Gotto back up bikemax here (and not because I ride in his team). Ric Stern is one of the most respected coaches in the world. Spend some time on the cyclingforums.com or topica wattage lists and you'll realise he really does know what he's talking about.
The orientation of the biopace rings was the opposite of Q-Rings. And I thought at the time that the biopace rings made me feel stronger. Q-Rings believes that the opposite works. Just goes to show that so much can be in the mind.
The problem here isn't with the seatpost in the frame, but rather the clamp interface with the saddle rails. I'm speculating that maybe Easton's design is sensitive to non-alignment in the saddle rails, or that the diameter of the clamp where it compresses the rails isn't consistent.
But like I said, it sorted itself out for me. And there's about a million EC70 seatposts out there so it couldn't be a big issue?
I had the same problem with my previous bike. I just loosened and re-tightened it and it came right after 3 or 4 times. No problems for the 18 months after that, even when I had to remove the saddle again for some reason.
Just got a brand new bike with brand new EC70 and no problem this time.
8 or 9000km's - that's still new!!! The only things that'll ever need replacing are the bits that wear, ie chain, cassette, derailleur pulleys and chainblades. Everything else should last a very long time. I had an old 7-speed gruppo that must have done 50,000km easily. niterider2007-02-15 23:50:12
I'd go with XO rear der and X9 gripshifters.
Don't believe all the stories from the soft-skinned girls here , you won't get any blisters on your hands. Gripshift has less things to break off when you crash, and its lighter.
You won't really go wrong with either.
HR on the PT is a waste of time. I tried it for about a week before I gave up - either it was dropping out, or if you were riding with others it picked theirs up.
After another week or two you realise you don't miss it. The only important thing is power output, HR really is pretty irrelevant.
I do miss the altitude from my Polar though
Never heard of breaking in a modern saddle. The old Brooks were made with VERY hard leather that needed to be softened through use. In effect they would mould to the shape of your ass. Many modern cycle-tourists still swear by them.
As far as whether the Arione might actually work for your backside, only you can tell. Everyone is different and different saddles fit different people. The only way to find out is to try different saddles.
Personally, unless you were experiencing problems with your current saddle, I wouldn't be changing anything in your bike setup before your March funride. I made that mistake 2 years ago at that same funride and had to withdraw after 3 days with injuries from an ever-so-slightly different position on my bike. Not cool.
Had egg-beaters for about 2 years and had no problems. Riding in mud was a pleasure. However they weren't very kind to the soles of my Sidi Actions. Now I'm back to M540s, which really aren't that bad at all.
I'll give a big vote for the value of power training. There's more demonstrable value in my Powertap than any wheel or frame upgrade that I've ever bought.
Ok, did some more research on this... A lot of fork manufacturers had no info on this on their websites, but Fuji and Alpha Q both recommended a limit of 40mm of spacers below the stem.
Nice!
You're looking for trouble with the stem. The general rule (so I've been told by those who know) is that you shouldn't have more than 25mm of steerer between the stem and headset. And with your big strong arms I'd feel safer if it was less. Otherwise you might hear a nasty carbon failure when you least expect it, like in a sprint
Why don't you flip the stem and remove a spacer.
And then all that left-over steerer tube above the stem... is that to chew on when you're in the gutter??
Getting back to the original problem -
If riders decide to not follow the racing rules, ie riding on the wrong side of the road, it is the race comm/marshal's job to enforce the rules - warning followed by DQ. If they didn't do that then they're not doing their job. That's one of the things you're paying for with your entry fee.
Interestingly, IF is also 0.78, same as BikeMax, but I know I had something more left in the tank, whereas he was dying.
I should also add that I'm 62kg.
