Climbing Queen Anne Ave at Night for Fun

After work I went on a seven-mile ramble with the goal of topping Queen Anne on the Ciocc. Even though it was getting dark I put on my Nike cycling cap (bought it in London!) that looks like a hunting cap:


Sometimes the cap gets a little hot, but it's nice to have something over the ears for sure.

The route went through downtown, and out to Kerry Park on the top of Queen Anne. The ride was great, and the Ciocc is responsive and fast as ever. I was wondering how the 39x23 low-gear would feel going up it, but it wasn't bad at all! Can't say it was a whole lot easier than on the Eros, but that bike definitely feels more solid on tough climbs like that.

God damn some parts of Queen Anne Ave are steep! Kerry Park has post-card-quality views of downtown, it's worth the pain to get there. And that was only the 3rd time I'd gone up it without stopping! A year ago I had to take breaks going up it.. progress!

Ride details:

min: 62.6 ft max: 375.3 ft last: 368.5 ft total dist: 7.4 mi

total elevation gain: 815.2 ft

(btw the graph is skewed b/c I clicked more points in the beginning of the route than towards the end)

I should start doing hill-repeats using that climb - it's one of the toughest near my house. And if you can't tell by reading this blog, I love to climb! (And I like to descend as fast as possible too)

Bring on the darkness, the wind, the bitter cold - but rain I can do without. Let's hope for more dry nights like this one!

First Real Ride on the New Ciocc - Sweeet!

I was supposed to do the Lake Washington Loop w/ Dennis & Rachael yesterday, but after a night of drinking and dancing at the War Room's sing sing, that didn't happen. Actually, I was so hung over I didn't even leave the house yesterday! Good times though..

Anyway today I finally got a chance to take a real spin on my new super-bike, and damn was it a fast ride! First, some stats:

Route: "Two-lakes loop" - counter-clockwise loop that goes around Lakes Washington and Sammamish, starting and ending on Capitol Hill in Seattle. It passes through renton, issaquah, redmond, bothell, and back through seattle
Total dist: 105.6 km (~66 miles)
Total (rolling) Time: 3 hrs, 52 minutes
Avg speed: 27.7 km/h (~16.8 mph)
Max speed: 73 km/h - going east on Madison the 53x11 was FAST! Too bad it was a little wet out, I sure don't wanna wreck the new ride.

Elevation profile (minus Inglewood, which is only 400 ft or so):

The large bump in the middle of the ride is going up and over the plateau on Highway 900, from Renton to Issaquah.

The Ciocc COM 12.5 steel frame really responds well, it feels a lot stiffer than my Bianchi Eros, which is also steel. I was afraid that the higher gearing would throw off my climbing, but it seems about as hard going up climbs like Inglewood Drive (12% for .5 mi), if not a tad easier. I never used the smallest front-ring on the triple my Eros has anyway, so I'm loving the gears: 39,53 in the front, 11-23 in the back. Can you say speed?!

On the flats my speeds were at about 32-40 km/h (20-25 mph), and it felt incredibly easy to hold those speeds on the windy Sammamish River Trail. Going downhill was great too, I rarely ran out of gearing, and hitting ~45mph on Madison was probably a new top-speed for that location. Once I get to Tolt Hill Road on a dry day, my goald of 100 km/h (60mph) will be within reach!

The rain started to come down really hard when I was just about in Redmond, so the last two hours of the ride were pretty cold, but my vest kept the core pretty toasty. The climb going up 180th/Perkins way in Lake Forest Park, which is three miles long, didn't seem all that bad. And 5th Ave E. (parallel to I-5) is usually a slog at the end of the ride, but this new bike carries me around like a.... well like a decently light Italian racing bike, that's what!

(Here's the bike, btw)

Behold, my new steel Ciocc!!

My new Italian Ciocc (supposedly pronounced Chee-oach, at least that's how the LBS says it):


(Pardon the crappy photo, but it was dark outside - I'll be sure to get some action-shots & close-ups soon)


When I got it home I took it on a 4 mile spin around the city, and it felt awesome. Sprinting is solid, and so is climbing. Shifting is like butter!

The only thing I don't like about it is the stem angle and the long steering-tube, but they left it long so it can be adjusted later. It'll be interesting to see how this bike feels after a century, or a double-century at that.

Here's the rundown:

• Ciocc steel frame (1,700 g or 3.3 lbs) - I've only really ridden steel frames and haven't wanted anything else. Sure, carbon would be lighter, but I'm only a low-level contractor out at Microsoft these days, not Bill G. And from what I hear there isn't that much difference between steel and aluminum frame weights.
  
• Campanoglo Centaur groupset (bottom bracket, cranks, brakes/shifters, deraileurs) (featuring a high gear of 53x11 that's gonna get me that 60 mph downhill I've been looking for!)
• Mavic Ksyrium SL wheels - these cost a little more than the frame did! But I'd only heard good things about 'em - and they're so worth it, you can feel the difference accelerating, climbing, etc.
• Easton EA-70 stem/handlebars - yeah, I should've gotten chrome ones, but I just couldn't wait!!
  
• Used SpeedPlay pedals (not bad for $30!), used Dura-ace seat post
• Bianchi race seat that's just temporary (and isn't very comfortable) - I've got a Brooks Swallow saddle on the way! Then this beauty will be complete.
  

My Bianchi Eros saw plenty of mileage, and it'll still be around for the nasty days when I don't want to take the nice European bike out into the nasty Northwest winter. (I bought my cyclo-computer back in May, and it says I've logged 4,471.8 km's or 2,778 miles - and about a year of riding before that, so I've probably done almost 5,000 miles on that thing! I think it's ready for a rest.)

If you're wondering where you can get one of these yourself, check out Velo Bike Shop, on Pine St on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Lloyd, the owner of the shop, said they're going to build up similar bikes and sell 'em - he said they had one on the floor for two hours and it was sold. I can see why!