Purpose of this bicycle
To race, to ride, to use and abuse until it died.
Equipment
| Frame & Fork: | Felt F75 |
| Crankset: | FSA Carbon SLK |
| Chainring: | FSA 53/39 |
| Stem & Handlebar: | Felt something or other |
| Seatpost: | 3T Dorico |
| Pedals: | $3 pedals from a bike swap |
| Shifters: | Shimano Ultegra |
| Chain: | Shimano Ultegra |
| Deraileurs: | Shimano Ultegra |
| Brakes: | Felt Brakes |
| Saddle: | Good 'ol saddle from Tacoma Bike |
Wheel Set:
| Wheelset: | Mavic Ksyriums |
| Tires: | Maxxis Cormet 23c |
| Cassette: | Shimano 105 10 speed 25/13 |
Personal Stories about this bike
I find it pretty funny that the beginning and end of my ownership of this bike happened in extreme haste. In June of 2009 I had dropped off my Trek 2100 (I'll write up about that bike in a later blog post) over at Tacoma Bike expecting to pick it up for a weekend of hillclimbing out in Wenatchee. However, when I went in to the shop (at 4pm, expecting to ride out at 5pm) the mechanics informed me that the bike's headset cups are so worn out that I should just chuck that bike into a garbage can. I needed a new bike and so I picked up this Felt F75 on the spot and Tony gave me a real quick fit. Then off I was to Wenatchee. Tony gave me a stern warning to "not ride too hard" since it is good to slowly break-in the new components. I started smirking. Tony then warned me again "EEEVVAAAANNNNN!!" And then off I went to Wenatchee.
The first ride I did, I climbed all the way from Eastmont to the top of Badger Mountain. Twice. While I was descending I nearly crashed since the bike was really wobbling at 50mph. After the ride I decided to call the shop about this issue. The conversation went as follows:
Tony: "Halloo, Tacoma Bike!"
Evan: "Hey Tony, it's Evan."
Tony: "Heeeyyy Evan! So how's the new bike?"
Evan: "It's kind of unstable at 50 miles per hour."
Tony: (Speaking loud enough so that presumably whoever is at the shop can hear this) "IT'S A LITTLE UNSTABLE AT 50 MILES PER HOUR?"
Evan: "Yeah."
Tony: "Right, um... [long explanation from Tony and others about what might be the issue]"
And that first-complaint-after-getting-a-new-bike joke went on at the shop for a while.
Anywho, I did so much racing on this bike. The very first race race I did with the bike was at PIR (Pacific International Raceways). And I got in a solo-break with 3-to-go and won it by about 30 seconds. That was a big turning point in my season and I started doing great. I finished off the season placing 4th at Gig Harbor, scoring another solo win at PIR, 3rd at Franz, 4th overall at the Eugene Celebration and my first weekend win ever (in my category) at Mt Ashland.
Last season, I flew the bike down to Texas since I was going to be on an extended business trip that lasted a month total. I was so enamored with Austin that I was certain I was going to live there during the winter and ride to my heart's content, so I left the bike in the office down there. As noted in my last blog post, life caught up with me and now I'm leaning more towards building my transit technology career within Portland for the 5-years out future. So, I decided that it was time to go down to Austin and sell the bike there, of course after getting in a solid week of winter riding in Austin (look for an upcoming write-up about that in the next blog post).
Come the afternoon the day before I'm supposed to leave I still hadn't quite figured out how I was going to get rid of the bike. I learned about a few options and knew the next day was going to be a whirlwind of getting the bike ready for a sale, packing up and catching my 4:15pm flight.
At 9:20am I headed out for my final bike ride. By 10:20am I wound up at Frankenbike - a monthly bike swap that just happened to be that day. I knew I was going to take back my wheels, pedals and saddle so I was looking for those three items. With great luck, this one vendor happened to have my exact same saddle - except new, a pair of Ksyriums and cheapo pedals which I scored all for $275. I swapped out my tires and cassette from my current wheels, swapped the pedals and kept the old saddle on there and by 12:30 I had briefly cleaned up the bike. I biked up to Tsunami Cycles and they had that bike taken from me in 5 minutes flat as I ran south on Congress at 1:00pm.
I placed my lunch order at Wurst Tex and got to see my couchsurfing buddy before jumping into a car2go at 1:30pm. Then I loaded up all my remaining luggage as fast and as jam-packed as possible into the car2go from my final couchsurfing venue and set off at 1:50pm with an aim to catch the bus to the airport at 1:59pm. I drove over 12th to avoid Lamar and started throwing everything out on the ground near the bus stop at 12th and Red River at 1:58pm. And 50 seconds later the bus chauffeured me to the airport arriving there at 2:30. Done and done.
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