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| 10 Month | 30 Day | 2004 Year |
| 11 Hour | 51 Minute | AM |
Zipp Disc, Hed 3 Carbon Wheels and New Wetsuit
Shiny new wheels for the bike. Aerodynamic. Zipp disc in the rear. Hed 3 Carbon in the front. Big thanks to Alex and Patrick from All3Sports.com for tracking down the Hed 3 Carbon. It's a new wheel and Steve Hed apparently hasn't yet made many of them. Alex and Patrick were on it. They checked into it at Interbike and gave me updates. Excellent customer service. They knew I wanted the wheels by IM Florida and they worked to make it happen. Those guys rock.
Thanks to Curtis for giving me a glueing lesson. The new wheels are glue ons... tubular. You apply a layer of glue to both the rim and the tire and bond them. It's fun for the whole family. Curtis took the time to show me the good way, standard way and bad way to do just about every step. Very helpful. Certainly saved me a lot of learning curve.
I chose the Zipp disc on the rear for obvious reasons. It's the best, fastest, lightest wheel out there. The leading edge profile and wind stirring profiles are low.
On the front I had to choose between a Zipp 404 and a Hed 3 spoke. I've always loved the Hed 3 spoke for purely emotional reasons... they look hot. But I wanted to make the best logical decision. The Hed 3 was a little heavier than the Zipp 404. This is where Alex really helped me out. He pulled the numbers and helped me weigh the wheels in the shop. It turns out that the new Hed 3 Carbon, which I didn't even know about, is nice and fluffy light. So I went with it. It has less aerodynamic thrashing from fewer spokes. It distributes weight better to the center of the wheel where it has a lower moment of inertia.
My old wheelset, the Velomax Circuit, weighed-in at 1650g. The new set weighs 1630g. But the new set will be faster for aerodynamic reasons and weight distribution reasons more that plain weight loss.
There was a dude from Finland in the store who took 11th overall at Ironman Hawaii. Just walked in. He had a translator. Patrick's working with him and we're not even paying attention. Then Patrick comes back and tells us who he is. We fact-checked his ass and he's legit. One of the fittest people in the world. Looked like a normal guy. Fitness is at the cellular level, not the muscular level. I snagged a couple pics of Patrick and him talking.
I also checked out a new wetsuit. I told Patrick that I was considering going sleeveless either by cutting my suit or getting a new one. He said he can certainly offer some great sleeveless suits but he challenged me on why I was getting a sleeveless. I told him that it's because when I swim in my wetsuit my shoulders get really sore. They do. He said they shouldn't. I said they do. We went back and forth, Patrick a little confused. Then he asked what type of wetsuit I have. I told him I have that free one that I got when I bought the QR bike last year. Lightbulb. Those suits don't have the super-flexible mega-spank hyper-water-phobic spacesuit neoprene. They do a great job, but a dude like me with weak deltoids needs all the babying he can get in a wetsuit. Patrick said I should try on one of the newer QRs. I was skeptical and really didn't want to buy a new suit. But I agreed to get into it. The difference was immediate. The softer neoprene makes it so that I can barely feel any resistance in my shoulders. I was really surprised and kind of bummed that I'd now be buying a wetsuit too. Patrick understood and didn't push for or against it. He was more of an advisor than a salesman. I decided to get the suit. In addition to less shoulder resistance it's butter getting out of it. Much less leg grab. The fabric just gives more. More pliable. Very happy with this.
There were a number of folks there getting ready for Ironman Florida. There were a number of folks who were heading down. Curtis' girlfriend is doing it so he's heading down. I met a guy from Georgia Tech who's mad fast and doing it. One of Curtis' friends was getting a final tune-up. Patrick and Kim are heading down there to drink beer and harrass runners.
There was also a guy in the shop who rode the prior week with George Hincapie. He noted the beauty of George's ex-podium babe wife, now pregnant. Said they're a really nice couple.
I picked up the odd assortment of magazines, powerbars and random little crap. Overall a fun trip to All3Sports. Very happy with the results. Can't wait to get out on the new wheels.
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