pack my pockets without worrying about my belongings bailing out. I highly recommend this jersey for the best fit and rad design. Get it here:
http://bikeinside.cc/en/product/jersey-tokidoki-limited-edition/ I am putting this here because I had my Garmim for over a year before I used a quarter of its potential. I thought it could do routes/navigation but had no idea how to set it up. It was not necessarily easy or self guided. I bet there are more ways to do this but this is how I do it.
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Who is bojac?My whole life revolves around the two wheeled human power multiplier that is the bicycle. My name is Jacob Abrantes, better known as Bojac (an anagram for Jacob) I am 27 years old and I ride bicycles in San Diego, California. I have been commuting, no joke, since I was 4 years old. Now as an adult, bicycles are my life. I try to ride as much as I can, my favorite place to train is Mount Soledad in La Jolla. I try to foster cycling in everyone that I meet, almost everyday I make another rider out of an ordinary person. Cycling is my therapy; my bike is my therapist. Bikes saved my life and gave me a purpose. Bicycles can save the world. blah blah blah lets ride! Archives
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