Saeco Cannondale CAD3 (Now CAAD4) {UPDATED Pg2}

Damn this bike is fast!!

Went on a cruisy 30ish km ride with the missus on sunday for lunch, and then backed up later on sunday night for a quick 20km each way ride with half a dozen fairly quick mates (some race track, others are bike messengers)

Me and 1 other went off the front after about 5km, and I towed him for the next 10kms when I eventually dropped him, and I rode the last 5km solo.
Then I rode the whole way back on the front of a 3-man paceline into an epic headwind with no help from the other 2 (apart from 1 mate who rode 1km on the front and got destroyed by the headwind so he slotted back in behind me for the tow back home.

I'm generally one of the quicker guys in the bunch, despite not doing half the miles they do, but I dont recall ever putting my mates under that much pressure just to keep up, let alone do a turn on the front! :LOL:

Am riding to Sydney to Wollongong this Saturday with a bunch of mates, the 2nd half of the ride is all national park and has some great climbs.
Will get lots of photo's along the way and report back here next week!

Thanks for the kind comments on the build btw! Greatly appreciated, and it makes the 8 month build process a little more worth while to know I've built something special.
 
Teaser from the ride yesterday morning. Sorry about the dodgy iPhone photos

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Unfortunately my rear Spinergy ceased to rotate 1km from home. I think the axle bearings have given up. Will pull it down during the week.
 
Time for a well overdue update.

I fixed the rear spinergy a while ago. The hollow sleeve that screws the freebhub on came loose and unscrewed itself until it had bound against the bearings. Just rebuilt the hubs and used some locktite on the thread to screw the freehub in and it's been rock solid for the past 2000kms (I dont do alot of road riding)

So a while back I set out on a decent 100km solo ride. I new where I was going, but I hadn't ridden (or even driven) this route before so I had no idea what to expect.
Here's the map. It's about an 90minutes north west of Sydney, Australia.
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The first 20kms were lovely. Very little cars, road was nice and some decent climbs and descends.
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But then at Lower Portland it turned to dirt....
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I figured I'd push on, thinking they would be doing roadworks. 5kms later and the dirt road shot up into the sky causing me to walk for the next 2km. The dirt road went on for another 10-15kms before turning into tar again near Wisemans Ferry.
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Luckily the ride from Wisemans Ferry to St Albans was amazing! Very little traffic and some beautiful scenery in the valley.

I stopped here for a pie and a beer
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and then set off on the return leg.
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This is how steep some of the dirt road climbs and descends were. This was on the return leg.
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Following the river just before the road turned back into tarmac for the final time. I was surprised how well those 14year old carbon wheels held up on the dirt! There were quite alot of corrugations in the road in places.
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The final leg along the valley floor... I was destroyed by this point, but this scene kept me spinning.
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The bike rode flawlessly for the whole journey. Very happy with the old girl!

For anyone interested, my garmin log is here. :D
 
Good to see the bike out on the road; great scenery and some steep-looking hills. A variety of road surfaces, too - maybe you should look for a C'dale CX bike next instead of a track frame...

Top marks for the lunch choice, proper athletes' food.
 
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