Equipment Review

ABD and Prairie Path Cycles have been gracious sponsors this year, and I wanted to review 2 key pieces of equipment that I have had the opportunity to ride from the Prairie Path cycling shop.

Trek Madone 5.2

I have been racing on Treks since I started racing back in 2007. Therefore I come in with some bias. But I like the saying of "if it's not broken, don't fix it." Which is kinda of ironic, because I have good, and bad luck with Treks breaking in the past. As I stand today though, everything Trek related is fully functional and allowing me the ability to race hard and hunt for prize money. This shows that Trek really does stand by their product and their lifetime warranty on frames, which isn't just a marketing ploy.

The current bike I am on now from Prairie Path Cycles (PPC) is the Trek Madone 5.2 which comes equipped with the new shimano ultegra components and my wheels are bontrager Aeoulous 6.5 with a powertap (my wheels from the last 2 seasons). Some of the first things I first noticed about the new ride is how clean and hidden everything is. No more cables routed outside of the frame, collecting dirt and debris, and getting the inside of the housing all gunked up. This is huge for a racing bike since most problems come from shifting. So the less entry points for possible contaminants, the better. It's also very good for aerodynamics, and it just looks nice. Trek moved the integrated speed sensor from the fork to the non-drive side chain stay which makes sense, since now you can run a cadence magnet from the crank as well. Frames are always getting lighter and stiffer, and this one is no exception. The ergonomics of the new ultegra shifters is far ahead of the previous ones, but the one down side is that they limited the pull only 2 shifts per lever actuation. This is not that big of a deal, but for the first couple of weeks before I figured this out, I thought it was broken.

Overall, the 5.2 is the nicest looking, fastest, cleanest, lightest and overall coolest bike I have ridden, and it races like a dream!

Bontrager R3 racing tires

So in the tire department, I am not a biased man. I have raced and ridden many different brands, and so I have my favorites. Since the R3 is a racing tire, I will compare it to my other favorite racing tire, the Michelin Pro Race. The R3 is soft and supple like a racing tire should be, so like any good race tire, it should only be used for racing. This is because it picks up all kinds of debris on the road surface, and wears out very quickly. I had a string of flats in the TOAD series, and didn't find the tiny piece of glass in my tire until the 3rd tube puncture. It rides well though and I felt like I can stick the corners with it as well.

As compared to my other favorite, the Michelin pro race, I would say the Pro Race comes out slightly ahead for 2 reasons. It seems that it does not wear out as quickly, and it feels a bit more secure when really leaning the bike over in the tight corners. In all though, the R3 is an excellent choice, in a very subjective area of bike racing that is tire selection.

While we are on the subject of tire choice though, I do want to point out another great Bontrager product, which are the hardcase training tires. As far as training tires go, I have been riding these for more than 2 years, and have yet to flat. They literally roll over anything and are extremely puncture resistant!

This coming weekend are the Winfield criterium races (twilight and ABR championships), and are both fantastic crit courses, so come on out!