Equipment

Early this year I got a new wheelset from Zipp — the Firecrest 808 Carbon Clincher. The main reason was that I wanted to go back to clincher tires. OK, aerodynamics also played a significant role in choosing exactly this model. What’s typical for the Firecrest profile from Zipp is the width of the rim — at 27mm it’s considerably wider than other rims on the market. And that was ultimately my problem, and also the reason I hadn’t mounted them yet, let alone test-ridden them. ...

Luckily that question is answered pretty quickly … It’ll be the FX Race Short and FX Race Top from my sponsor SLS3. Short version: mostly black in front, mostly white in back, race number 3 ;) In marketing speak the colors are of course “raven black” and “icy white”: More information about SLS3 and their products can be found at tripugna.de.

I got a bit ahead of myself with the bike setup photos — there were two last-minute changes: The spare tube was still missing and has since been attached directly under the saddle The “3” on my disc wheel has matured and now requires a bit more space That should be the final change though — here’s how the bike looks now:

Yesterday I gave my TT bike a thorough clean and then got it set up for the Ironman. What did I change? Swapped the wheelset: from my “Fulcrum Racing 3” training wheels to an “Easton Tempest II” front wheel and a Zipp disc wheel in the back Because of the wheel swap, the brake pads also needed to be changed. The standard Shimano pads were swapped out for special carbon brake pads from Kool-Stop Removed the bottle cage from the down tube Replaced the seat tube bottle cage with a Bontrager aero cage that fits a special aero bottle Additionally mounted a standard bottle cage between the extensions right at the handlebar, for grabbing regular bottles at the aid stations Here’s how the bike looks for race day: ...

Today’s session was 3 hours of cycling with 4x20min at threshold (GA2) and a 1-hour brick run — race training, basically. Still deeply impressed, I got on the bike — and after 3 hours I got off even more enthusiastic. It was a fairly windy day, and up until now I could only really enjoy a tailwind. Since today, that’s changed, and it’s entirely because of this bike. I never thought headwind and crosswind could be so much fun. Good equipment really is irreplaceable. ...

Incredible, just absolutely incredible… I’m honestly at a loss for words. I’m deeply impressed by this thing. I had high expectations for the bike, and they were blown out of the water. This bike is at least two categories above my previous one, a Kuota Kuenn-K. Tomorrow will be the first longer and faster session.

After a lot of deliberation I had basically decided to ride my Kuota again this season. The bike already has three years and a lot of kilometers on it, plus a crack in the paint at the seat tube/seat stay junction since a crash (whether it’s just the paint or the frame itself is hard to say). I just couldn’t make up my mind whether and which bike to get. The decision was especially tough because there are very few time trial bikes that are fully compatible with Shimano Di2. Once you’ve ridden Di2, you don’t give it up willingly… ...