My Bikes: For Sale (In Consignment) (In Austin, TX at Tsunami Cycles): Felt F75: $900

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.

My Bikes: FOR SALE: Centurion Fixie $250

Asking Price $250

Equipment

Frame & Fork:	61cm Centurion Lemans (steel frame)
Crankset:	Some cheapo road cranks from a used bin probably.
Chainring:	44t Messenger style chainring (messenger because it says so!)
Stem & Handlebar:	Probably from the recycled cycles used bins
Seatpost:	It's silver
Chain:	It's yellow :)
Brakes:	Long reach brakes for 700c wheels
Saddle:	Not entirely sure, but this is another old saddle I got from Tacoma Bike back a few years ago.
Water Bottle Cages:	Cages strapped on with automotive hose clamps.

Front Wheel:

Rim:	Mavic Open Sport
Hub:	Surly
Tires:	Conti Ultra

Rear Wheel:

Rim:	Velocity Deep V
Hub:	Shimano XT Front Mountain Bike Disc Brake Hub
Cog:	Tommy Cog custom made 16t cog
Tires:	Specialized Roubaix

Personal Stories about this bike

This is my super ultra-hip fixie bike. Actually, when I first bought it, it was this hunk of junk centurion with stem shifters and all. I did a little tour of Oregon with this bike wayyy back in 2007 and rode it all the way from Roseburg to Ashland and back (2 rides total) both in one day in a time when I didn't believe in using Chamois cream! That was painful.

Then I converted it to a fixie after buying an identical but maroon Centurion frame. All of the old parts were transferred to the maroon frame with the help of my friend Rodrick up in Seattle and the task to build it up commenced. I had won a pair of wheels for coming in 2nd at the Dead Baby Downhill Messenger Challenge that year and was gonna build it up to be a fixie because I felt like a bit of a loser competing in alleycats with a road bike, it just wasn't legit.

I first started out with this wheelset and was riding something like 84 gear inches. However, one day I was attempting to descend 15th Ave in Tacoma entirely brakeless all skidding and I was skidding so hard that the lockring popped out and I started coasting down the hill and stopped ironically right outside the Marcato!  I had heard from my evil laser-building friend Robin that some people instead have bolt-on cogs for the rear that are a much stronger setup. So I went in and had Tacoma Bike build up a custom rear wheel as described.

The very first ride I did with the bolt-on cog I was heading down Pacific Ave past the courthouse. I could sense the Tacoma Streetcar traveling beside me. The streetcar is approaching it's special phase where it gets a green and everything else except the crosswalk from the Art Museum gets a red. I am approaching said crosswalk at speed and there are 3 women entering the crosswalk. I immediately go into a skid and make a 90 degree turn leveling out flush with the crosswalk where I proceed to bike up the ramp following the streetcar past the stop on 15th back to my office. I knew that it was a truly solid setup from then on.  This bike has been on many a drunken evening ride and numerous alleycats, the last one of which was the Alleycat from last September put on by 2nd Cycle where I came in first!

I am honestly not sad to see this bike go. It is from a bygone era in my life where I was trying to be cool, but I am not such a purist because I believe in technology and thus freewheels and derailleurs. It's just hard on the knees riding this bike, but it was a fun ride.