Monday, 11 February 2008

New Bike!

New bike! It's a Focus Cayo Pro. I had been planning to buy a new bike for the upcoming cyclosportive season and this one fit my requirements nicely.

It has a full carbon monocoque frame (that means it's made from one continuous piece of carbon fibre, as opposed to individual carbon tubes glued together). It has a "compact" 50/34 chainset, which is well suited to long steep alpine ascents like the ones I will take on in Europe this year. My existing bike's 53/39 chainset would be too highly geared for such terrain. Besides, I had ridden nearly 14,000km on my existing bike, and felt that I had earned an upgrade :-)

At 7.7kg it weights 1.8kg less than my existing bike, so climbing should be a little bit easier. It's lower at the handlebars too, meaning I will be able to get a completely horizontal flat back when riding on the drops. This will give me better aerodynamics, and therefore more speed into the wind.

Now I have to wait four long days until the weekend...

Photos (the "before" shots):