Tim Speciale Winning the Cat 4 Crit in Kenosha for PSIMET Racing - Picture courtesy of John Wilke - www.peloton-pix.com

Congrats go out to Tim Speciale for winning this weekend at Kenosha.  Word on the street is that Joe Berenyi opened up an opportunity allowing Tim to let it fly – in the process Joe secured 3rd!  Congrats to both Tim and Joe!  Matt Cook did a 5′s thing and broke his derail hanger.  Everyone together – “awwwwwww…”

Scott K decided to recover from his wreck at last week’s Kenosha race by going to Memphis and putting in something like 900 TSS in a few days.  In Scott’s world that’s called “recovery”.

Also to sponsored rider Caley Fretz of Colorado State for his win on PSIMET wheels!

Caley (far right) on his new PSIMET Wheels on his way to winning at the CSU Oval Crit - Photo credit missing

In other news we got a new kit design we might be trying out. I think it rocks!

We're calling it the "Princess Edition"

Spring is on us. Rubber side down. Ride them like you stole them.

The handlebars have come off over at PSIMET central. Between getting ill, the hospital, building wheels, training, team stuff, etc….it’s been interesting to say the least. During this time I was able to build up a few bikes that I would like to share. First up – Mike’s new AeroCat team bike.

Meow

*Purrrrrrrrrrrrr*

New rear wheel as well. PSIMET of course. Rear is on it's way

Hot

Before Mike’s I was able to get Raviv’s carbon 509 up and running.  It was an all night marathon from 7pm until 3 or 4am.  Everything from coming up with a wheel spec and building from scratch after he got there – etc.

AeroCat with SRAM mix and PSIMET wheels. Crit Killa.

Also – I got the rare opportunity to finally finish a build that has been in process since last year.  A long time fellow BFNIC’er contacted me about doing a full build for a custom frame she was having built.  Well…the build got drawn out a bit.  I ended up going through 3 or 4 different supplier situations in that amount of time.  The business had changed, grown, gone out on it’s own, etc.  Turns out the frame is a custom Ellis.  It got delayed because it was on display at the North American Handmade Bike Show.  Ellis – although not this frame – won best in show again this year.

Impressions – Awesome rig.  Traditional.  Steel.  Smooth.  Nice touches on the details and yet not horribly bogged down in retro-ness for retro sake.  A real long term rider. PSIMET Wheels of course. Enjoy.

Beautiful traditional lines.

Smooth

butter

Oh yeah.

I love the head tube and adjusters obviously.

Smooth transition for the internal routing

Smooth exit

Again....can't get enough

BB Joint

Dropout

Bad picture of the brake bridge

Paint by Jason Sanchez. Nice work.

Complete build. PSIMET wheels of course. Gotta love it.

Years of enjoyment to come for sure.

I still have another carbon AeroCat R509 in the shop to build up for Crystal.  It’s getting some PSIEMT carbon wheels and a total Red build.  It’s hot.  Real hot.

So…a brief update.  I have been struggling with a bug of some sort for a long time.  This culminated in me finally missing work on Friday.  It got bad enough and I found I wasn’t sleeping or eating so by Sunday I went to the immediate care – sinus infection – here’s an antibiotic that doesn’t work well for you.

Thanks.

Then I still felt horrible so I stayed home again on Monday.  By the end of the day I was in terrible shape and starting to get scared.  Mrs. P came home and looked in my throat and said, “get in the car.”  Soon we were in the emergency room where a parade of doctors all came by and looked in my throat and said, “Oh…” 3 second diagnosis for all of them.  Tonsillar abscess(sp).  Yuck.  Big enough that my throat dangly was on the other side of my throat and I was having trouble breathing and couldn’t talk.

This was followed up by an interesting procedure that I will omit the details of.  Suffice it to say I hope none of you ever have to go through it.

Needless to say I am just now starting to be coherent enough to get things done again.  Those of you waiting for quotes and correspondence - my apologies.  Keep your eyes on your mail boxes.

Some interesting upcoming posts – I got a chance to build up a handmade Custom form Ellis Cycles – winner of this year’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show.  The frame I built up was one of the ones on display at the show this year.  I did the whole thing from full custom wheels to final build.  Pictures to follow.  Also built up another Aerocat team bike.  Rocking.  Really impressed by the construction.  That too ended up with full custom Psimet wheels.  With another build on tap for tonight I will be up to 4 bike builds in the last week + being sick and building as many custom wheels as I can.  Le.  Suck.

Happy spring.  Get on your bikes and ride!

Thanks to the fine folks at AeroCat – our new Bicycle Sponsor for the team – a new R509 showed up for Crystal.  Combined with some smoking SRAM Red and some new PSIMET 50mm Carbon Clincers I predict this rig may become the envy of the women’s fields.  BB30? Check.  Tapered head tube?  Check.  Full carbon fork?  Check.  Internal routings?  Check.  Full carbon ass-kicking device?  Check.

New AeroCat Team Bike for Crystal

I’ll post some pictures and build info once I get it finished.  Sorry for the iPhone pic.  One of our Cat 4 killers also picked one up and is going with a similar build that is being built tonight.  Another (the aluminum version) will also be built up in the next week or so.

I said a lot has been going on.  People should know by now that PSIMET doesn’t sleep.

Whether I like it or not the season is upon us.  The kits are all ordered.  The team has been assembled.  Races have been registered for.  Some early season team rides have already occurred.  These should be good things.

Alas – I find myself looking at pictures from our team party last weekend and noticing only 1 thing – the thing I knew was there but was trying to sweet talk myself into thinking it would disappear….my fat.

Those of you who have been around a while know this is a perennial problem for perpetual Cat 4 racers.  Turns out when the mercury – alright alcohol, I mean let’s face it thermometers haven’t had mercury in them for a long time – dips below freezing and the night rides are too dangerous and too much of a hassle we tend to find solace in holiday cheer (food and booze).

Then as we emerge from our winterly slumber to once again throw a leg over our carbon and aluminum contraptions we are faced with hauling an additional uninvited guest up each hill.  We know how it happens.  We know what it takes to stop it from happening and what ti takes to remove it and yet every season it seems to be the same.

So once again I find myself sweating for hours at a time on a torture device called a trainer.  Swearing once again that I will never let myself get to this point again – and yet knowing deep inside it will most likely happen next winter.  I am putting in more hours at this time of year than I ever have thanks to my coach.  My legs are feeling like rocks – similar to how they feel mid-season and yet I am still down a bit on power.  The thought of actually completing Hillsboro and Leland is amusing to say the least.  At this point I can only hope for a few nice people to ride OTB with WHEN I get dropped.

Right now I find myself yearning for the short intensity of crit racing.  I miss the chatter, and the yelling. I miss the lively nature of the scene as everyone runs around getting ready, warming up, or standing in line for the horrid porta-potty.  I miss that uneasy tension you feel towards the end of the instructions where you start to realize that the race is on, about to start and you are questioning whether or not you are ready.

My wheel queue is stacked.  Deep.  There are 4 bikes on my list to build this week or next.  Coach has me on the highest number of hours to date.  To top it all off the weather looks like it will be good this weekend.  Hello 2010.