The good thing about a serious bike crash is that one can get a brand new one for free! During my recovery period, I have been thinking what kind of bike I should take. I am mostly racing in triathlon events, but I don’t like to train with a time trial bike, especially hilly or mountainous courses. The last time I bought a bike, I chose a regular road bike with a steep seat-post angle, a rather aggressive geometry in general and added a tri-bar. But this compromise is not ideal for training. One issue is the saddle. Great for biking in regular position, not so good when sitting in aero position. I personally would need two magic interchangeable saddles, depending on the position I ride. Another issue is, while I like to train on a compact 50 crank, I would prefer to race with a 53 or 54. There are other smaller issues and I have now decided to indulge in luxury and stop compromising. I will get 2 bikes!!! 1 regular road bike and a time-trial machine for flat courses and races.
For the road bike, I did not hesitate long. I wanted to buy a bicycle from my Swiss acquaintance that owns a shop, “Seiler Fahrrad” close to our house in Vienna. He has always helped me to tune and repair my previous bike and it is normal for me in return to get a bike from his shop. He manages mostly 3 brands: Flyer, Cannondale & Idworx. It was clear, that the choice would fall on a Cannondale (the other ones being electro bikes and sturdy mountain bikes). I chose a comfi Cannondale made for long distance rides.
The brand new 2010 Hi-Mod Synapse! It is not top of the range with Ultegra 6700 Shimano components, but it is certainly good enough for me. The weight, 7.0 kg for a 56 size, is good too! I like the design especially the red/white saddle and bar.
I can’t wait to get on it and it motivates me to push myself during rehabilitation in September. My knee is still blocked at a 70 degree angle and I need a 110 to get on the bike! Hope I will reach this angle in 3 weeks.
As for the Time-Trial bike, I will wait to be next year in the US. I hope that my colleagues from Dailymile will give me some serious tips as to cool, small, local US time trial brands. But this is a different story.
I hope you get to ride that mean looking machine soon. I posted a picture of a post ride treat over on DM just for you as well!
Hi, Thanks for the comment. I think I will get on this bike by the end of Sept! for now…swimming, swimming, swimming. I don’t see the pic. where can I see it?
[...] wrote in my 19th August 2009 post “Cannondale Hi-Mod Synapse 2010 ordered” that I would wait to be in the US in 2010 to get a cool, small, local US time trial brands. [...]