Ghetto TT bike finished!

Finished the ghetto TT bike this weekend and took it out for a longish ride on Saturday. I'm very pleased that it fits quite well for being a road bike frame. Of course, like these projects tend to do, it cost more than I was expecting. In the end, though, it's not just another Trek/ Specialized/Felt like all the others - it's all mine!

It was a bit scary at first - I didn't get fully into the aero bars for a while, taking time to get used to things. But once I wasn't afraid of falling over, I could cruise pretty comfortably. After a while, I totally felt like a kite when I'd get up into the bullhorns! I didn't have a speed sensor on it yet, so I couldn't tell how much faster I was (or if it was all in my head!). Black Dog on Wednesday will be a good indicator.

Speaking of horrible roads, one thing I noticed while riding my race tires (which is all I have available for the TT bike at the moment) instead of my usual training tires - what a difference a good Vittoria 120 tpi tire makes over your cheap 60 tpi training tires! Plush. At 115 psi they felt like I was riding at 70 psi. Nice. Now if I could only afford Vittoria open tubulars...