Building my Roo!

"So pumped for this season because I have a new piece of equipment.  My Quintana Roo PR5 arrived this week.  I have unboxed it and assembled it as sent.  Here it is!

Well, that was the opening to my draft blog post pre-COVID-19!  My how things changed this year.  This post was originally going to describe how I upgraded my new ride and was riding it in races by now.  Well, obviously that is not the case.

So, as I began describing several months ago, this was NOT how my QR PR5 would remain.  I saved a lot of money through my TeamZoot discount and used that savings to make some upgrades.  Shortly after I snapped these photos, I commenced my personalization of this bike to make it race ready for me.

First, I swapped out the Ultegra front brake assembly with my TriRig Omega X front brake.  I have invested so much in race wheels the last few years that I opted not to go for the disk brakes on my new bike.  When I consider a new bike build in five to ten years from now, I'll be ready to reinvest (mostly because I hope to be making more money by then, lol.) 

Next up, pedals.  I purchased a new pair of Dura-Ace PD-R9100 Pedals.  These are carbon fiber and much lighter than the Shimano pair I have on my Trek Speed Concept.  I contemplated Speedplay pedals for a long time before pulling the trigger on these pedals.  One part of my bike fit that I still have not settled on is the amount of float in my foot position.  These pedals give me the most flexibility to play with this.  Again, a future build when I am more experienced and understand my fit better, I might go with Speedplay.  Another reason here is that I do so much riding indoors that I really like the ease of use of the Shimano set-up and honestly don't want to go through the process of learning a new pedal on my brand new bike.  May be wimpy, but I am happy with this decision.

The stock cockpit of the PR5 is a 42mm aluminum base bar with aluminum Profile Design extensions.  I have a 42mm Profile Design SVET R carbon fiber base bar on my Speed Concept already.  Rather than swapping that out, I purchased a new 40mm Profile Design SVET R carbon fiber base bar and Profile Design T4 carbon fiber extensions.  This gave me more drop, makes me more aero, and also reduces the weight of the bike.  Plus, the airfoil design of the Profile Design base bar looks way better than the stock aluminum base bar from QR.  The bracket between the bars is for my Profile Design BTB bottle.

I went with Di2 on this new rig and am really excited to go to electronic shifting.  I was not willing to get crazy with an oversized pulley system so I went with the T11 Hyper Pulley Wheels from SLF Motion.  If it were not for the discount with them from TeamZoot, I may not have bothered with this upgrade.  I also decided to go with waxing my chain on a routine basis.  So far on a few training rides, I am really happy with the wax option.  It keeps things really nice and clean.

The smallest crank length QR could provide from their stock was 165mm.  I was surprised to learn when the bike arrived that I was upgraded with a Praxis crankset and an upgraded bottom bracket bearing from Praxis.  It is a nice set-up so I am going to keep this going forward in case I might want to adjust down the road.  I was fitted to 160mm cranks this fall and have been training at this length thus far with good results.  Unfortunately, a160mm crank size severely limited my options for a crank based power meter which I prefer.  Therefore, I went with the ALDU Rotor Crank Set with a 52/36 round chain rings and their new InSpider power meter.  Unfortunately, demand was very high at the time I ordered the cranks, so I had to wait eight weeks to get this and complete my build.  Again, Rotor's sponsorship of TeamZoot really helped make this decision easier.  I'll save my long story of botched bottom bracket replacements for another day!  Let's just say it took me three tries and two months for waiting for the right tools to get this upgrade completed!

So without further ado, here is my final build with the Reynolds 40mm deep wheel.  I will update the post with my Reynolds Disc on the rear and Williams 80 on the front when race day comes around.  For now, she has felt great on the training rides thus ride.  My Speed Concept remains on the trainer full time now for getting after it indoors!

Bike Fit Discipline

Earlier this month, I invested in my fourth bike fit from a fourth different fitter in as many years.  Everyone says, “invest in a good bike fit.”  Well, how do you know you are getting a good bike fit?  Well, I have learned the hard way that you have to be patient, research, discuss, and get recommendations.  I also don't think you can be told, you have to feel your way through the process and figure out what you like and dislike.  Therefore, I am not angry or frustrated with my prior fitters.  The did what they could with what I presented.  Could they have guided me a bit more?  Definitely!

For triathlon specifically, it is essential you find someone that knows how to fit you to a time trial bike.  You can’t just rely on the bells and whistles of a Retul computer.  It is about maximizing aerodynamics and power while being able to hold the position and run well after finishing the ride.  This requires a professional fitter that has worked with a wide array of triathletes at all levels and knows the results of their fits.  In other words, they maintained contact with their clients and received valuable feedback as to what worked and what didn't. 

Enter David Luscan, formerly a Virginia State Time Trial Champion and professional bike fitter trained by the original designer of time trial bikes, Dan Empfield.  Initially, I am not really sure how I linked up with Dave on Facebook, but I took note of his posts for the last year or so.  He regularly posts before and after videos of his clients with detailed discussions about what changes he made.  What I was seeing in the “after” videos is what I was looking for after looking at my post race pictures.  Dave then posted about his book, “The Misfits Guide to Basement Bike Fitting.”  I ordered it for Kindle and devoured it!  I checked every one of my dimensions to the orthodoxy that he explained and low and behold, things were clearly in need for adjustment to be the most aero, yet still powerful.

It took several months to figure out how I was going to arrange driving to Richmond, VA from Baltimore (3+ hours depending on traffic).  But with everything that God is behind, opportunities started presenting themselves and we set a date.  We met at one of the coolest bike shops I have seen, combined with a grocery store called, Outpost Richmond (www.outpostrichmond.com).  Dave works out of a corner of this shop which included his fit bike.

The experience with Dave was very different than my three previous fits.  He is casual yet direct and a has a wizard of a brain that can crunch calculations in his head to the millimeter of adjustments to be made.  If one angle changed here, he knew the height or reach adjustment there.  That proved his experience to me.  He explained every move like going to the eye doctor, move a little bit in one direction until it does not feel right and go back a few steps.  Oh, and amazingly, we used a fit bike!  In the previous fits, I was never put on a fit bike despite it sitting right next to me while doing the fit.  They just worked with my current set-up and assumed I was looking for a tweak here and there, even though I was crystal clear I was looking for more!

Saving the intricate details of how we got there, fast forward to post fit.  We made huge changes.  When it comes to the human body, these are measured in millimeters.  I had a few changes amount to more than a centimeter (that is 10 mm!)  This was not just dialing in a fit, this was blowing up what I came in with and moved everything.  Below are all the images for the before and after including the dimension sheets. 

Ok, ok, so what does this have to do with discipline?  Well, I have learned in my previous fit attempts, that it takes time to adjust to a new fit.  However, those fits were pretty micro compared to this one and I was pretty much "ok" to go within two weeks.   However this go around, I am really focusing on remaining disciplined with my adjustment period.  For the last two weeks, I have done almost every minute of every ride in zone two power.  Additionally, I am still waiting for my 160mm cranks to arrive, so I have additional adjustments coming up after they are installed on my bike.  Preseason is critical for building strength and preventing injury, I don't want to start this season off with an injury.

To find David Luscan, here are some links to get you going:

www.FindingFreestyle.com

Here is a link to his book on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Misfits-Guide-Basement-Bike-Fitting-ebook/dp/B07THFS87D/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=misfits+guide+to+bike+fitting&qid=1575309541&sr=8-1