I`ll miss class for that

SSWC 09 has been moved from August 6-9 to September 16-20. I hope I don`t have to change my gearing to.

Mi casa

Since moving into my new house at the start of break its been slow going.

The first week of winter break is over and two remain. Most of the bike team is out of town and its hard to get around making for a boring first week. I really hope the next two wont be as dull as the first week.

As far as riding goes its been dumping snow for the last few days so no real riding has taken place. I have been getting a good workout shoveling snow and when I`m not shoveling I`m listening to music and riding the trainer stand.

Today I shoveled the roof and walk ways which took about four hours.

I hope to be traveling to Albuquerque some time during break to see a friend, check out the local art and warmer weather, maybe even go for a run.

KCCX

I have a nice 3 week break for "Christmas" and will be spending it here in Durango in my new house with my roomies Dylan and Schmidty, Yayyy.

Our bus broke down so we had to wait for it to be fixed, which eventually turned into us waiting for a twelve passenger van after we decided to buy plane tickets for half the team. We left at 4:00 pm opposed to the scheduled 7:30 am.

Crawfish

Ruthy

Chainsaw

Mad Snow right now

Give it Time

A metric shit ton of homewrok now, Cross nats this weekend, Finals, freedom for 3 weeks.

Initial Impressions

The first thing I noticed was a really stiff front end. The steering felt very precise and defined. I was riding "Point and Shoot" style and getting away with it. The other big difference was a huge increase in bottom bracket and rear end stiffness. When out of the saddle climbing it felt very stable. It was like all of my pedal power was going straight to turning the rear wheel.

When descending the rear end did not feel dead but instead snappy and was easy to through around when preforming cutties and rear wheel lifts. Cornering felt about the same but it was hard to really tell due to the slopping and icy conditions. The geometry is unchanged from the Paragon so I guess I'll hype up the new handling characteristics to the rear end stiffness.

Fatttt BB junction = Uber stiff

The Superfly has much narrower stays than the Paragon but still has ample clearance for mud and the occasional critter that may happen to pass through... poor chippies. With less mud clearance comes more heel clearance though. Not once on my ride did I have my shoes rub the stays, two thumbs up on this one.

The new Bontrager XXX lite grips are my new favorite part on this bike other than the frame. They weigh 15g and are nicely shaped (similar to skinny the ESI grips) but will require gluing to keep for moving once I find the perfect position for them.

New Whip

Superfly landed on Monday. With the current SS setup it weights 18.31lbs.

The weight difference between the Paragon and Superfly frames is huge. 424.1 grams, almost a pound!

Gary Fisher Paragon 08', 17.5" weighs 1648.4g

Gary Fisher Superfly 09', 17.5" weighs 1224.3g