Thursday, August 16, 2012

APB - Stolen Focus team frames & wheels

My feelings on Rapha aside, this is not cool.  Information taken from a post by David at Bike Hugger.

The Rapha team van was broken into a couple nights ago in the San Diego area and someone stole a dozen Focus team frames and bunches of Easton wheels.  The frames are painted in the distinctive team colors and were without forks.  Those will be really hard to get rid of since they are so unique.

From Velo News:
"Jeremy Powers’ Rapha-Focus cyclocross team is asking for help after losing a number of frames and wheels in a break-in over the weekend.
Thieves broke into the team’s sprinter van and made off with 12 Mares frames painted in the U.S. national champion’s custom lay-up, as well as 37 Easton wheels. The theft occurred between 6:30 p.m. on Saturday August 11 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday August 12."


broken window

Items Stolen:

12 frames - all 54cm FOCUS Mares Carbon CX frames. All in US National Champion paint scheme. (Note: No forks were taken)

15 - Easton EC90 SL Rear Wheels
18 - Easton EC90 SLX Front Wheels
2 pair - Easton EA70 wheels

If you have any information, contact:

Carlsbad Police Department Case 12-05050 Officer Sheldon Berg 760-931-2100

FOCUS Bicycles USA Jeff Rowe Operations Manager j.rowe@focus-bikes.com

Rapha Racing Chris DiStefano Communications Manager chris.distefano@rapha.cc

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Rings and Cogs

Recently I have been thinking of chainring combos.  I am currently running a 172.5 Campagnolo Chorus 53/39 crank with a Centaur (?) 12-25 cassette.  Prior to that I was using a 11-23 cassette, which was no good for hills.  The 25 is moderately better, but not what I want.  Thanks to the late, great Sheldon Brown, I have put together a list of options.  Getting the 50/34 combo would be the easiest route to go, but I would prefer the 52/36 setup.  For Campy Chorus or Record cranks, that means stepping up the system to 11 speed.  Sure, no problem.  Chump change.

Click to make this itty-bitty chart readable.