seems crazy it was pretty much a year ago that photo was taken and I'm soon to be back on the same course , be great to com pair the pics and the race .
i said i would so lets go through that set up and what and why has changed.
i look at it and don't really think it was a case of it wasn't a strong position and i did get some good times in it ,but the more i look at it the details and changes are vast and get smaller and smaller .
start from the top, rider and clothing , i found the giro a good helmet but in my position looking up the road was hard as the tail really flattens off and the tail piece meant i couldn't stay aero and look up the road which is just asking for trouble , the javelin sorts this problem nicely .
The skinsuit was on its first outing and only seemed to bag a tiny bit around the elbow and neck ,plus the neck was to high and tight so i had to have it undone a tad which wouldn't of helped ,as for the rider i think i was about 83Kg there and I'm 77kg now so a good 6kg of unneeded weight gone :), overshoes the renowned smart aero.
the bike itself has obviously changed from the P4 to the Boardman TTE , which has lead to some component changes but alot of that is through choice as much as forced through bike change ( i.e tt has inter grated bars and brakes etc).
wheels firstly, the rear is a powertap G3 built into a 32 spoke cyclops rim , its my training wheel and weights a ton , it has the very smart Raltech disc cover on which used to rub the super wide rear stay of the p4 due to the large bulge in the cover but not always , a great piece of kit mind for using a training wheel for racing, standard bearings and a shimano 11-23 ,tyres used front and back where the 23mm conti supersonics .front wheel was a old hed jet which was pretty good but a bit scary as soon as the slightest bit of wind came along .
cranks and chainring where the FSA neopro in a 180mm really cool cranks but i remember i massively overtightened them a few times being hamfisted and they would hardly spin ( love making life harder for myself ) ive been trying to get a set in 170mm but just cant find them anywhere. And a 56t osymetric .
ive always ran just a single ring so that wont change this year, was running a sram rival rear mech with token standard 11t jockey wheels but thatnks to David at Prologue performance im replacing that with something very special.
the adamo saddle stays as its mint but the 3t ventus bars have made way for a fully intergrated front, i never liked the fussy area as i called it of cables that used to go to the brake and back into the frame for the gears and rear brake so its great to clear this area up , the sram R2C shifters stay as i think they are great , I'm not running Di2 either this .
the more i look the more i spot out tiny things , before i forget someone was asking about front brakes on tt bikes i used a standard shimano 105 front brake with nokon cable, it was a great fit on the P4 and with the nokon you could pretty much get the cable out the way , i looked at the tririg etc but couldn't justify it over what i had tbh.
so that's pretty much this time last years set up, just from me and equipment changes i think I've saved 7kg plus on overall weight and can spot of immediate savings over everything from better fitting skinsuit with the nopinz speedpocket etc etc
just need to get out and ride now, found out today we have a date for aero testing at newport velodrome which will be awesome and a good chance to get some solid data.
things seem to move along so fast in racing its pretty refreshing to go back over old stuff and look at what you've changed and try and spot out the improvements or maybe even find something you might need to go back to ;)
