SRAM Rival

What’s one of the tell-tale marks of a n00b cyclist? Changing equipment right before a race, preferably the night before, and definitely without time to test it. Extra points if it’s an important race.

I’m not quite that bad, but I just couldn’t resist- my SRAM Rival kit came in last Wednesday afternoon, so I put it on and rolled around Wednesday night, getting it dialed in. We left Thursday morning for Bend, where I spent some more time tweaking it. I raced on it Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

It worked brilliantly! Fast, easy, smooth, clean, intuitive. The hoods were super comfy. The shifting from the drops was sweet. The shifters make nice clicks both in terms of sound and feel. It’s just freakin’ awesome.

My PowerTap, though… it just hasn’t been putting out enough power .

Swanky Powermeters

Quarq’s power meters have started shipping. The CinQo measures power by replacing the spider in one’s cranks. They’re light at 138g and relatively cheap at $1200. Besides the CinQo, you have to have a computer, but that’s where it gets fun- you can choose between the Garmin 705, the new iBike, or the fancy and open-source Cranium from Quarq. Choosing the iBike Aero has some insanely cool consequences.

So I suppose it’ll be $1700 for a CinQo and a Garmin 705. If I sell my Powertap Pro and Polar CS400 I should be most of the way there, right? Maybe that’ll be next year’s treat.