rudis dot net

Finally, something to spark a personal blog post (been way busy, way tired or way sick lately)!

Today, I picked up a 2007 Scattante CFR Composite Carbon Road Bike from Performance Bike in the University District. Besides having a ridiculous sale on 2007 bikes in general, this was the last weekend for 20% back on purchases (Mary’s getting a pair of really nice bike shoes and new pedals for free as a result!). With at least one charity ride (there will be more) coming up and the STP in July, I knew that a getting a better bike would really help with both training and endurance.

Since the sun decided to grace us with its presence today, I managed to get in 20-mile ride this afternoon after attaching all of my gear - new egg beater pedals, Edge 305 mount+cadence package, bottle cage, pump mount/pump, tail light & saddle bag - to the bike. The only way to describe the difference is “Wow!”. The Scattante is far more responsive than my Giant OCR-2 (or Novara Safari, but that kinda figures) and I averaged a 3mph faster steady speed the entire ride. Hills were much less of a challenge than they have been as well, which is A Very Good Thing in Seattle.

The link above gives all the specifications and has more photos. When I put a new battery in my cadence sensor (it died 2 miles into the ride but has been going on the same CR-2032 for 2 years until now), I’ll post a sampling from my Garmin Edge 305 & Ascent from what is becoming my typical northern-Burke-Gilman (Wikipedia link, apologies-lazy) to Sammamish River Trail ride.